majestic eagle, with lightnings blazing from his beak and
his foot just clasping the whole globe, which his wings
overshadowed. The dear old boy saw my glance, and said, with
a sad smile, "Here, you see, I have a country!" And then he
pointed to the foot of his bed, where I had not seen before
a great map of the United States, as he had drawn it from
memory, and which he had there to look upon as he lay.
Quaint, queer old names were on it, in large letters:
"Indiana Territory," "Mississippi Territory," and "Louisiana
Territory." I suppose our fathers learned such things: but
the old fellow had patched in Texas, too; he had carried his
western boundary all the way to the Pacific, but on that
shore he had defined nothing.

"O Captain," he said, "I know I am dying. I cannot get home.
Surely you will tell me something now?--Stop! stop! Do not
speak till I say 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?"

Oh, 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