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pressed with many weighty and anxious thoughts. On the day when the news came of his triumph, a strange thing happened to him. Years after, when he had been nominated and elected a second time to the Presidency, he told this story to the writer of these pages:

"It was just after my election in 1860, when the news had been coming in thick and fast all day, and there had been a great 'Hurrah, boys!' so that I was well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau, with a swinging glass upon it "[and here he got up and placed furniture to illustrate the position]-"and, looking in that glass, I saw myself reflected, nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed, had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again I saw it a second time-plainer, if possible, than before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler, say five shades, than the other. I got up and the thing melted away, and I went off, and in the excitement of the hour forgot all about it-nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up, and give me a little pang, as though something uncomfortable had happened. Later in the day I told my wife about it, and a few days after I tried the experiment again, when [with a laugh], sure enough, the thing came again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was worried about it somewhat. She thought it was 'a sign' that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and that the

paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life through the last term."

With his usual good-sense, Lincoln studied this for a while and came to the conclusion that it was an optical illusion caused by a flaw in the mirror. Mrs. Lincoln thought it was "a warning," and that it signified that her husband would have to be twice President and would not live through his second term. As both of these persons talked with the writer about the matter, and this story was told in an article written by him in Harper's Magazine, in July, 1865, while Mrs. Lincoln was yet alive to see it, the facts are here set down as originally stated.

CHAPTER XVI.

AFTER THE ELECTION.

The President-Elect and the Office-Seekers-A Policy DemandedTreason in Buchanan's Cabinet-Organization of the Rebel Confederacy-Alarm in the North-The Star of the West Fired OnA Peace Congress in the Face of War.

T is difficult for anybody, at this distance of time, and when all things are at peace throughout the Republic, to realize how great was the burden placed upon Lincoln by his election to the Presidency. There were two great troubles-the office-seekers and the impending war. The first of these, of course, was the smaller, but it was none the less a grievous trial. For, in addition to the strain that it brought upon his patience, it interfered very seriously with his attempt to think over the greater and far more trying questions that must soon be settled. Lincoln was good-natured, patient, kind, desirous of doing whatever was asked of him, in reason. It was always irksome for him to refuse a favor, even when the petitioner was not altogether reasonable or deserving. He disliked to refer applicants to others, his subordinates. He never turned a deaf ear to any petitioner, however humble, however importunate. It was truly said of him that his patience was almost infinite. It is easy to see, therefore, how difficult it

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