Page:Six Months at the White House.djvu/41

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34
SIX MONTHS AT THE WHITE HOUSE.

who did not hesitate to call traitors and treason their right names. When the clock struck twelve, Mr. Lincoln drew back from the table, and with a stretch of his long arms, remarked, "I guess we will go no farther with these cases to-day; I am a little tired, and the Cabinet will be coming in soon." "I believe, by the by," he added, "that I have not yet had my breakfast,—this business has been so absorbing that it has crowded everything else out of my mind."

And so ended the work of one morning; simple in its detail, but pregnant with hope and joy, darkness and death, to many human beings.


XII.

As the different members of the Cabinet came in, the President introduced me, adding in several instances,—"He has an idea of painting a picture of us all together." This, of course, started conversation on the topic of art. Presently a reference was made by some one to Jones, the sculptor, whose bust of Mr. Lincoln was in the crimson parlor below. The President, I think, was writing at this instant. Looking up, he said, "Jones tells a good story of General Scott, of whom he once made a bust. Having a fine subject to start with, he succeeded in giving great satisfaction. At the closing sitting he attempted to define and elab-