Old Abe was General Benjamin Lincoln's son. He
said he met old General Lincoln, when he was quite a boy himself, at
some Indian treaty. I said no, that Old Abe was a Kentuckian like
himself, but I could not tell him of what family; he had worked up from
the ranks. 'Good for him!' cried Nolan; 'I am glad of that. As I have
brooded and wondered, I have thought our danger was in keeping up those
regular successions in the first families.' Then I got talking about my
visit to Washington. I told him of meeting the Oregon Congressman,
Harding; I told him about the Smithsonian and the Exploring Expedition;
I told him about the Capitol,--and the statues for the pediment,--and
Crawford's Liberty,--and Greenough's Washington: Ingham, I told him
everything I could think of that would show the grandeur of his country
and its prosperity; but I could not make up my mouth to tell him a word
about this infernal Rebellion!

"And he drank it in, and enjoyed it as I cannot tell you. He grew more
and more silent, yet I never thought he was tired or faint. I gave him a
glass of water, but he just wet his lips, and told me not to go away.
Then he asked me to bring the Presbyterian 'Book of Public Prayer,'
which lay there, and said, with a smile, that it would open at the
right, place,--and so it did. There was his double red mark down the
page; and I knelt down and read, and he repeated with me,--'For
ourselves and our country, O gracious God, we thank Thee, that,
notwithstanding our manifold transgressions of Thy holy laws, Thou hast
continued to us Thy marvellous kindness,'--and so to the end of that
thanksgiving. Then he turned to the end of the same book, and I read the
words more familiar to me,--'Most heartily we beseech Thee with Thy
favor to behold and bless Thy servant, the President of the United
States, and all others in authority,'--and the rest of the Episcopal
collect. 'Danforth,' said he, 'I have repeated those prayers night and
morning, it is now fifty-five years.' And then he said he would go to
sleep. He bent me down over him and kissed me; and he said, 'Look in my
Bible, Danforth, when I am gone.' And I went away.

"But I had no thought it was the end. I thought he was tired and would
sleep. I knew he was happy, and I wanted him to be alone.

"But in an hour, when the doctor went in gently, he found Nolan had
breathed his life away with a smile. He had something pressed close to
his lips. It was his father's badge of th