The Deserter, and Other Stories: A Book of Two WarsFrederic, Harold
History
The Deserter, and Other Stories: A Book of Two Wars
Frederic, Harold
Great Britain -- History -- Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485 -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
"I don't know what you're driving at," he said at last. "_My_ name
is Lyman Hornbeck, and I'm a Cleveland man and a lieutenant--but I'm a
long way off from sixty. You can't mean my father? He's been dead two
years. His name was Lyman. Why, hold on! General Boyce said something
about Juno Mills--my father came from near there--you don't mean to say
you're a Hornbeck?"
An irresistible impulse moved Lafe to crawl out of his bed and totter
across to the other's pallet. He sat down on the edge of it, and leaned
his head back on the officer's two pillows.
"Say, I'm Steve Hornbeck's son," he said, "and your father was my Uncle
Lyme. Do you know, I kind of felt like takin' a shine to you when you
spoke to me early this morning."
[Illustration: "I'M STEVE HORNBECK'S SON!"]
The officer had put his arm affectionately round the boy's neck. "Why,
don't you remember," he cried, with pleased interest, "how I said I had
a brother like you at home?"
And so the two lay close together in a delighted gossip until the
surgeon came, and laughingly but peremptorily drove them apart. They
told him something of the strange story, and an attendant went out and
found Foldeen, and brought him in, and he added many striking
variations to the legend which now, by midnight, had become the talk of
the brigade.
General Boyce came back to the hospital tent purposely to see the boy
from his own Dearborn County whom men were talking about. He nodded his
head approvingly as he stood by the bedside and listened to Foldeen's
excited narrative of the lad's fight with Red Pete.
"I remember hearing of that fellow before," he said. "We'll hang him in
the morning, if we have to go without breakfast to do it."
Foldeen shook his head. "He is no good for hanging, dot Red Pete,"
he explained. "When the fire is gone out by dot breastwork where he
vas, maybe you find some chargoals from him--und maybe two, dree
buttons--dot's all."
The beautiful city by the lake wore its most velvety, green robes of
June when Lieutenant Hornbeck, who had been home invalided for some
weeks, was able at last to accept the reception which the good people
of St. Mark's Church wished to hold in his honor.
It seemed as if all Cleveland sought for admission to this festival of
welcome to the brave young officer. Yet when he came in, leaning on his
wife's arm, and with the flush of honest pride mantling upon the pallor
of his face, it turned out that the real hero of the evening was the
wiry, brown-faced boy he brought with him.
Lafe's story had been told in many other places. They knew it by heart
here in his new home, where henceforth he was to live with his cousin.
He blushed many times that evening at the things admiring people said
to his face about him, and he still says if folks _will_ insist on
discussing it, that the only interesting thing of the whole day was his
taking a shine to his cousin before he knew who he was.
HOW DICKON CAME BY HIS NAME.
A Tale of Christmas in the Olden Time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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