what I am sure you know, that there is not in this ship,
that there is not in America,--God bless her!--a more loyal man
than I. There cannot be a man who loves the old flag as I do, or
prays for it as I do, or hopes for it as I do. There are
thirty-four stars in it now, Danforth. I thank God for that, though
I do not know what their names are. There has never been one taken
away: I thank God for that. I know by that that there has never
been any successful Burr. O Danforth, Danforth,' he sighed out,
'how like a wretched night's dream a boy's idea of personal fame or
of separate sovereignty seems, when one looks back on it after such
a life as mine! But tell me,--tell me something,--tell me
everything, Danforth, before I die!'

"Ingham, I swear to you that I felt like a monster that I had not
told him everything before. Danger or no danger, delicacy or no
delicacy, who was I, that I should have been acting the tyrant all
this time over this dear, sainted old man, who had years ago
expiated, in his whole manhood's life, the madness of a boy's
treason? 'Mr. Nolan,' said I, 'I will tell you everything you ask
about. Only, where shall I begin?'

"O the blessed smile that crept over his white face! and he
pressed my hand and said, 'God bless you!' 'Tell me their names,'
he said, and he pointed to the stars on the flag. 'The last I know
is Ohio. My father lived in Kentucky. But I have guessed Michigan
and Indiana and Mississippi,--that was where Fort Adams is,--they
make twenty. But where are your other fourteen? You have not cut up
any of the old ones, I hope?'

"Well, that was not a bad text, and I told him the names in as good
order as I could, and he bade me take down his beautiful map and
draw them in as I best could with my pencil. He was wild with
delight about Texas, told me how his brother died there; he had
marked a gold cross where he supposed his brother's grave was; and
he had guessed at Texas. Then he was delighted as he saw California
and Oregon;--that, he said, he had suspected partly, because he had
never been permitted to land on that shore, though the ships were
there so much. 'And the men,' said he, laughing, 'brought off a
good deal besides furs.' Then he went back--heavens, how far!--to
ask about the Chesapeake, and what was