Excerpt from A Knight of Columbia: A Story of the War Blue eyes had been speaking full five minutes, that other sound than that of his own voice had gradually ceased and people were looking and listening - not until then, either, had he permitted himself so much as a Single glance toward that certain proscenium box, but now one swift look flashed thither as he paused to let the first ripple of applause subside, and a radiant face, a beautiful face, fixed full upon him, met the sudden message from his eyes, and with interest returned it. Five minutes more and applause and Cheering followed fast on every paragraph - ten, and the dome was ringing with wild acclamation. In a thrill ing climax he had carried them to the wooded slopes of the Potomac where another flag, in the Same vivid hues of scarlet and white and blue, was fluttering along the South ern shore, and then in prophecy had pictured the future of that alien banner, of the sons of the South who bore it, of the men of the Union who were destined to overwhelm it, and closed his fifteen minutes address with a peroration burning with patriotism and courage and hope; and men and women, old and voung, his thousand odd of friends and hearers, seemed lifted off their feet with enthusiasm and delight. Whoever dreamed Rex Ingraham could make such a speech! Said Whiting, head of the class. Whoever began to know what he could do or could not do! Said Burnham, his inseparable chum and unneeded prompter. The manuscript of a now famous speech had fallen to the floor, forgotten, as at last Ingraham, with brimming eyes and trembling hands was permitted to with draw from the stage, to be again seized by Burnham and. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.