Ramsey Milholland

Name: Ramsey Milholland
Author: Booth Tarkington

by Booth Tarkington

Pages: about 147
Category: Literature & Fiction
Language: English
Reading time: 2.7 h at 250 wpm

Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 1.5 h at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

When Johnnie comes marching home again, Hurrah! Hurrah! We'll give him a hearty welcome then, Hurrah! Hurrah! The men with the cheers, the boys with shouts, The ladies they will all turn out, And we'll all feel gay, when Johnnie comes marching home again!
The old man and the little boy, his grandson, sat together in the shade of the big walnut tree in the front yard, watching the “Decoration Day Parade,” as it passed up the long street; and when the last of the veterans was out of sight the grandfather murmured the words of the tune that came drifting back from the now distant band at the head of the procession.
“Yes, we'll all feel gay when Johnnie comes marching home again,” he finished, with a musing chuckle.
“It didn't get home all at once, precisely,” the grandfather explained. “When the war was over I suppose we felt relieved, more than anything else.”
“You didn't feel so gay when the war was, though, I guess!” the boy ventured.
“Were you scared, Grandpa? Were you ever scared the Rebels would win?”
“Well, weren't you ever scared yourself, Grandpa? I mean when you were in a battle.”
“I don't see why,” the boy said promptly. “I wouldn't be scared in a battle.”
“'Course not! Grandpa, why don't you march in the Decoration Day Parade? Wouldn't they let you?”
“I'm not able to march any more. Too short of breath and too shaky in the legs and too blind.”
“I wouldn't care,” said the boy. “I'd be in the parade anyway, if I was you. They had some sittin' in carriages, 'way at the tail end; but I wouldn't like that. If I'd been in your place, Grandpa, and they'd let me be in that parade, I'd been right up by the band. Look, Grandpa! Watch me, Grandpa! This is the way I'd be, Grandpa.”

A short sample. Read the whole book

Ramsey Milholland

From the opening

More to read