The Boarded Up House by Augusta Huiell Seaman Ch 17 In Which All Mysteries Are Solved Final Chapter.
chapter 17 of the boarded up house this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by patty cunningham the boarded up house by augusta hewell seaman chapter 17 in which all mysteries are solved at last the two on the staircase heard footsteps approaching the door and a pleasant voice called out where are you both little ladies will you not come and join us i think we must have some things to be explained they came forward a little timidly and their latest visitor held out a hand to each you wonderful too he exclaimed do you realize that had it not been for you this would never have happened my mother and i owe you a debt of gratitude beyond all expressing come and join us now and we will solve the riddles which i'm sure are puzzling us all he led them over to the sofa and placed them beside his mother never was a change more remarkable than that which had come upon mrs collingwood her face far from being one of the saddest they had ever seen had grown fairly radiant she looked younger too ten years seemed suddenly to have dropped from her shoulders her brown eyes flashed with something of their former fire and she smiled down at them as only the lovely lady of the portrait had ever smiled there was no difficulty now in identifying her with that picture oh please began joyce breathlessly won't you tell us mr collingwood how you come to be not dead and why you gave another name at the door and and he laughed i'll tell you all that he interrupted if you'll tell me who joyce kenway is why i am said joyce in surprise didn't you guess it how could i he answered i never supposed it was a girl who sent me that note i did not even feel sure that the name was not assumed to hide an identity in fact i did not know what to think but i'll come to all that in its proper place i'm sure you are all anxious to hear the strange story i have to tell in the first place as it's easy to guess i wasn't killed at the battle of shiloh at all but so very seriously wounded that i came to be so reported as i lay on the field with scores of others after the battle a poor fellow near me who had been terribly hurt was moaning and tossing my own wound did not hamper me so much at the time so i crawled over to him and tried to make him as comfortable as possible till a surgeon should arrive presently he began to shiver so with some sort of a chill that i took off my coat and wrapped it around him the coat had some of my personal papers in it but i did not think of that at the time when the surgeons did arrive we were removed to different army hospitals and i never saw the man again but he probably died very soon after and evidently finding my name on him in the confusion it was reported that i was dead well when i saw the notice of my own death in the paper my first impulse was to deny it at once but my second thought was to let it pass after all i believed that i had broken forever with my home in the year that had elapsed i had never ceased to hope that the note i left would soften my mother's feelings toward me and that at least she would send me word that i was forgiven but the word had never come and hope was now quite dead perhaps it would be kinder to allow her to think i was no more having died in the cause i thought right the more i thought it over the more i became convinced that this was the wisest course therefore i let the report stand i was quite unknown where i was and i decided as soon as i was able to make my way out west and live out my life far from the scenes of so much unhappiness my wound disqualified me from further army service and gave me a great deal of trouble even after i was dismissed from the hospital nevertheless i worked my way to the far west partly on foot and partly in the slow stage coaches of that period...