tively.

"Of course," the boy threw back impatiently. "Of course, it would be a
shame if it came to Nellie and me, for we couldn't ever make her take
it. We don't need it--I can look after Nellie and myself," he said
proudly, with a quick, tossing motion of his fair head that was like
the motion of a spirited, thoroughbred horse. They had arrived at the
prison. "I can get you through all right. They all know me here," he
spoke over his shoulder reassuringly to the President with a friendly
glance. Dashing down the corridors in front, he did not see the guards
salute the tall figure which followed him; too preoccupied to wonder
at the ease of their entrance, he flew along through the big building,
and behind him in large strides came his friend.

A young man--almost a boy, too--of twenty-three or twenty-four,
his handsome face a white shadow, lay propped against the pillows,
watching the door eagerly as they entered.

"Good boy, Warry," he greeted the little fellow; "you've got me a
lawyer," and the pale features lighted with a smile of such radiance
as seemed incongruous in this gruesome place. He held out his hand to
the man who swung toward him, looming mountainous behind his brother's
slight figure. "Thank you for coming," he said cordially, and in his
tone was the same air of a _grand seigneur_ as in the lad's.
Suddenly a spasm of pain caught him, his head fell into the pillows,
his muscles twisted, his arm about the neck of the kneeling boy
tightened convulsively. Yet while the agony still held him he
was smiling again with gay courage. "It nearly blew me away," he
whispered, his voice shaking, but his eyes bright with amusement.
"We'd better get to work before one of those little breezes carries
me too far. There's pen and ink on the table, Mr.--my brother did not
tell me your name."

"Your brother and I met informally," the other answered, setting
the materials in order for writing. "He charged into me like a young
steer," and the boy, out of his deep trouble, laughed delightedly. "My
name is Lincoln."

The young officer regarded him. "That's a good name from your
standpoint--you are, I take it, a Northerner?"

The deep eyes smiled whimsically. "I'm on that side of the fence. You
may call me a Yankee if you'd like."

"There's something about you, Mr. Lincoln," the young Georgian
answered gravely, with a kindly and unconscious condescension, "which
makes me wish to call you, if I may, a friend."

He had