of a hard day so gladly as I would lay down my
office. But I've got to be sure first that my successor will keep
faith with this nation. I've got to find a man who will keep the right
course."

"Which is?" Stanton asked.

"To fight it out to the very end. To the last drop of blood and the
last cent. There can be no going back. If I surrendered my post to any
successor, though he were an archangel from heaven, who would weaken on
that great purpose, I should deserve to be execrated as the betrayer of
my country."

Into Stanton's sour face there came a sudden gleam which made it almost
beautiful.

"Mr. President," he said, "I have often differed from you. I have used
great freedom in criticism of your acts, and I take leave to think that
I have been generally in the right. You know that I am no flatterer. But
I tell you, sir, from my inmost heart that you are the only man to lead
the people, because you are the only man whose courage never fails. God
knows how you manage it. I am of the bull-dog type and hold on because
I do not know how to let go. Most of my work I do in utter hopelessness.
But you, sir, you never come within a mile of despair. The blacker the
clouds get the more confident you are that there is sunlight behind
them. I carp and cavil at you, but I also take off my hat to you, for
you are by far the greatest of us."

Lincoln's face broke into a slow smile, which made the eyes seem
curiously child-like.

"I thank you, my old friend," he said. "I don't admit I have your
courage, for I haven't half of it. But if a man feels that he is only
a pipe for Omnipotence to sound through, he is not so apt to worry.
Besides, these last weeks God has been very good to me and I've been
given a kind of assurance. I know the country will grumble a bit about
my ways of doing things, but will follow me in the end. I know that we
shall win a clean victory. Jordan has been a hard road to travel, but
I feel that in spite of all our frailties we'll be dumped on the right
side of that stream. After that..."

"After that," said Stanton, with something like enthusiasm in his voice,
"you'll be the first President of a truly united America, with a power
and prestige the greatest since Washington."

Lincoln's gaze had left the other's face and was fixed on the blue dusk
now gathering in the window.

"I don't know about that," he said. "When the war's over, I think I'll
go home."

IV

Two years passed and once again it