X.

IN THE TENT HOSPITAL.

There were long, troubled dreams for little G. W.--dreams that were unlike those which used to come and cheer him in camp before he had given up his hopes of being a hero. These were full of terror--a longing for water, and visions of his dear Colonel wounded and dying.

Sometimes a skulking figure, leaf-covered and terrible, stalked through those pain-filled visions. Then he would shout for his gun. But always when he cried aloud, a voice familiar but distant called upon him to be calm and trust some one, whose name he had forgotten.

At last there came a day when the dreams began to fade. Voices not so distant reached him. Then he tasted water, for the first time, he thought, in years!

"Thank you!" he said to some one holding the gla.s.s to his lips, but did not open his eyes. He was very tired.

"G. W. is coming around all right," said a grave, quiet voice. "Plenty of nourishment, nurse,--all that you can get for him. That boy mustn't slip through our fingers." The boy heard, but he did not stir.

A new voice broke in upon the strange calm. "Can't you speak to me, my child?"

The simple question sent a thrill through the faithful heart. G. W.

faintly unclosed his eyes. He must see who was speaking in that dear, dear voice.

"Colonel!" he whispered. "Oh! my Colonel!"

Then G. W.'s eyes opened wide. On the pillow of the bed next his own--for they were both lying in the tent hospital--he saw the face of Colonel Austin. The one face in the world that G. W. longed to see, and the one that he had dreamed and dreamed and dreamed was gone forever!

Little G. W. opened his lips with a gasp and an effort to speak. But memory rushed upon him. In that glance of recognition he remembered what he had done.

"I done broke my word, Colonel!" was what he said. Two slow tears rolled down the dusky cheeks.

"Yes, G. W."

"An' I follered you, Colonel, like you tole me not to."

"I know it--thank G.o.d!"

If poor little G. W. had not been so weak he would have sprung up; he tried to, but fell limply back.

"G. W., my child," said the Colonel, moving a little nearer, "if you had not disobeyed and come after me I would not have been here. You took your orders from some one higher in command, G. W. We're going home soon, going home together. Do you know what I am saying, G. W.? Just as soon as we can travel we are going up North together to the Boy and his Mother!"

Things happened for dear little G. W. in s.n.a.t.c.hes after that.

Pain-filled pauses and unconscious lapses and short, sudden, sharp throbs of happiness, made up life.

The Colonel gained his strength far sooner than G. W. He could have travelled, but he would not leave his little comrade. "I'll stay by the little chap until the end, or I'll take him home with me," he said to the doctor who urged his departure. "I'll never desert him."

The "end" did not come to G. W., however. All at once he began to mend.

White and weak, his eyes too large for his face, for fever had worn him to a shadow, Colonel Austin sat beside his bed retelling the old hero-stories, while G. W. smiled with closed eyes. Sometimes the boy roused and asked a series of questions.

"When is we goin' home, Colonel?"

"On the next transport, comrade."

"I s'pose we has ter live in jes a house when we goes home?" sighed the boy.

"Why, G. W., a house isn't a bad thing--do you think so?"

"I likes tents mighty well, I does!" said G. W.

"Well, old man, don't lose heart; you're not going to live in a house right away."

"I spect de uniform wasn't nebber found up on de hill-top, Colonel?"

"No, my boy. There was no time to hunt up lost uniforms; it was all the boys could do to hunt up lost men."

"Colonel, what is I goin' ter do when dat transport comes in? No cloes, no nothin'!"

Colonel Austin laughed, and many a sick man's face relaxed at the sound.

"The Colonel is laughing--G. W.'s better," murmured a weak voice, and the good news travelled around the hospital tent.

"The Boy and his Mother are having a new suit made for you, G. W.," the Colonel said. "The Boy thought of it the first thing."

When the transport came that was to carry the Colonel, G. W., and several hundred others home, it had among its stores the new suit of blue for the dest.i.tute little soldier. If anything, it was more splendid than the first one, but it was wofully large for the poor little body-guard. When he first appeared in it the men were about to laugh, then grew suddenly silent as they saw the gray little dusky face, and remembered _why_ G. W. had so shrunk. But even G. W. smiled after a moment.

He stood up by his cot, and put his hands in the pockets and spread wide the almost empty trouser-legs of the fine uniform.

"I clar," said he, "if you'se all didn't see me a standin' on my feet, yo nebber would say dere were legs 'tached to my body!"

"Never mind, G. W.!" It was Corporal Jack who spoke. He, too, was going home on the transport, and the knowledge had put a pound or so of flesh on his bones. "Never you care, G. W.! Those shanks'll get you into G.o.d's country; and your rightful legs will grow again up there. Lordy, G. W., if you only knew what is a-waiting for you!"

G. W. smiled inquiringly. Something was going to happen, as every one seemed to know. It was evidently an army secret, and the gossip of all the men, until G. W. drew near!

Then, smiling silence.

XI.

"IT'S ALL YOURS, G. W.!"

The cool air was sweeping, like a breath of Paradise, over the face of little G. W. They had brought him up on deck, for the transport was nearing home. Colonel Austin stood by, anxious; he did not like the look upon the thin, drawn countenance.

"Take a brace, G. W.!" he said, while he laid his fingers upon the weak pulse in the tiny wrist.

Sea-sickness had reduced the child to a mere skeleton. It had been worse than the fever. Not even the thought that "up North" was within sight could arouse him now.

"I see a long stretch of land, my boy," Colonel Austin went on, "and a fine white light-house on the farthest point. G. W., I'll bet you don't know what this light-house looks like!"

"I bet I doesn't!" G. W. spoke in a whisper, his eyes shut.