and then avoiding that friend for ten months. When at home his mother had aroused him for the early labor of his life on the farm, it had often been his fashion to be irritable, childish, diabolical, and his mother died since he had come to war."On Collins’ return to his regiment, he happens across a dying man in need of a drink. In a hopeless act of kindness, Fred lets the wounded soldier drink from his bucket as he passes. Yet this scene is but a small paragraph in the story, it completes the moral and emphasizes Crane’s goal of the narrative. Although Fred Collins is but a simple man not free from flaws, he uncovers the mystery of heroism. He is not a hero because he put a title upon himself, or because he denied death the satisfaction. He is a hero in the sense that he did a good thing without trying for that "hero" title. Yet he might not know it, he was a hero for that one moment in the eyes of the wounded soldier. Crane also shows heroism works in very mysterious ways.In another of Crane’s shorts, The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky, the character of Jack Potter is put to the task of proving his heroism as sheriff of his town. As the story opens, the reader is introduced to Jack as a subtle, quiet man. He is on his way to Yellow Sky, Texas riding in a parlor-car with his new wife. Crane purposely does not clue the reader in as to the true identity of Jack Potter in the beginning of the story for the presence of shock value. To find out that this reserved man is a fearless sheriff by day is surprising do to his actions described on his trip: "From time to time he looked down respectfully at his attire. He sat with a hand on each knee, like a man waiting in a barber shop. The glances he devoted to other passengers were furtive and shy."As the train grows closer to Yellow Sky, Jack ponders the welcome he will receive. Frightened and worried about mixed reactions from the community in Yellow Sky, he sulks. ...
