e--Waubeno; the old
interpreter for General Cass's men. He'll go off and tell Waubeno. I
wonder if Main-Pogue knew who it was that saved him, and if he will tell
Waubeno that?"

"Lincoln did a noble act."

"Oh, elder, ye've got a good heart, but ye're weak in yer upper story.
That ain't all I've got to tell ye. Abe has failed, after all yer
prophecies, too. He and another man went to keepin' store up in New
Salem, and he let his partner cheat him, and they _failed_; and now he's
just workin' to pay up his debts, and his partner's too."

"And his partner's too? That shows that he saved an honest purpose out
of losses. The greatest of all losses is a loss of integrity of purpose.
I'm glad to hear that he has not lost that."

"Oh, elder, ye've allus somethin' good to say of that boy. But I'm not
agin him. He's Tom Linken's son, just as I told ye; and he'll never come
to anythin' good. He all runs to books and gabble, and goes 'round
repeatin' poetry, which is only the lies of crazy folks. I haven't any
use for poetry, except hymns. But he's had real trouble of late, besides
these things, and I'm sorry for that. He's lost the girl what he was
goin' to marry. She was a beautiful girl, and her death made him so
downhearted that they had to shut him up and watch him to keep him from
committin' suicide. They say that he has very melancholy spells. He
can't help that, I don't suppose. His mother what sleeps over yonder
under the timber was melancholy. How are all the schools that you set to
goin' on the Wabash?"

"They are all growing, good woman, and it fills my heart with delight to
see them grow. They are all growing like gardens for the good of this
great country. It does my heart good, and makes my soul happy, to start
these Christian schools. It's my mission. And I try to start them
right--character first, true views of things next, and books last; but
the teaching of young children to think and act right spiritually is the
highest education of all. This is best done by telling stories, and so I
travel and travel telling stories to schools. You do not see my plan,
but it is the true seed that I am planting, and it will bear fruit when
I am gone to a better world than this."

"Oh, ye mean well," said Aunt Olive, "but ye don't know more than some
whole families--pardon my plainness of speech. I don't doubt that ye are
doin' some good, after a fashion; but don't prophesy--yer prophecies in
regard to Abe have failed alr