''
The corporal was soon back with the water,
when he discovered that both the lad's feet had
been shot away by a cannon-ball.
After satisfying his thirst, Eddie looked up
into the corporal's face and said:--
``You don't think I shall die, do you? This
man said I should not,--he said the surgeon
could cure my feet.''
The corporal now looked about him and
discovered a man lying in the grass near by. By his
dress he knew him to belong to the Confederate
army. It appeared that he had been shot and
had fallen near Eddie. Knowing that he could
not live, and seeing the condition of the drummer-
boy, he had crawled to him, taken off his buckskin
suspenders, and had corded the little fellow's
legs below the knees, and then he had laid
himself down and died.
While Eddie was telling the corporal these
particulars, they heard the tramp of cavalry
coming down the ravine, and in a moment a scout
of the enemy was upon them, and took them both
prisoners.
The corporal requested the officer in charge to
take Eddie up in front of him, and he did so,
carrying the lad with great tenderness and care.
When they reached the Confederate camp the
little fellow was dead.
A FLAG INCIDENT
BY M. M. THOMAS (ADAPTED)
When marching to Chattanooga the corps had
reached a little wooded valley between the
mountains.
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