hen you kinder rared back and throwed your right hand
straight up, thinks I, Henry Clay, Henry Clay!"

Whereupon the Squire was without unnecessary delay invited to take
another drink. This accomplished, the Squire still held the floor.

"Yes, Phil, yes, Phil, todes the last when you made that big swoop
with both arms and 'peared like you was gwyen right up to the
rafters, thinks I, Shore 'nough, Henry Clay come back from his
grave!"

As flesh and blood could not stand everything, the old Squire
was promptly invited to take another drink. Number three being
property placed to his credit, the Squire continued:

"Yes, Phil, you peared to me to be Henry Clay right over again
_with jist one leetle difference."_

At this Mr. Lee, curious to know what could be the _one_ possible little
difference, when there were so many points of resemblance between two
such orators as himself and Henry Clay, ventured to inquire. "I
think," said the Squire, "this, Phil,--_you peared to kinder lack his
ideas!"_

And now comes the tragic ending of a brilliant career. Lee, while
Commonwealth's attorney, was in the last stages of that dread
disease, consumption. A murder case was on trial in which he felt
a deep interest. The case was one of unusual atrocity, and the
accused--a man of some local prominence--had been exceedingly
defiant towards the wan and emaciated prosecuting attorney from
its beginning. With much difficulty Colonel Lee succeeded in
getting to the court-room in order to make the closing speech to
the jury. Utterly exhausted,--after depicting the horrible crime in
all its enormity and demanding the extreme penalty of the law upon
its perpetrator,--at its close, in tones that touched the hearts
of all who heard him, he exclaimed:

"Gentlemen of the jury, I have prosecuted the pleas of this
Commonwealth until the blood has dried up in my veins, and the
flesh has perished from my bones!"

These were his _last_ words--and his life went out that same night
just as the clock struck twelve. At the self-same hour the steps of
the jury were heard slowly ascending to the court-room which had
witnessed his last effort--their verdict, _"Guilty, the penalty,
death!"_

LI
THE "HOME-COMING" AT BLOOMINGTON

McLEAN COUNTY'S READINESS TO WELCOME HER CHILDREN--HONOR TO THE
EARLY SETTLERS--BEAUTY OF THE COUNTY--ITS PROGRESS--ITS ORGANIZATION
--PRAISE OF JOHN McLEAN--HIS CAREER IN CONGRESS, IN THE ILLINOIS
LEGISLATURE, AND