"I have sometimes wished that my sons' minds were not quite so decidedly their own," said the planter with a sad smile and a doubtful shake of the head.
"Did you try to persuade Oleah to leave the Southern army?"
"No; he has conscientiously espoused the cause, and I would not have him do violence to his conscience. I talked to him mostly about you."
"About me?"
"Yes. I told him, as I now tell you, that if he had a principle which he thought right, he was right to maintain it; but while he fought in one army to remember always that he had a brother in the other, and, if by chance he should meet that brother in the struggle, to set brotherly love above party principle."
"What did he say?"
"He promised that he would, and now I have come for your promise also."
"I make it freely, father. It has always been my intention to meet Oleah as a brother whenever we meet."
"This is now a sundered Nation," said Mr. Tompkins, "and its division has divided many families. It may be that brothers' swords shall drink brothers' blood, but, oh Abner, let it not be your fate to be a fratricide."
Mr. Tompkins lingered until late in the day, when he entered his carriage, and was driven towards his home.