I'm going home!" And his smile was both
bright and sweet.
"Oh, would you not live--for your mother's sake? and to work for your
Master?"
"Gladly, if it were His will; but I hear Him saying to me, 'Come up
hither'; and it is a joyful summons."
"Harold, when----" her voice faltered, but with an effort she completed
her sentence--"when did this begin?"
"At Andersonville; I was in perfect health when I entered the army," he
answered quickly, divining the fear that prompted the question; "but bad
air, foul water, wretched and insufficient food, rapidly and completely
undermined my constitution. Yet it is sweet to die for one's country! I do
not grudge the price I pay to secure her liberties."
Elsie's eyes sparkled through her tears. "True patriotism still lives!"
she said. "Harold, I am proud of you and your brothers. Of dear Walter,
too; for his heart was right, however mistaken his head may have been."
"Walter? oh, yes, and I----"
But the sentence was interrupted by the entrance of his mother and
sisters, May and Daisy, Mr. Dinsmore, and his son and daughter. Fresh
greetings, of course, had to be exchanged all round, and were scarcely
finished when Mr. Travilla came in with his three children.
Elsie called them to her, and presented them to Harold with all a mother's
fond pride in her darlings.
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