'Are you hurt much, Hope?' asked one of his comrades, kneeling beside
him and staunching the blood that flowed from his wounded leg.

'Yes, I expect I am; but that red wamus over yonder's redder 'n ever
now. That feller won't need a pension.'

They carried him back to the hospital, and the old surgeon looked at the
wound, shook his head, and briefly made his prognosis.

'Bone shattered--vessels injured--bad leg--have to come off. Good
constitution, though; he'll stand it.'

And he did stand it; always cheerful, never complaining, only,
regretting that he must be discharged--that he was no longer able to
serve his country.

And now Hopeful is again sitting on his little bench in Mynheer
Kordwaener's little shop, pegging away at the coarse boots, singing the
same glorious prophecy that we first heard him singing. He has had but
two troubles since his return. One is the lingering regret and
restlessness that attends a civil life after an experience of the rough,
independent life in camp. The other trouble was when he first saw
Christina after his return. The loving warmth with which she greeted him
pained him; and when the worthy Herr considerately went out of the room,
leaving them alone, he relapsed into gloomy silence. At length, speaking
rapidly, and with choked utterance, he began:

'Christie, you know I love you now, as I always have, better 'n all the
world. But I'm a cripple now--no account to nobody--just a dead
weight--an' I don't want you, 'cause o' your promise before I went away,
to tie yourself to a load that'll be a drag on you all your life. That
contract--ah--promises--an't--is--is hereby repealed! There!' And he
leaned his head upon his hands and wept bitter tears, wrung by a great
agony from his loving heart.

Christie gently laid her hand upon his shoulder, and spoke, slowly and
calmly: 'Hopeful, your soul was not in that leg, was it?'

It would seem as if Hopeful had always thought that such was the case,
and was just receiving new light upon the subject, he started up so
suddenly.

'By jing! Christie!' And he grasped her hand, and--but that is another
of those scenes that don't concern us at all. And Christie has promised
next Christmas to take the name, as she already has the heart, of
Tackett. Herr Kordwaener, too, has come to the conclusion that he wants a
partner, and on the day of the wedding a new sign is to be put up over a
new and larger shop, on which 'Co.' will mean Hopeful Tacke