'
"Then she went away. It was the wisest thing she could have done,
for absence did more to change me than an ocean of tears, a year of
exhortations. Lying there, I missed her every hour of the day,
recalled every gentle act, kind word, and fair example she had given
me. I contrasted my own belief with hers, and found a new
significance in the words honesty and honor, and, remembering her
fidelity to principle, was ashamed of my own treason to God and to
herself. Education, prejudice, and interest, are difficult things to
overcome, and that was the hottest fight I ever passed through,
for, as I tell you, I was a coward. But love and loyalty won the
day, and, asking no quarter, the Rebel surrendered."
"Phil Beaufort, you're a brick!" cried Dick, with a sounding slap on
his comrade's shoulder.
"A brand snatched from the burnin'. Hallelujah!" chanted Flint,
seesawing with excitement.
"Then you went to find your wife? How? Where?" asked Thorn,
forgetting vigilance in interest.
"Friend Bent hated war so heartily that he would have nothing to do
with paroles, exchanges, or any martial process whatever, but bade
me go when and where I liked, remembering to do by others as I had
been done by. Before I was well enough to go, however, I managed, by
means of Copperhead influence and returned prisoners, to send a
letter to my father and receive an answer. You can imagine what both
contained; and so I found myself penniless, but not poor, an
outcast, but not alone.
Pages:
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43