against the servants being compelled to do special duty when their day's work was done. Tad insisted on his rights as an officer. The President laughed, and declined to interfere. But when the lad had lost his little authority in his boyish sleep, the Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of the United States went down and personally discharged the sentries his son had put on post. For one night, at least, the White House was left unguarded."

A HIT AT MCCLELLAN.

WHEN Grant first called on the President, in Washington, one of the first things that Mr. Lincoln said to him, was:

"Grant, have you ever read the book by Orpheus C. Kerr ?"

"Well, no; I never did," replied the general.
Mr. Lincoln said:

"You ought to read it; it is a very interesting book. I have had a good deal of satisfaction reading that book. There is one poem there that describes the meeting of the animals, the substance of it being that the animals. were holding a convention, and a dragon, or some dreadful thing, was near by and had to be conquered, and it was a question as to who should undertake the job. By and by a monkey stepped forward and proposed to do the work up. The monkey said he thought he could do it if he could get an inch or two more put on his tail. The assemblage voted him a few inches more to his tail, and he went out and tried his hand. He was unsuccessful, and returned, stating that he wanted a few more inches put on his tail. The request

was granted, and he went again. His second effort was a failure. He asked that more inches be put on his tail, and he would try a third time."

"At last," said General Grant, in repeating the story, "it got through my head what Lincoln was aiming at, as applying to my wanting more men, and finally I said: Mr. Lincoln, I don't want any more inches put on my

tail.'

The story, however, was a hit at McClellan.

A CHARACTERISTIC LETTER.

THE following letter is to be found in a private collection in Chicago:

"EXECUTIVE MANSION, October 17, 1861.

"MAJOR RAMSEY:

My Dear Sir,-The lady-bearer of this-says she has two sons who want to work. Set them at it, if possible. Wanting to work is so rare a merit that it should be encouraged. A. LINCOLN.”

LINCOLN'S SUNDAY-REST ORDER.

"EXECUTIVE MANSION,

"WASHINGTON, NOV. 15, 1862. }

"THE President, Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine Will, demand that Sunday labor in the army

and navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperiled, by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High. 'At this time of public distress,' adopting the words of Washington in 1776, men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country, without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality.' The first general order issued by the Father of his Country, after the Declaration of Independence, indicates the spirit in which our institutions were founded, and should ever be defended. The general hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.' A. LINCOLN."

LINCOLN AT THE WASHINGTON NAVY-YARD.

ONE afternoon in the summer of 1862, the President accompanied several gentlemen to the Washington Navyyard, to witness some experiments with a newly-invented gun. Subsequently the party went aboard one of the steamers lying at the wharf. A discussion was going on as to the merits of the invention, in the midst of which Mr. Lincoln caught sight of some axes hanging up outside of the cabin. Leaving the group, he quietly went forward, and taking one down, returned with it, and said:

"Gentlemen, you may talk about your Raphael repeaters' and 'eleven-inch Dahlgrens;' but here is an institution which I guess I understand better than either of you." With that he held the axe out at arm's length

by the end of the handle, or "helve," as the wood-cutters call it a feat not another person of the party could perform, though all made the attempt.

REVISING HIS CABINET.

MR. LINCOLN's Cabinet was chosen chiefly from his rivals for the Presidential nomination and from considerations largely political. The exigencies of the war demanded, in the opinion of many Republicans, including some leading United States senators, a reorganization of the Cabinet. After the retirement of General Cameron, the senators held a caucus and appointed a committee to wait on the President.

The committee represented that inasmuch as the Cabinet had not been chosen with reference to the war, and had more or less lost the confidence of the country, and since the President had decided to select a new War Minister, they thought the occasion was opportune to change the whole seven Cabinet ministers.

Mr. Lincoln listened with patient courtesy, and when the senators had concluded, he said:

"Gentlemen, your request for a change of the whole Cabinet, because I have made one change, reminds me of a story I once heard in Illinois, of a farmer who was much troubled by skunks. They annoyed his household at night, and his wife insisted that he should take measures to get rid of them. One moonlight night he loaded his old shotgun and stationed himself in the yard to watch for intruders, his wife remaining in the house anxiously awaiting the result. After some time she heard the shotgun go off, and in a few moments the

farmer entered the house. 'What luck had you?' said she. I hid myself behind the wood-pile,' said the old man, 'with the shotgun pointed toward the hen-roost, and before long there appeared, not one shunk, but seven. I took aim, blazed away, killed one, and he raised such a fearful smell that I concluded it was best to let the other six go."

With a hearty laugh the senators retired, and nothing more was heard of Cabinet reconstruction.

NO MERCY FOR MAN-STEALERS.

HON. JOHN B. ALLEY, of Lynn, Massachusetts, was made the bearer to the President of a petition for pardon, by a person confined in the Newburyport jail for being engaged in the slave-trade. He had been sentenced to five years' imprisonment, and the payment of a fine of one thousand dollars. The petition was accompanied by a letter to Mr. Alley, in which the prisoner acknowledged his guilt and the justice of his sentence. He was very penitent-at least, on paper-and had received the full measure of his punishment, so far as it related to the term of his imprisonment; but he was still held because he could not pay his fine. Mr. Alley read the letter to the President, who was much moved by its pathetic appeals; and when he had himself read the petition, he looked up, and said:

"My friend, that is a very touching appeal to our feelings. You know my weakness is to be, if possible, too easily moved by appeals for mercy, and, if this man were guilty of the foulest murder that the arm of man could perpetrate, I might forgive him on such an ap