"Can"t do it, m"um. It"s agin the rules."
"But I must go in. I"ve tramped for four days through a wilderness of hospitals, and I know he must be here."
"Special orders, m"um--wounded rebels in here that belong in prison."
"Very well, young man," said the pleading voice. "My baby boy"s in this place, wounded and about to die. I"m going in there. You can shoot me if you like, or you can turn your head the other way."
She stepped quickly past the soldier, who merely stared with dim eyes out the door and saw nothing.
She stood for a moment with a look of helpless bewilderment. The vast area of the second story of the great monolithic pile was crowded with rows of sick, wounded, and dying men--a strange, solemn, and curious sight.
Against the walls were ponderous gla.s.s cases, filled with models of every kind of invention the genius of man had dreamed. Between these cases were deep lateral openings, eight feet wide, crowded with the sick, and long rows of them were stretched through the centre of the hall. A gallery ran around above the cases, and this was filled with cots. The clatter of the feet of pa.s.sing surgeons and nurses over the marble floor added to the weird impression.
Elsie saw the look of helpless appeal in the mother"s face and hurried forward to meet her:
"Is this Mrs. Cameron, of South Carolina?"
The trembling figure in black grasped her hand eagerly:
"Yes, yes, my dear, and I"m looking for my boy, who is wounded unto death.
Can you help me?"
"I thought I recognized you from a miniature I"ve seen," she answered softly. "I"ll lead you direct to his cot."
"Thank you, thank you!" came the low reply.
In a moment she was beside him, and Elsie walked away to the open window through which came the chirp of sparrows from the lilac bushes in full bloom below.
The mother threw one look of infinite tenderness on the drawn face, and her hands suddenly clasped in prayer:
"I thank Thee, Lord Jesus, for this hour! Thou hast heard the cry of my soul and led my feet!" She gently knelt, kissed the hot lips, smoothed the dark tangled hair back from his forehead, and her hand rested over his eyes.
A faint flush tinged his face.
"It"s you, Mamma--I--know--you--that"s--your--hand--or--else--it"s--G.o.d"s!"
She slipped her arms about him.
"My hero, my darling, my baby!"
"I"ll get well now, Mamma, never fear. You see, I had whipped them that day as I had many a time before. I don"t know how it happened--my men seemed all to go down at once. You know--I couldn"t surrender in that new uniform of a colonel you sent me--we made a gallant fight, and--now--I"m--just--a--little--tired--but you are here, and it"s all right."
"Yes, yes, dear. It"s all over now. General Lee has surrendered, and when you are better I"ll take you home, where the sunshine and flowers will give you strength again."
"How"s my little sis?"
"Hunting in another part of the city for you. She"s grown so tall and stately you"ll hardly know her. Your papa is at home, and don"t know yet that you are wounded."
"And my sweetheart, Marion Lenoir?"
"The most beautiful little girl in Piedmont--as sweet and mischievous as ever. Mr. Lenoir is very ill, but he has written a glorious poem about one of your charges. I"ll show it to you to-morrow. He is our greatest poet.
The South worships him. Marion sent her love to you and a kiss for the young hero of Piedmont. I"ll give it to you now."
She bent again and kissed him.
"And my dogs?"
"General Sherman left them, at least."
"Well, I"m glad of that--my mare all right?"
"Yes, but we had a time to save her--Jake hid her in the woods till the army pa.s.sed."
"Bully for Jake."
"I don"t know what we should have done without him."
"Old Aleck still at home and getting drunk as usual?"
"No, he ran away with the army and persuaded every negro on the Lenoir place to go, except his wife, Aunt Cindy."
"The old rascal, when Mrs. Lenoir"s mother saved him from burning to death when he was a boy!"
"Yes, and he told the Yankees those fire scars were made with the lash, and led a squad to the house one night to burn the barns. Jake headed them off and told on him. The soldiers were so mad they strung him up and thrashed him nearly to death. We haven"t seen him since."
"Well, I"ll take care of you, Mamma, when I get home. Of course I"ll get well. It"s absurd to die at nineteen. You know I never believed the bullet had been moulded that could hit me. In three years of battle I lived a charmed life and never got a scratch."
His voice had grown feeble and laboured, and his face flushed. His mother placed her hand on his lips.
"Just one more," he pleaded feebly. "Did you see the little angel who has been playing and singing for me? You must thank her."
"Yes, I see her coming now. I must go and tell Margaret, and we will get a pa.s.s and come every day."
She kissed him, and went to meet Elsie.
"And you are the dear girl who has been playing and singing for my boy, a wounded stranger here alone among his foes?"
"Yes, and for all the others, too."
Mrs. Cameron seized both of her hands and looked at her tenderly.
"You will let me kiss you? I shall always love you."
She pressed Elsie to her heart. In spite of the girl"s reserve, a sob caught her breath at the touch of the warm lips. Her own mother had died when she was a baby, and a shy, hungry heart, long hidden from the world, leaped in tenderness and pain to meet that embrace.
Elsie walked with her to the door, wondering how the terrible truth of her boy"s doom could be told.
She tried to speak, looked into Mrs. Cameron"s face, radiant with grateful joy, and the words froze on her lips. She decided to walk a little way with her. But the task became all the harder.