in the first
families.' Then I got talking about my visit to Washington. I told
him of meeting the Oregon Congressman, Harding; I told him about
the Smithsonian, and the Exploring Expedition; I told him about the
Capitol, and the statues for the pediment, and Crawford's Liberty,
and Greenough's Washington: Ingham, I told him everything I could
think of that would show the grandeur of his country and its
prosperity; but I could not make up my mouth to tell him a word
about this infernal Rebellion!

"And he drank it in, and enjoyed it as I cannot tell you. He grew
more and more silent, yet I never thought he was tired or faint. I
gave him a glass of water, but he just wet his lips, and told me
not to go away. Then he asked me to bring the Presbyterian 'Book of
Public Prayer,' which lay there, and said, with a smile, that it
would open at the right place,--and so it did. There was his double
red mark down the page; and I knelt down and read, and he repeated
with me, 'For ourselves and our country, O gracious God, we thank
Thee, that, notwithstanding our manifold transgressions of Thy holy
laws, Thou hast continued to us Thy marvellous kindness,'--and so
to the end of that thanksgiving. Then he turned to the end of the
same book, and I read the words more familiar to me: 'Most heartily
we beseech Thee with Thy favor to behold and bless Thy servant, the
President of the United States, and all others in authority,'--and
the rest of the Episcopal collect. 'Danforth,' said he, 'I have
repeated those prayers night and morning, it is now fifty-five
years.' And then he said he would go to sleep. He bent me down over
him and kissed me; and he said, 'Look in my Bible, Danforth, when I
am gone.' And I went away.

"But I had no thought it was the end. I thought he was tired and
would sleep. I knew he was happy and I wanted him to be alone.

"But in an hour, when the doctor went in gently, he found Nolan had
breathed his life away with a smile. He had something pressed close
to his lips. It was his father's badge of the Order of the
Cincinnati.

"We looked in his Bible, and there was a slip of paper at the place
where he had marked the text:--

"'They desire a country, even a heavenly: wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God: for he hat