“We may now take two Sabbaths’ rest, the Jewish and the Christian, before setting out on our pilgrimage.”
And that night the whole family went to bed tired enough to enjoy the two days’ rest to come.
The next day—Saturday—was a beautiful day, clear, and bright, and mild. Fine fires were burning in all the fireplaces, but all the windows were open.
Mrs. Moseley was distributing to the few soldiers’ wives that were in the camp many household articles that she would not want. Also she was receiving informal visits from officers’ wives, who were sorry to have her leave the fort.
Judy, having nothing on earth to do, was walking up and down on the piazza of the colonel’s quarters, thinking of her brother, Mike, and his too probable fate.
On this day, people were coming in and going out of the fort gates continually; but Judy took no notice of them.
Presently there came through the gates another troop—not a troop of horse as on the preceding Monday, but a very small troop on foot, consisting of some half a dozen of the most ragged, dirty, forlorn and Heaven-forsaken looking tramps that Christian eyes ever beheld.
Judy, pacing up and down the piazza, never saw them. She was muttering to herself:
“I know he is dead, but I shall never know how he died, or where he died, or how much he might have suffered before he died. And this will be a sorrow to me worse than death itself! A life-long sorrow that even me darlint Ran can nivir comfort me for.”
“Judy!”