Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 104: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE WOUNDED SOLDIER. ey Mose,’’ of whom she had heard frightful stories that had sent the blood receding to her heart. Mose Bluff awoke at lensth, and a smile that beau- tified his boyish face, swept over it, as he looked into the black orbs of the girl who sat beside his couch, “I thought it all a dream,’’ he said. ‘‘I am surely awake now, and this is no dream; you are real flesh and blood, miss, and Iam at home.’’ . ‘“You will be well cared for here,’’? said Bertha. ‘Your friend has gone to participate in other battles.” ‘Captain Chetwood ?”? ‘Yes; he brought you here—you must remember!?? ‘‘I do, but I did not know you were here. What house is this? I thought I was at home—my old home - under the shadow of the hill, where he came and de- stroyed all. First Mary, then mother and father. They died from grief at poor sister’s sad fate. She followed the man she loved, the villain who deceived her, then cast her off, and—and she died. Father and mother died heart-broken—they lay side by side under the grass beside a mountain brook, and I, the last one left, I am on his trail, seeking to avenge poor Mary.”’ A red tinge grew in the cheeks of the sufferer, and. Bertha believed that fever was coming, and she cau- tioned him not to talk too much, even though she was interested in his story. ‘Well, I was a fool!’ uttered the boy, bluntly, ‘‘to | | speak of my ruined home at all; but that’s the way when I get to thinking it over. ” “Don’t think of it now,’’ ordered Bertha. ““T won’t,’’? was the submissive reply, and he closed his fYES and tried to sleep. once more, ae | vs . f - | -