“I was alarmed to find it so late, but I forded the river safely, and finally reached the Union camp.
“No one there knew me. I had not even a uniform to show what I was, so lest I might prove to be a spy I was ordered under arrest and confined till some of my own regiment who knew me came in and corroborated my story, or at least recognized me as one of themselves.”
“That was a very interesting story, and we are much obliged to you for it, sir,” said Lulu, as the narrator paused as if he had finished. “But can’t you give us another?”
“Yes,” he said, smiling in an absent-minded way. “I was just thinking of another and rather amusing occurrence that took place while I was a soldier, though it hadn’t much to do with the war.
“My parents were living in Baltimore then, and I was still in the Shenandoah Valley. At one time, blackberries being very plenty in the woods where I was encamped, I gathered great quantities, filled a box, putting green leaves under and over the berries, nailed it up and sent it by express to my parents. I wrote to them about it, but the box started ahead of the letter and arrived first.
“In the mean time my mother and grandmother had been talking of paying a visit to my older sister, who had married, was living in Philadelphia, and anxious and urgent to have them come on to see her and her first-born—a baby boy toddling about.
“They were most desirous to do so, as he was the first grandchild of the one, the first great-grandchild of the other. But before they had made ready to start upon the journey a letter was received from the child’s mother saying that he had been taken dangerously ill. The two grandmothers were greatly troubled and more anxious than ever to see the baby. The older one was in her bedroom, not feeling well; her daughter was with her. A vehicle was heard to drive up to the front door. Glancing from the window the younger grandmother saw it was the express wagon and a box was being lifted out, evidently for them. Thinking—its mother having said they should see it dead or alive—it contained the corpse of her baby grandchild, she hurried down, had it carried into the parlor and set upon a table. She then threw a white sheet over it and awaited in trembling and grief the home-coming of her husband—my father.
“When he came in she told of the box and its supposed contents, and he, also full of grief, set to work to open it. The lid was at length torn off, and great was the surprise and relief of both to come upon the fresh green leaves and berries beneath them.
“But the door-bell rang again, and there stood Hannah with her babe in her arms alive and well.
“Joyful was the welcome given to both; they were taken into the parlor, Hannah shown the box, which was still standing, and told the story.