"Three years after that my mother fell ill, and I heard of it and came
back in disguise, and was arrested as a suspicious character as I
entered the town. I didn't blame them, for I looked like a tramp and
intended to. The next day I was let out and went home to where my mother
and father were living. As I was opening the garden-gate--it was
night--Aleck laid his hand on my shoulder. He had on the uniform of a
United States soldier. I couldn't believe my eyes at first. I had lost
track of him, and, as I found out afterward, so had my father. We stood
under the street-lamp and he saw the look in my face and threw his hands
up over his head as a negro does when some sudden shock comes to him.
"'Don't turn away f'om me, Sammy,' he cried; 'please don't, Sammy.
'Tain't my fault I got on dese clo'es, 'deed it ain't. Dey done fo'ced
me. I heared you was here an' I been tryin' to git to ye all day. Oh, I
so glad to git hold ob ye, Sammy, so glad, so glad.' He broke out into
sobs of crying.
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