“I be goin’. The feller that brung me up here sed he’d show me through.”
“I’ll show you through,” said David decisively, and together they went through the places of interest in the building, the governor as proud as a newly domiciled man showing off his possessions. At last they came to the room where in glass cases reposed the old, unfurled battle flags. The old man stopped before one case and looked long and reverently within.
“Which was your regiment, Uncle Barnabas?”
“Forty-seventh Infantry. I kerried that air flag at the Battle of the Wilderness.” 253
David called to a guard and obtained a key to the case. Opening it, he bade the old man take out the flag.
With trembling hands Barnabas took out the flag he had followed when his country went to war. He gazed at it in silence, and then restored it carefully to its place. As they walked away, he brushed his coat sleeve hastily across his dimmed eyes.
David consulted his watch.
“It’s luncheon time, Uncle Barnabas. We’ll go over to my hotel. The executive mansion is undergoing repairs.”
“I want more’n a lunch, Dave! I ain’t et nuthin’ sence four o’clock this mornin’.”
“I’ll see that you get enough to eat,” laughed David.