e is one very strong point about Abraham," said Jasper. "He has a
keen sense of what is right, and he is always governed by it. He has
faith that right is might. Didn't you ever notice it?"

"Yes, I'll do him justice. I never knew him to do a thing that he
thought wrong--never. He couldn't. He takes after his mother's folks,
and they say that there is Quaker blood in the Linkens."

"But, my good woman, a fool would be wise if he always did right,
wouldn't he? There is no higher wisdom than to always do right. And a
boy that has a heart to feel for every one, and a conscience that is
true to a sense of right, and that loves learning more than anything
else, and studies continually, is likely to find a place in the world.

"Now, I am going to prophesy. This country is going to need men to lead
them, and Abraham Lincoln will one day become a leader among men. He
leads now. His heart leads; his mind leads. I can see it. The world here
is going to need men of knowledge, and it will select the man of the
most learning who has the most heart, the most sympathy with the people.
It will select him. I have a spiritual eye, and I can see."

"A leader of the people--Abe Lincoln! You have said it now. I would as
soon think of Johnnie Kongapod! A leader of the people! Are you daft?
When the prairies leap into corn-fields and the settlements into banks
of gold, and men can travel a mile a minute, and clodhoppers become
merchants and Congressers, and as rich as Spanish grandees, then Abraham
Lincoln may become a leader of the people, but not till then! No, elder,
you are no Samuel, that has come down here among the sons of Jesse to
find a shepherd-boy for a king. You ain't no Samuel, and he ain't no
shepherd-boy. He all runs to books and legs, and I tell you he ain't got
no calculation. Now, I've prophesied and you've prophesied."

"Time tells the truth about all things," said Jasper. "We shall meet, if
I make my circuits, and we will talk of our prophecies in other years,
should Providence permit. My soul has set its mark on that boy: wait,
and we will see if the voice within me speaks true. It has always spoken
true until now."

At the close of this prophetic dialogue the subject of it appeared at
the door. He was a tall boy, with a dark face, homely, ungainly,
awkward. He wore a raccoon-skin cap, a linsey-woolsey shirt, and leather
breeches, and was barefooted, although the weather was yet cool. He did
not look like one who wou