Gettysburg, Battle of, Gettysburg, Pa., 1863 -- Fiction; Pennsylvania -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction; War stories
Grandmother Willing's gaze still rested upon Emmeline.
"Did you see this?" she demanded, as if Emmeline were to blame for
having got herself once more into mischief. "Were you in the battle,
Emmeline?"
"Yes."
"Did you have wounded rebels here?"
"Yes. There are some upstairs now!" cried Emmeline.
"In my house!" exclaimed Grandmother Willing. "In my beds!" Grandmother
Willing's youthfulness was apparent in the speed with which she started
up the stairs. "I'll 'rebel' them!"
Those below waited. They could trust her to do nothing violent.
"Oh, you poor, poor souls!" cried Grandmother Willing abovestairs.
An ambulance driver who was making a journey to Gettysburg now offered
to take Henry and Emmeline home. Henry must join his company as soon as
possible, and the best way to find them was to go to Gettysburg, where
he could doubtless get information about their position. He was
heavily oppressed by anxiety and alarm, and could hardly wait until the
driver received his orders to start.
[Illustration:
_Page 154_
"YES," ANSWERED MRS. WILLING. "BERTHA IS ASLEEP UPSTAIRS"]
Along the wooded ridge the ambulance traveled; Henry sat in the seat
with the driver, Emmeline in the body of the wagon. There was no road;
they made their way round shattered cannon, wrecked caissons, and far
sadder remnants of the great battle. They passed close by the seminary
building, where the Union soldiers had first camped. It was five
o'clock on Sunday afternoon, the most peaceful hour of the week; but
Gettysburg's streets were thronged with soldiers, mounted and on foot.
Citizens were on their doorsteps. This Sunday was a day not of rest,
but of rejoicing.
Suddenly Emmeline saw twinkling in the breeze before her a bit of
color, and her pale cheeks flushed. From windows and doorposts floated
once more Gettysburg's flag--the stars of white on a field of blue, the
stripes of red and white.
Unobserved, Henry and Emmeline passed down the street. In the back of
the wagon, Emmeline could not be seen, and as for Henry--no one looked
twice at a Union soldier with a bandaged head. No one noticed them, in
fact, until Mr. Bannon, who was sitting on his porch with his pipe,
saw them; he lifted his arms with a shout and hurried forward in his
lame way to greet them. He shouted some wild sentence at them, but they
could not wait to be greeted by lame Mr. Bannon. Hand in hand they
went along the house and to the kitchen porch. There, at the open door,
they paused.
"Well, mother," said Henry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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