Stand By The Union | Page 7

him since."
After breakfast Christy packed his valise, where he placed the new
uniform in which he intended to present himself on the quarter-deck of
the Bronx. The carriage was at the door to convey him to the railroad
station. The parting was not less tender than it had been on former
similar occasions, and Mrs. Passford preferred that it should be in the
house rather than at the railroad station, in the presence of curious
observers. Many tears were shed after the carriage drove off, for the
patriotic young man might find a grave in southern soil, or beneath
southern waters.
The young lieutenant choked down his emotions, and tried to think of

the future; his case was not different from that of hundreds of
thousands of others who had gone forth to fight the battles of their
country, many thousands of whom slumber in hallowed graves far
away from home and friends. As the train moved on towards the great
city, he obtained the command of his emotions, and felt a new
inspiration of patriotic ardor.
On his arrival in New York he hastened across the ferry to the
navy-yard. As he approached the opposite shore, he discovered a
steamer getting under way. He had not seen the vessel on board of
which he was ordered to report as a passenger, but when he asked a
deck hand what the steamer was, he was informed that it was the
Vernon. The ferry-boat had just gone into the slip, and Christy was
terribly startled to learn that he was late. He was still two hours ahead
of the time indicated in his orders, and the Vernon was actually getting
under way.
The young officer was more excited than he had ever been in the face
of the enemy, for the present looked like a case in which his honor was
at stake. He felt that it would be his ruin if the Vernon sailed without
him. There had been some mistake in his orders, or in those of the
commander of the store ship, and he was likely to be the sufferer for it.
He rushed to the stern end of the ferry-boat in order to obtain a better
view of the steamer; and at this moment he discovered a boat, pulled by
one man, headed towards the navy-yard.
"Boat, ahoy!" shouted Christy, with almost frantic earnestness.
"On board the ferry-boat!" replied the man, resting on his oars.
"Five dollars if you will put me on board of that steamer before she gets
off!" added the officer.
"I'm the one for your money," returned the oarsman, as he headed his
boat into the slip.
Without much difficulty Christy dropped his valise into the boat, and
then dropped himself in after it. The belated passenger cast an earnest

look at the Vernon, which had just begun to move, though at a snail's
pace, and he hoped he should be able to get on board of her.
"Naval officer, sir?" interrogated the boatman.
"Yes; but I have no time to spare, and you must not stop to talk,"
replied Christy rather sharply.
"Time enough, sir, if you are going on board of the Vernon, and I will
give you one of my oars if I don't put you on her deck," said the
boatman very positively. "I hope you are nimble with your feet and
hands, sir."
"I will take care of that part of the matter if you will put me alongside
the steamer," answered Christy. "No more talk, if you please, for you
are wasting your wind."
"I have plenty of it for this job. You said five dollars, I believe, sir,"
added the man, looking earnestly at his passenger.
"Five dollars is just what I said," replied the lieutenant, as he took a bill
of that denomination from his porte-monnaie, rolled it around the
boat-hook, and fixed it so that it should not blow away.
"Thank you, sir," said the rower, as he pulled with more vigor even
than before, and did not say another word till the boat was alongside
the Vernon.
Christy found a rope hanging over the side, to which the boatman
attached his valise, the young officer going up the line hand over hand
as though he was used to that sort of thing. The oarsman secured his
five-dollar bill, and Christy hauled up his valise. He felt that he had
saved himself from the dishonor of failing to obey his orders, and he
looked about him for some one who would be able to explain to him
how the steamer happened to be sailing two hours before the time
named in his orders. Three or four sailors were at work in the waist,
where the lieutenant came on board; and Christy was not a little