Again Lincoln laughed. Ann only smiled, but her face was bright with happiness.
"But of them all, Ann—of all the wonderful days or nights the time I heard you singin' on the bluff comes first."
"You have not forgotten that," she said softly.
"Forgotten? I shall never forget—neither in this world nor in the world to come, for that was the night my soul, though I did not know what was the matter with me at the time, began unfoldin' itself from the old life."
"Your soul," she repeated. "Abraham, we believe in souls, don't we?"
"Yes."
"And we believe that, though our bodies through the change called death, drop back into the pond, the new creature in another, better form lives on."
"Yes, Ann—we believe it."
She leaned against him, and breathed heavily for a moment, while he with puzzled, anxious face watched her.