“Ah! Doctor, ye nadent ask such a question as that; but if ye’ll just give me a good drink of whiskey, ye may squeeze it all day long.”
He made up such a comical face that the sick and wounded all around him laughed. It did them good, and Patrick knew it, and so, in the kindness of his heart, he kept on making up faces, and never uttered a word of complaint.
“He is a first-rate patient,” said the surgeon as we passed along. “He keeps up good spirits all the time, and that helps all the rest.”
In another part of the hospital was one of Birges’s sharpshooters, who did such excellent service, you remember, at Fort Donelson. He was a brave and noble boy. There were several kind ladies taking care of the sick. Their presence was like sunshine. Wherever they walked the eyes of the sufferers followed them. One of these ladies thus speaks of little Frankie Bragg:—
“Many will remember him; the boy of fifteen, who fought valiantly at Donelson,—one of the bravest of Birges’s sharpshooters, and whose answer to my questioning in regard to joining the army was so well worthy of record.
“‘I joined, because I was so young and strong, and because life would be worth nothing to me unless I offered it for my country!’”[26]
How noble! There are many strong men who have done nothing for their country, and there are some who enjoy all the blessings of a good government, who are willing to see it destroyed rather than lift a finger to save it. Their names shall go out in oblivion, but little Frankie Bragg shall live forever! His body lies in the hospital ground at Paducah, but the pure patriotism which animated him, and the words he uttered, will never die!
The good lady who took care of him writes:—
“I saw him die. I can never forget the pleading gaze of his violet eyes, the brow from which ringlets of light-brown hair were swept by strange fingers bathed in the death-dew, the desire for some one to care for him, some one to love him in his last hours. I came to his side, and he clasped my hand in his own, fast growing cold and stiff.
“‘O, I am going to die, and there is no one to love me,’ he said. ‘I did not think I was going to die till now; but it can’t last long. If my sisters were only here; but I have no friends near me now, and it is so hard!’