"Why, Charley Graines!" exclaimed Florry, rushing 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
associate of my son, as you were before the war," added Mrs. Passford.
"I am very glad to see you, Mrs. Passford and Miss Passford," 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
assisting 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 God
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.
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