Part 25 (1/2)
”Why, Charley Graines!” exclaimed Florry, rus.h.i.+ng to him with an extended hand. ”I did not know you were here.”
”I am glad to see you, Charley, especially as you have been a friend and a.s.sociate of my son, as you were before the war,” added Mrs. Pa.s.sford.
”I am very glad to see you, Mrs. Pa.s.sford and Miss Pa.s.sford,” said he, bowing to both of them. ”I have been on duty recently with Christy, and I have been looking out for him on the voyage home.”
”Charley has been a brother to me, and done everything under the canopy for me. I am somewhat fatigued just now,” added the lieutenant, as he seated himself on a sofa in the hall. ”He will answer your questions now, and tell you that I am not killed.”
”But come into the sitting-room, my son, for we can make you more comfortable there,” said his mother, taking him by the right arm, and a.s.sisting him to rise.
”I don't need any help, mamma,” added Christy playfully, as he rose from the sofa. ”I have not been butchered, and I haven't anything but a little bullet-hole through the fleshy part of my left arm. Don't make a baby of me; for a commander in the Confederate navy told me that G.o.d made some fully-developed men before they were twenty-one, and that I was one of them. Don't make me fall from my high estate to that of an overgrown infant, mother.”
”I will not do anything of the kind, my son,” replied Mrs. Pa.s.sford, as she arranged the cus.h.i.+ons on the sofa for him. ”Now, Florry, get a wrap for him.”
Christy stretched himself out on the sofa, for he was really fatigued by the movements of the forenoon and the excitement of his return to the scenes of his childhood.
”Tell them what the doctors said about my wound, Charley,” he continued, as he arranged himself for the enjoyment of a period of silence.
”Mr. Pa.s.sford has had two surgeons,” Mr. Graines began.
”Then he must have been very badly wounded!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Florry, leaping to a very hasty conclusion.
”Not at all,” protested the engineer. ”Both of them said he was not severely wounded.”
”Why was he sent home on a furlough?” asked Mrs. Pa.s.sford.
”Because the weather was getting very hot in the Gulf of Mexico, and it was believed that he would do better at home. He has been somewhat feverish; but he is improving every day, and in a couple of weeks he will be as well as ever.”
”Thank G.o.d, it is no worse!” exclaimed Mrs. Pa.s.sford.
Then she insisted that he should be quiet, and they all retired to the library.
CHAPTER XXIV
LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER CHRISTOPHER Pa.s.sFORD
Christy Pa.s.sford dropped asleep when left alone in the sitting-room, and his slumber lasted a full hour. During this time Mr. Graines had related the incidents of the action in which he had been wounded, and given a full account of the expedition to Mobile Point. He was not sparing in his praise; but he brought it out in what had been said by others, especially by the commanders of both vessels and in the demonstrations of the seamen of the Bellevite.
When the wounded officer awoke it was with a start, and he was surprised to find he had been asleep in the midst of such happy surroundings. He rose from his couch, and found that his mother and sister had left the room. He pa.s.sed out into the hall, and there heard the voice of the engineer in the library which he entered at once.
”I hope you feel better, my son,” said his mother, as she and Florry rose from their chairs rejoicing anew at his return home after the fearful peril through which he had pa.s.sed, for the recital of his brilliant exploits by his friend had been intensely thrilling to both of them.
”I'm all right, mother dear; I was only tired a little, for I have taken more exercise to-day than usual lately,” replied Christy, as Mrs.
Pa.s.sford kissed him again and again, and Florry followed her example.
”Charley Graines has told us all about it, Christy,” said his sister.
”So you have been spinning a yarn, have you, Charley?” asked the hero.
”I have related only the simple truth, Christy, for I knew you would not tell them the whole of it,” replied the engineer.