“Come closer to me,” they said; “take my hand in yours and keep it there while I thank you for what you’ve been to me. You’ll forgive me, I know, that I ever thought you proud, for I did, and sometimes there was a bitter feeling in my heart when I saw your Rose surrounded with every luxury, and thought of Annie, as highly educated as she, taking a far lower place in Rockland, because her husband was a mechanic. There is more of that feeling among the working classes than you imagine, and you don’t know how much good a familiar word or a little notice from such a you does to those who fill the humbler walks of life. Women feel this more than men, and again I bless you for the care promised my Annie. I do not ask that you should take her to your home as you suggest. You’ll think differently of that bye and by, but see that she does not want; see that no winter night shall find her hungry, no winter morning cold. Oh, Annie, Annie, that you should ever come to this!” It was a bitter, wailing cry, embodying all the mighty love the sick man had ever felt for his young wife. George had thought himself resigned, but weak human nature, which clings so tenaciously to life, was making one last effort for the mastery, and the worn spirit fainted for a time in the fierce struggle which ensued. The mind began to wander, and was in fancy back again at the cottage in the Hollow, where the soldier clasped his Annie to his bosom, begging of her in piteous tones not to love him less because he was a cripple. “I have only one arm to work with now, but I won’t let you starve, for when there’s but one crust left, I’ll give it all to you, and laugh so merrily that you will never guess how the hunger pain is gnawing at my heart. I’ve felt it once, my darling. I know just what it’s like. ’Twas on that terrible day when our brave boys met the foe, way up there at Manassas. There were hours, and hours, and hours, when we neither ate nor drank, and the July sun poured down so hotly, drying the perspiration which dropped from my hair like rain. ’Twas my very life I sweat away that awful day, fighting for the Union. Did you hear the battle, Annie,—hear the cannon’s bellowing thunder as it echoed through the Virginia woods? Wasn’t it grand the yell the Highlanders gave, as, with the 69th, they bore down battery after battery, and plunged into the enemy’s midst! How bravely our company played their part, fighting their way through shot and shell, and blood and brains, wading ankle-deep in human gore! Hurrah for the Stars and Stripes, my boys! Three cheers for the Federal Flag! Yes, give us three times three; and when it floats again over all the land, remember the soldiers who helped defend it. Hurrah, hurrah!”