FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49  
50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   >>   >|  
it square to-day. Let um lave it to his brigade." Adjutant Wallis, who had been blubbering aloud, who had cursed the rebels and the luck energetically, and who had also been trying to pray inwardly, groaned out, "This is our last victory. You see if it ain't. Bet you, two to one." "Hush, man!" replied Gahogan. "We'll win our share of urn, though we'll have to work harder for it. We'll have to do more ourselves, an' get less done for us in the way of tactics." "That's so, Major," whimpered a drummer, looking up from his duty of attending to a wounded comrade. "He knowed how to put his men in the right place, and his men knowed when they was in the right place. But it's goin' to be uphill through the steepest part of hell the rest of the way." Soldiers, some of them weeping, some of them bleeding, arrived constantly to inquire after their commander, only to be sent quietly back to their ranks or to the rear. Around lay other men--dead men, and senseless, groaning men--all for the present unnoticed. Everything, except the distant pursuit of the cavalry, waited for Waldron to die. Fitz Hugh looked on silently with the tears of mingled emotions in his eyes, and with hopes and hatreds expiring in his heart. The surgeon supported the expiring victor's head, while Chaplain Colquhoun knelt beside him, holding his hand and praying audibly. Of a sudden the petition ceased, both bent hastily toward the wounded man, and after what seemed a long time exchanged whispers. Then the Chaplain rose, came slowly toward the now advancing group of officers, his hands outspread toward heaven in an attitude of benediction, and tears running down his haggard white face. "I trust, dear friends," he said, in a tremulous voice, "that all is well with our brother and commander. His last words were, 'God is with us.'" "Oh! but, man, _that_ isn't well," broke out Gahogan, in a groan. "What did ye pray for his soul for? Why didn't ye pray for his loife?" Fitz Hugh turned his horse and rode silently away. The next day he was seen journeying rearward by the side of an ambulance, within which lay what seemed a strangely delicate boy, insensible, and, one would say, mortally ill. WHO WAS SHE? ------------- BY BAYARD TAYLOR _James Bayard Taylor (born at Kennett Square, Pa., in 1825; died in 1878) was probably in his day the best American example of the all-round literary craftsman. He was poet, novelist, journalist, writer of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49  
50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
knowed
 

Gahogan

 

commander

 

wounded

 
Chaplain
 
expiring
 

silently

 
tremulous
 

friends

 

brother


hastily

 

whispers

 
exchanged
 

ceased

 
audibly
 
praying
 

sudden

 

petition

 
heaven
 

outspread


attitude

 

benediction

 

running

 
officers
 

slowly

 
advancing
 

haggard

 

Bayard

 

Taylor

 

Kennett


TAYLOR

 

BAYARD

 
mortally
 

Square

 

craftsman

 

literary

 
novelist
 
writer
 

journalist

 

American


turned

 

strangely

 

delicate

 

insensible

 
ambulance
 

journeying

 
rearward
 

Waldron

 
harder
 

tactics