On Memorial Day

　　一个儿子在美国内战中牺牲了，父母却先后迎来了两口棺材。这是怎么回事呢？

　　Charley was the son of Amos Colley, a farmer and his wife, Sarah.When the Civil War broke out，Charley was 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 fair­haired boy，dressed in confederate gray，the uniform of the enemy.

　　A search through his clothing gave them no further information.What to do? To 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 people put flowers and flags on the graves of their honored death.They also honor the stranger, the confederate soldier known only to God.

　　[阅读障碍词]

1．gaze v．　　　 凝视，看