On Memorial Day
Charley was the son of Amos Colley,a farmer and his wife,Sarah.When the Civil War broke out,Charley was among the first to join the Northern army.A year or so after he volunteered for the army he got badly wounded in a battle.Soon he died from the wounds in Virginia.
Amos and Sarah were told that their son's body would be shipped home for burial.One October day a rough pine coffin arrived.The box was opened.Sarah was the first to look inside.Her face grew pale and her hand flew to her mouth,for the body she gazed upon was the body of a stranger.He was a fair-haired boy,dressed in Confederate gray,the uniform of the enemy.
A search through his clothing gave them no further information.What to do? The attempt to return the stranger's body to Virginia seemed useless and somehow cruel.There was just one thing to do-to bury it.But where?Outside the town in some unknown spot? Sarah refused to do that.The stranger had been
loved by someone;he had given his life,as Charley had,for a cause he believed right.He should have a decent burial in the town's cemetery.And so it was done.
A week later a coffin containing Charley's body arrived.In his uniform of Union blue he was laid to rest only a few yards from where the stranger lay.
The war ended.Each year,on Memorial Day,the town's people put flowers and flags on the graves of their honored dead.They also honor the stranger,the Confederate soldier known only to God.
True (T) or False (F).
1.Charley was forced to join the army when the Civil War broke out.(F)
2.The soldier who killed Charley died in the war,and was sent back for burial by mistake.(F)
3.The stranger's body was buried in the town's cemetery.(T)
4.On Memorial Day,people in the town come to the town's cemetery in honor of the stranger.(F)