There was to be a debate that evening, and Mr. Jones called the men to order, and each one mounted a barrel and lit his pipe--or all except Abraham and Waubeno, who did not smoke, but who stood near each other, almost side by side. "Abraham," said Thomas Lincoln, "you'll have to argue the p'int for the Indian well to-night, or--there he is!"--pointing to Waubeno--"he'll answer ye." The debate went slowly at first, then grew exciting. When Abraham Lincoln's turn came to speak, all the store grew still. The subject of the debate was, as Thomas Lincoln had said: "Which has the greater cause for complaint, the Indian or the negro?" Abraham Lincoln claimed the Indian was more wronged than the negro, and his homely face glowed as with a strange fire as he pictured the red man's wrongs. He towered above the men like a giant, and moved his arms as though they possessed some invisible power. Waubeno fixed his eyes on him, and felt the force and thrust of his every word. "If I were a negro," said Lincoln, "I would hope that some redeemer and deliverer would arise, like Moses of old. But if I were an Indian, what would I have to hope for, if I fell under the avarice of the white man? Let the past answer that." "Let the heavens answer that," said Waubeno, "or let their gates be ever closed." Thomas Lincoln started. "Waubeno, you have come from Black Hawk. He slays men, and we know him. An Indian killed my father." "An Indian killed your father--and what did you do?" "My brother Mordecai avenged his death, and caused many Indians to bite the dust." "White brother," said Waubeno, "a white man killed my father. What ought _I_ to do?" The men held their pipes in silence. "My father was an innocent man," said the pioneer. "My father was an honorable warrior," said Waubeno, "and defended his own rights--rights as dear to him as your father's, or yours, or mine. What ought _I_ to do?" He turned to young Lincoln. "What would _you_ do?" "I hold that in all things right is might, and I defend the right of an Indian as I would the rights of a white man, but I never would shed any man's blood for avarice or malice. Waubeno, I would defend you in a cause of right against the world. I would rather have the approval of Heaven than the praise of all mankind." "Brother," said Waubeno, "I believe that you speak true, but I do not know. If I only knew that you spoke true, I would not do as Mordecai did. I would forgive the white man." The candles smoked, and the men talked long into the night. At last Thomas Lincoln and Jasper and Waubeno went home, where Mrs. Lincoln was awaiting them. They expected Abraham to follow them. They sat up that night late, and talked about the prairie country, and the prospects of the emigrants to Illinois. "Now you had better go to rest," said Sarah Lincoln. "I will sit up until Abe comes. I do not see why he is so late to-night, when the Tunker is here, too, and the Indian boy."