utter the alleviating "Not guilty!" and the liberator was able to
fulfil his pledge.

It was not sunset, and the prisoner was free to comfort his mother.

In vain did she talk of paying a fee, and the man supported the desire
by alleging his intention to work the debt out. Lincoln said in the
old familiar tongue:

"Aunt Hannah, I sha'n't charge you a _red_--I said 'without money
or price!' And anything I can do for you and yours shall not cost you
a cent."

Soon after, as she wrote to him of an attempt to deprive her of her
land, he bade her force a case into the court; if adverse there,
appeal to the Supreme Court, where his law firm would act, and he
would fight it out.

(Regarding the rescued man, he enlisted in the war at the first call.
He was still in the ranks two years later, when his mother, in her
loneliness, begged for him of the President-commander-in-chief, for
his release to come home. His leave was immediately written out by
Lincoln's own hand, and the soldier went home from Kentucky. He
remained a valuable citizen. It was Lincoln's speech and the moonbeam
of inspiration that saved him.)


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