o your regiment.

"'But I have been put to a good deal of trouble on your account.

"'I have had to come up here from Washington when I have got a great
deal to do; and what I want to know is, how are you going to pay my
bill?'

"There was a big lump in my throat; I could scarcely speak. I had
expected to die, you see, and had kind of got used to thinking that way.

"To have it all changed in a minute! But I got it crowded down, and
managed to say:

"'I am grateful, Mr. Lincoln! I hope I am as grateful as ever a man can
be to you for saving my life.

"'But it comes upon me sudden and unexpected like. I didn't lay out for
it at all; but there is some way to pay you, and I will find it after a
little.

"'There is the bounty in the savings bank; I guess we could borrow some
money on the mortgage of the farm.'

"'There was my pay was something, and if he would wait until pay-day
I was sure the boys would help; so I thought we could make it up if it
wasn't more than five or six hundred dollars.

"'But it is a great deal more than that,' he said.

"Then I said I didn't just see how, but I was sure I would find some
way--if I lived.

"Then Mr. Lincoln put his hands on my shoulders, and looked into my face
as if he was sorry, and said; "'My boy, my bill is a very large one.
Your friends cannot pay it, nor your bounty, nor the farm, nor all your
comrades!

"'There is only one man in all the world who can pay it, and his name is
William Scott!

"'If from this day William Scott does his duty, so that, if I was there
when he comes to die, he can look me in the face as he does now, and
say, I have kept my promise, and I have done my duty as a soldier, then
my debt will be paid.

"'Will you make that promise and try to keep it?"

The promise was given. Thenceforward there never was such a soldier as
William Scott.

This is the record of the end. It was after one of the awful battles of
the Peninsula. He was shot all to pieces. He said:

"Boys, I shall never see another battle. I supposed this would be my
last. I haven't much to say.

"You all know what you can tell them at home about me.

"I have tried to do the right thing! If any of you ever have the chance
I wish you would tell President Lincoln that I have never forgotten the
kind words he said to me at the Chain Bridge; that I have tried to be a
good soldier and true to the flag; that I should have paid my whole
debt to him if I had lived; and that now,