eman went to
Stanton with the message, but Stanton was unwilling to obey it. While
they were arguing the matter, the President entered the room. "_It is my
urgent wish_," said he. Stanton yielded, and the unfortunate Quakers
were given permission to return to their homes--none too soon to save
the life of Pringle, who records in his diary: "Upon my arrival in New
York I was seized with delirium, from which I only recovered after many
weeks, through the mercy and favor of Him who in all this trial had been
our guide and strength and comfort."

Anything that savored of the wit and humor of the soldiers was
especially relished by Lincoln. Any incident that showed that "the boys"
were mirthful and jolly amidst their privations seemed to commend itself
to him. There was a story of a soldier in the Army of the Potomac,
carried to the rear of battle with both legs shot off, who, seeing a
pie-woman hovering about, asked, "Say, old lady, are them pies _sewed_
or _pegged_?" And there was another one of a soldier at the battle of
Chancellorsville, whose regiment, waiting to be called into the fight,
was taking coffee. The hero of the story put to his lips a crockery mug
which he had carried, with infinite care, through several campaigns. A
stray bullet, just missing the coffee-drinker's head, dashed the mug
into fragments and left only its handle on his finger. Turning his head
in that direction, the soldier angrily growled, "Johnny, you can't do
that again!" Lincoln, relating these two stories together, said, "It
seems as if neither death nor danger could quench the grim humor of the
American soldier."

A juvenile "brigadier" from New York, with a small detachment of
cavalry, having imprudently gone within the rebel lines near Fairfax
Court House, was captured by "guerillas." Upon the fact being reported
to Lincoln, he said that he was very sorry to lose the horses. "What do
you mean?" inquired his informant. "Why," rejoined the President, "I can
make a 'brigadier' any day; but those horses cost the government a
hundred and twenty-five dollars a head!"

Lincoln was especially fond of a joke at the expense of some high
military or civil dignitary. He was intensely amused by a story told by
Secretary Stanton, of a trip made by him and General Foster up the
Broad river in North Carolina, in a tug-boat, when, reaching our
outposts on the river bank, a Federal picket yelled out, "Who have you
got on board that tug?" The severe and