ll of gentleness.

"How could I consent to shoot a boy raised on a farm, in the habit of
going to bed at dark, for falling asleep at his post when required to
watch all night? I'll never go into eternity with the blood of such a boy
on my skirts."

Again the mother's heart rose.

"You remember the young man I pardoned for a similar offence in '62, about
which Stanton made such a fuss?" he went on in softly reminiscent tones.
"Well, here is that pardon."

He drew from the lining of his silk hat a photograph, around which was
wrapped an executive pardon. Through the lower end of it was a bullet-hole
stained with blood.

"I got this in Richmond. They found him dead on the field. He fell in the
front ranks with my photograph in his pocket next to his heart, this
pardon wrapped around it, and on the back of it in his boy's scrawl, '_God
bless Abraham Lincoln_.' I love to invest in bonds like that."

The secretary returned to his room, the girl who was waiting stepped
forward, and the President rose to receive her.

The mother's quick eye noted, with surprise, the simple dignity and
chivalry of manner with which he received this humble woman of the
people.

With straightforward eloquence the girl poured out her story, begging for
the pardon of her young brother who had been sentenced to death as a
deserter. He listened in silence.

How pathetic the deep melancholy of his sad face! Yes, she was sure, the
saddest face that God ever made in all the world! Her own stricken heart
for a moment went out to him in sympathy.

The President took off his spectacles, wiped his forehead with the large
red silk handkerchief he carried, and his eyes twinkled kindly down into
the good German face.

"You seem an honest, truthful, sweet girl," he said, "and"--he
smiled--"you don't wear hoop skirts! I may be whipped for this, but I'll
trust you and your brother, too. He shall be pardoned." Elsie rose to
introduce Mrs. Cameron, when a Congressman from Massachusetts suddenly
stepped before her and pressed for the pardon of a slave trader whose ship
had been confiscated. He had spent five years in prison, but could not pay
the heavy fine in money imposed.

The President had taken his seat again, and read the eloquent appeal for
mercy. He looked up over his spectacles, fixed his eyes piercingly on the
Congressman and said:

"This is a moving appeal, sir, expressed with great eloquence. I might
pardon a murderer under the spell of s