by him in the dark. All I could do was to wet his lips, and sob and
pray to God for my boy.

"At last, at dawn of day, I saw that his blue eyes were open, and he
said with a sigh: 'Pa-pa, is that you?' Oh! what joy I felt! but my
joy was not for long, for my boy was so weak, he said but a word or
two from time to time. I will tell you what he said, 'Pa-pa, I _did_
stay back just as you told me, but a shot from a big gun flew in the
air, and went in here,' and he put his hand on his left side. 'I fell
down, and all at once it grew dark to me, and I knew I must die.

"'Then I did try to get to you to bid you good-by, and to give you one
last good kiss. The shot fell like rain; they made a buzz, buzz in the
air. I went from end to end of the line of men to find you, but I did
not see you; then the guns did not fire, for the sun had set; but I
was so weak I fell down. I did lift my arms up to the sky, and pray:
O God! let me see my own dear pa-pa, to kiss him, and tell him that I
did do as he had bid me. I can not get back to the camp; I must die
here. And then I knew no more. But God did hear me; and now I can bid
you good-by, and beg you not to cry for me when I am gone.'

"'O Will!' I said with a sob, "you must not die. I will not let you.
Oh! do you hear? I will not let you go from me.'

"Just then the kind doc-tor came in; for it was now Will's turn. He
did look at his side; he felt his brow and his cold hand; then he gave
me a look, a sad, sad look--it said: 'It is no use to try, I can not
save him.'

"And now my Will's face grew pale and pale; his head sank down; his
blue eyes were dim. He put his hand out to me, for now he did not see
me; I took it, and laid it on my neck. He drew my face, all wet with
big tears, down to his, and I could just hear him say: 'I love you, O
how I love you! But God calls me; I will wait for you at His feet.
Good-by.' Then he gave me his last kiss, and then--he was dead."

The poor old man hid his face in his hand. His sobs were so sad to
hear, that Bell and Lou felt as bad as the poor man, and did cry and
sob with him, and wish the war had ne-ver come, to give all this woe
and pain to a good man.

At last the old man got up to go. Then Bell said to Lou in a low tone:
"Let us give this poor man the gold coin we have had so long. It will
buy him a new coat."

"O yes, yes!" said Lou. So she ran in and got it, and then they both
said: "Here, good old man, take this; it will not mak