“I turned to a tall, stout Vermonter,” he continued very slowly, tracing a pattern on the rug with the point of the scabbard, “who was badly wounded in both thighs, but he held up his hands and begged me to help others first who needed it more than he. I did not at first heed his request, for this kind of unselfishness was very common in the army; but he went on, 'For God's sake, Doctor, leave me here; there is a drummer-boy of our regiment--a mere child--dying, if he isn't dead now. Go, and see him first. He lies over there. He saved more than one life. He was at his post in the panic this morning, and saved the honor of the regiment.' I was so much more impressed by the man's manner than by the substance of his speech, which was, however, corroborated by the other poor fellows stretched around me, that I passed over to where the drummer lay, with his drum beside him. I gave one glance at his face--and--yes, Bob--yes, my children--it WAS Rupert. “Well! well! it needed not the chalked cross which my brother-surgeons had left upon the rough board whereon he lay to show how urgent was the relief he sought; it needed not the prophetic words of the Vermonter, nor the damp that mingled with the brown curls that clung to his pale forehead, to show how hopeless it was now. I called him by name. He opened his eyes--larger, I thought, in the new vision that was beginning to dawn upon him--and recognized me. He whispered, 'I'm glad you are come, but I don't think you can do me any good.' “I could not tell him a lie. I could not say anything. I only pressed his hand in mine, as he went on. “'But you will see father, and ask him to forgive me. Nobody is to blame but myself. It was a long time before I understood why the drum came to me that Christmas night, and why it kept calling to me every night, and what it said. I know it now. The work is done, and I am content. Tell father it is better as it is. I should have lived only to worry and perplex him, and something in me tells me this is right.' “He lay still for a moment, and then, grasping my hand, said,-- “'Hark!' “I listened, but heard nothing but the suppressed moans of the wounded men around me. 'The drum,' he said faintly; 'don't you hear it? The drum is calling me.' “He reached out his arm to where it lay, as though he would embrace it. “'Listen,' he went on, 'it's the reveille. There are the ranks drawn up in review. Don't you see the sunlight flash down the long line of bayonets? Their faces are shining,--they present arms,--there comes the General; but his face I cannot look at, for the glory round his head. He sees me; he smiles, it is--” And with a name upon his lips that he had learned long ago, he stretched himself wearily upon the planks, and lay quite still. “That's all. No questions now; never mind what became of the drum. Who's that snivelling? Bless my soul, where's my pill-box?” End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands and Other Stories, by Bret Harte