"What!" exclaimed Mr. Lincoln, "didn't he tell you he was?"
"He said nothing at all, sir, except to tell me to travel until I found you."
"I call the Judge a friend of mine," said Mr. Lincoln. "He may not claim me because I do not believe in putting all slave-owners to the sword."
"I do not think that Judge Whipple is precisely an Abolitionist, sir."
"What! And how do you feel, Mr. Stephen?"
Stephen replied in figures. It was rare with him, and he must have caught it from Mr. Lincoln.
"I am not for ripping out the dam suddenly, sir, that would drown the nation. I believe that the water can be drained off in some other way."
Mr. Lincoln's direct answer to this was to give Stephen stinging slap between the shoulder-blades.
"God bless the boy!" he cried. "He has thought it out. Bob, take that down for the Press and Tribune as coming from a rising young politician of St. Louis."
"Why," Stephen blurted out, "I—I thought you were an Abolitionist, Mr.
Lincoln."