A Little Dusky Hero

A Little Dusky Hero is by Harriet T. Comstock. The contents list chapters such as George Washington McKinley Jones, The Box from up North and The Little Gauntlet and Sword, among others. The first chapter, titled George Washington McKinley Jones, opens with Colonel Austin's pen going over the smooth white sheets of paper, sheet after sheet, while the dead heat of Tampa hangs heavy within the tent.

In one scene the Colonel asks: Do you know what a hero is, my boy? He gets the answer: A hero is a pusson, sah, what ain't afraid to tackle a job too big fur other folks, an' goes right froo wid it or dies a-doin' it. In another scene the Colonel tells G. W. that he is going to the front, and G. W. asks when they start, saying he has been working to get ready. Another passage says that George Jones enjoyed thoroughly one hour in the school-day, an evening hour when one of the younger professors took the smaller pupils into a library and told them history stories.