“Oh, I will see him; look what I have brought him—a napkin full of the cakes he liked and this bottle of syrup.”
“Leave them, my good woman, with me and he will get them.”
“No, no, I must see my handsome boy in his uniform; my own Jimmy that never left my side until he listed the day before yesterday. The sight of me will be better than salve to his hurt.”
“I can’t let you in; you must go to the colonel for an order.”
“An order to see my own son! Jimmy, don’t you hear me; tell the man to let me in to you. (A pause.) Are you sleeping, Jimmy? It’s your mother has come to see you. (Here she knocked). Are you much hurt? Just a scratch, they tell me; perhaps they will let you go home with me till it heals. O, Jimmy, I miss you sorely at home.”
Again the woman knocked and placing her ear to a crack in the door listened.
“He ain’t moving! Soger man, tell me true, is my Jimmy here?”
“He is, mem; you must go to the colonel. I cannot let you in; I must obey orders.”
“If Jimmy is here, then he must be worse than they told me.”