"Not yet, not yet, but there's no telling. I've been across the ocean,
though, and that's pretty far. I went once in a ship that ran through
the blockade and brought in a cargo of Bibles."

"What did you want with so many Bibles? We've got one. It has gilt
clasps."

"Want with the Bibles! Why, every one of these Bibles, my boy, may have
saved a soul."

"Has our Bible saved a soul? An' whose soul was it? It stays on our
centre table, an' my name's in it. I've seen it."

"Indeed! and what may your name be?"

"Ben Starr. That's my name. What is yours? Is yo' name in the Bible?
Does everybody's name have to be in the Bible if they're to be saved?
Who put them in there? Was it God or the angels? If I blot my name out
can I still go to heaven? An' if yours isn't in there will you have to
be damned? Have you ever been damned an' what does it feel like?"

"Shut up, Benjy, or ma'll wallop you," growled President, squeezing my
hand so hard that I cried aloud.

"Ah, he's a fine boy, a promising boy, a remarkable boy," observed the
gentleman, with one finger in his waistcoat pocket. "Wouldn't you like
to grow up and be President, my enquiring young friend?"

"No, sir, I'd rather be God," I replied, shaking my head.

All the gentleman's merry grey eyes seemed to run to sparkles.

"Ah, there's nothing, after all, like the true American spirit," he
said, patting my shoulder. Then he laughed so heartily that his
gold-rimmed eye-glasses fell from his eyes and dangled in the air at the
end of a silk cord. "I'm afraid your aspiration is too lofty for my
help," he said, "but if you should happen to grow less ambitious as you
grow older, then remember, please, that my name is General Bolingbroke."

"Why, you're the president of the Great South Midland and Atlantic
Railroad, sir!" exclaimed President, admiring and embarrassed.

The General sighed, though even I could see that this simple tribute to
his fame had not left him unmoved. "Ten years ago I was the man who
tried to save Johnston's army, and to-day I am only a railroad
president," he answered, half to himself; "times change and fames change
almost as quickly. When all is said, however, there may be more lasting
honour in building a country's trade than in winning a battle. I'll have
a tombstone some day and I want written on it, 'He brought help to the
sick land and made the cotton flower to bloom anew.' My name is General
Bolingbroke," he added, with his genial and ch