ell you something, Madam, if you won't
tell anybody. It's a secret of my administration. I'm only too glad of an
excuse to save a life when I can. Every drop of blood shed in this war
North and South has been as if it were wrung out of my heart. A strange
fate decreed that the bloodiest war in human history should be fought
under my direction. And I--to whom the sight of blood is a sickening
horror--I have been compelled to look on in silent anguish because I could
not stop it! Now that the Union is saved, not another drop of blood shall
be spilled if I can prevent it."

"May God bless you!" the mother cried, as she received from him the
order.

She held his hand an instant as she took her leave, laughing and sobbing
in her great joy.

"I must tell you, Mr. President," she said, "how surprised and how pleased
I am to find you are a Southern man."

"Why, didn't you know that my parents were Virginians, and that I was born
in Kentucky?"

"Very few people in the South know it. I am ashamed to say I did not."

"Then, how did you know I am a Southerner?"

"By your looks, your manner of speech, your easy, kindly ways, your
tenderness and humour, your firmness in the right as you see it, and,
above all, the way you rose and bowed to a woman in an old, faded black
dress, whom you knew to be an enemy." "No, Madam, not an enemy now," he
said softly. "That word is out of date."

"If we had only known you in time----"

The President accompanied her to the door with a deference of manner that
showed he had been deeply touched.

"Take this letter to Mr. Stanton at once," he said. "Some folks complain
of my pardons, but it rests me after a hard day's work if I can save some
poor boy's life. I go to bed happy, thinking of the joy I have given to
those who love him."

As the last words were spoken, a peculiar dreaminess of expression stole
over his careworn face, as if a throng of gracious memories had lifted for
a moment the burden of his life.

CHAPTER III

THE MAN OF WAR

Elsie led Mrs. Cameron direct from the White House to the War Department.

"Well, Mrs. Cameron, what did you think of the President?" she asked.

"I hardly know," was the thoughtful answer. "He is the greatest man I ever
met. One feels this instinctively."

When Mrs. Cameron was ushered into the Secretary's Office, Mr. Stanton was
seated at his desk writing.

She handed the order of the President to a clerk, who gave it to the
Secreta