The Drummer Boy Part 9

"Not he! but he didn't think it of very much importance, and he intended to bring it to us some time during the day--after he had fed his dog! By this time father had got news that the regiment was in town; and such a rush as we made for the horse-cars you never did see!"

"But Hattie! where is she?" Frank asked, anxiously.

Helen's vivacious face saddened a little.

"O, we came away in such a hurry we couldn't bring her, even if she had been well enough."

"In she worse?"

"She gets no better," said Mrs. Manly, "and she herself thought she ought not to try to come. Maggie Simpson offered to stay with her."

"I am so sorry! I wanted to see _her_. Did she send any message to me?"

"Yes," said his mother. "She said, 'Give my love to dear brother, and tell him to think of me sometimes.'"

"Think of her sometimes!" said Frank. "Tell her I shall always think of her and love her."

By this time Captain Edney, seeing Frank with his friends, came towards them. Frank hastened to hide his emotion; and, saluting the officer respectfully, said to him, with a glow of pleasure:--

"Captain Edney, this is my mother."

Captain Edney lifted his cap, with a bright smile.

"Well," he said, "this is a meeting I rather think neither of us ever looked forward to, when we used to spend those long summer days in the old schoolhouse, which I hope you remember."

"I remember it well--and one bright-faced boy in particular," said Mrs.

Manly, pressing his hand cordially.

"A rather mischievous boy, I am afraid I was; a little rebel myself, in those days," said the captain.

"Yet a boy that I always hoped much good of," said Mrs. Manly. "I cannot tell you how gratified I am to feel that my son is entrusted in your hands."

"You may be sure I will do what I can for him," said the captain, "if only to repay your early care of me."

He then conversed a few moments with Mr. Manly, who was always well satisfied to stand a little in the background, and let his wife have her say first.

"And this, I suppose, is Frank's sister," turning to Helen. "I should have known her, I think, for she looks so much as you used to, Mrs.

Manly, that I can almost fancy myself stepping up to her with my slate, and saying, 'Please, ma'am, show me about this sum?'"

Frank, in the mean time, was occupied in exhibiting to Willie his drum, and in preventing him, partly by moral suasion, but chiefly by main force, from gratifying his ardent desire to pound upon it.

"And here is our little brother," said the captain, lifting Willie, notwithstanding his struggles and kicks, and kissing his shy, pouting cheeks. "He'll make a nice drummer boy too, one of these days."

This royal flattery won the child over to his new friend immediately.

"Me go to war with my bwother Fw.a.n.k! dwum, and scare webels!" panting earnestly over his important little story, which the captain was obliged to cut short.

"Well, Frank, I suppose you would like to spend the rest of the time with your friends. Be at the Old Colony depot at five o'clock.

Meanwhile,"--touching his cap,--"a pleasant time to all of you."

So saying, be left them, and Frank departed with his friends, carrying his drum with him, to the great delight of little Willie, whose heart would have been broken if all hope of being allowed to drum upon it had been cut off by leaving it behind.

"Mrs. Gillett has invited us to bring you to her house," said Mrs. Manly.

"I want to have a long talk with you there; and I want Mrs. Gillett's brother, the minister, to see you."

Frank was not pa.s.sionately fond of ministers; and immediately an unpleasant image rose in his mind, of a solemn, black-coated individual, who took a mournful satisfaction in damping the spirits of young people by his long and serious conversations.

"You needn't strut so, Frank, if you _have_ got soldier clothes on,"

laughed Helen. "I'll tell folks you are smart, if you are so particular to have them know it."

"Do, if you please," said Frank. "And I'll tell 'em you're handsome, if you'll put your veil down so they won't know but that I am telling the truth."

"There, Helen," said Mrs. Manly, "you've got your joke back with interest. Now I'd hold my tongue, if I was you."

"Frank and I wouldn't know each other if we didn't have a little fun together," said Helen. "Besides, we'll all feel serious enough by and by, I guess." For she loved her brother devotedly, much as she delighted to tease him; and she would have been glad to drown in merry jests the thought of the final parting, which was now so near at hand.

They were cordially received at Mrs. Gillett's house; and there Mrs.

Manly enjoyed the wished-for opportunity of talking with her son, and Willie had a chance to beat the drum in the attic, and Mrs. Gillett secretly emptied Frank's haversack of its rations of pork and hard tack, and filled it again with excellent bread and b.u.t.ter, slices of cold lamb, and sponge cake. Moreover, a delightful repast was prepared for the visitors, at which Frank laughed at his own awkwardness, declaring that he had eaten from a tin plate so long, with his drumhead for a table, that he had almost forgotten the use of china and napkins.

"If Hattie was only here now!" he said, again and again. For it needed only his invalid sister's presence, during these few hours, to make him perfectly happy.

"Eat generously," said the minister, "for it may be long before you sit at a table again."

"Perhaps I never shall," thought Frank, but he did not say so lest he might hurt his mother's feelings.

The minister was not at all such a person as he had expected to see, but only a very pleasant gentleman, not at all stiffened with the idea that he had the dignity of the profession to sustain. He was natural, friendly, and quite free from that solemn affectation which now and then becomes second nature in ministers some of us know, but which never fails to repel the sympathies of the young.

Mr. Egglestone was expecting soon to go out on a mission to the troops, and it was for this reason Mrs. Manly wished them to become acquainted.

"I wish you were going with our regiment," said Frank. "We have got a chaplain, I believe, but I have never seen him yet, or seen any body who has seen him."

"Well, I hope at least I shall meet you, if we both reach the seat of war," said the minister, drawing him aside. "But whether I do or not, I am sure that, with such a good mother as you have, and such dear sisters as you leave behind, you will never need a chaplain to remind you that you have something to preserve more precious than this mortal life of ours,--the purity and rect.i.tude of your heart."

This was spoken so sincerely and affectionately that Frank felt those few words sink deeper into his soul than the most labored sermon could have done. Mr. Egglestone said no more, but putting his arm confidingly over the boy's shoulder, led him back to his mother.

And now the hour of parting had come. Frank's friends, including the minister, went with him to the cars. Arrived at the depot, they found it thronged with soldiers, and surrounded by crowds of citizens.

"O, mother!" said Frank, "you _must_ see our drum-major, old Mr.

Sinjin--my teacher, you know. There he is; I'll run and fetch him!"

He returned immediately, dragging after him the grizzled veteran, who seemed reluctant, and looked unusually stern.

"It's my mother and father, you know," said Frank. "They want to shake hands with you."

"What do they care for me?" said the old man, frowning.

Frank persisted, and introduced his father. The veteran returned Mr.

Manly's salute with rigid military courtesy, without relaxing a muscle of his austere countenance.