see, as many
of the defeated Southerners saw clearly, that with the war once ended
Lincoln, with his infinite tolerance and patience, was the best friend
that the South could possibly have.

Booth forced an entrance into the box where the President was seated
and walking up to him shot him in the head with a pistol. He then
vaulted over the rail and with the shout of "sic semper tyrannis" ran
from the stage in spite of the fact that he had broken his leg in his
fall from the box, and succeeded in escaping from the theater. The
unconscious President was tenderly lifted and carried across the street
to a house that was opposite the theater. Here at seven o'clock on the
following morning he passed away.

That Lincoln was one of the greatest men of all time and belongs to
eternity, was realized then, but is still more deeply realized now. His
wonderful name has become a household word, not only in the United
States but everywhere. And as the mist of the confusing events that
surrounded him is clearing away in the light of history, his form is
becoming mightier and more venerable every day.

CHAPTER XXIV

GRACE DARLING

The coast of Northumberland in England is rocky and severe with lofty
flint-ledged cliffs where great waves thunder, hurling the white foam
high into the air. It is a coast that is feared by vessels and many
wrecks have taken place there. As is usual in such a locality it is the
home of brave fishermen and daring boatmen who have many thrilling
rescues to remember and many stormy encounters with the utmost fury of
the sea. But of all the tales of daring that are talked of by the
fisher folk, the bravest of all was performed by a girl whose name was
Grace Darling,--a name that now is known not only in the places where
she lived but all over the world.

Grace Horsley Darling was the daughter of a lighthouse keeper named
William Darling, who tended a light on one of the Farne Islands as his
father had done before him. Grace, who was the seventh of nine
children, was born in 1815, in Bamborough, and when she was a little
girl of eleven years her father was given charge of the new light on
Longstone Rock, which was one of a series of dangerous reefs where no
vessel ever built could live when a gale was blowing.

The highest part of Longstone Rock was only four feet above the surface
of the sea, and near at hand were twenty-three other reefs or islands,
between which the ocean tides ran in curious