"Oh, the blessed smile that crept over his white face! and he pressed my
hand and said, 'God bless you! 'Tell me their names,' he said, and he
pointed to the stars on the flag. 'The last I know is Ohio. My father
lived in Kentucky. But I have guessed Michigan and Indiana and
Mississippi,--that was where Fort Adams is,--they make twenty. But where
are your other fourteen? You have not cut up any of the old ones, I
hope?'

"Well, that was not a bad text, and I told him the names in as good
order as I could, and he bade me take down his beautiful map and draw
them in as I best could with my pencil. He was wild with delight about
Texas, told me how his cousin died there; he had marked a gold cross
near where he supposed his grave was; and he had guessed at Texas. Then
he was delighted as he saw California and Oregon;--that, he said, he had
suspected partly, because he had never been permitted to land on that
shore, though the ships were there so much. 'And the men,' said he,
laughing, 'brought off a good deal besides furs.' Then he went back
--heavens, how far!--to ask about the Chesapeake, and what was done to
Barron for surrendering her to the Leopard, [Note 11] and whether Burr
ever tried again,--and he ground his teeth with the only passion he
showed. But in a moment that was over, and he said, 'God forgive me, for
I am sure I forgive him.' Then he asked about the old war,--told me the
true story of his serving the gun the day we took the Java,--asked about
dear old David Porter, as he called him. Then he settled down more
quietly, and very happily, to hear me tell in an hour the history of
fifty years.

"How I wished it had been somebody who knew something! But I did as well
as I could. I told him of the English war. I told him about Fulton and
the steamboat beginning. I told him about old Scott, and Jackson; told