"I am grateful to my friend from Mississippi for giving me an opportunity to explain that part of my military record which I apprehend has never been sufficiently clear. It is true. I was taken prisoner the first year of the war, and the enemy, well knowing the danger of my being at large, persistently refused to release me until peace was restored. Had I been promptly exchanged, _the result of that war might have been different!_ But why it was, that my friend from Mississippi was so repeatedly and promptly exchanged is a question that until yesterday I have never been able to understand. It has given me deep concern. I have pondered over it during the silent watches of the night. Yesterday, however, my mind was completely set at rest upon that question by reading the correspondence--to be found in Volume 748, page 421 of the 'Record of the War of the Rebellion'--between President Lincoln and President Davis relating to the exchange of Private John Allen of Company G, Fourteenth Mississippi Volunteers. The correspondence covers many pages of this valuable publication, but I will read only the closing communication." And while John with a new supply of terrapin before him was listening intently, Fellows carefully adjusting his eye-glasses and taking a letter from his pocket, continued: "The letter I will read from President Lincoln concluded the correspondence, and is as follows: _'Dear Jeff:_ With this I return you Private John Allen of Company G, Fourteenth Mississippi. I require no prisoner in exchange. The Lord's truth is, Jeff, _I had rather fight John than feed him!'"_ XXIV AN OLD-TIME COUNTRY DOCTOR THE WRITER AT HIS INN, THE TRAVELLER'S HOME--DOCTOR JOHN, ONE OF HIS EARLIEST ACQUAINTANCES--THE DOCTOR'S LIBERALITY IN ADMINISTERING MEDICINE--A DISAPPOINTMENT IN EARLY LIFE--THE DOCTOR'S IGNORANCE OF THE "SOLAR SYSTEM"--A DIFFICULTY WITH THE LANDLADY--A QUESTION OF ORTHOGRAPHY--THE DOCTOR AS A MEMBER OF A TOTAL-ABSTINENCE SOCIETY. Upon my admission to the bar in 1858, I located at Metamora, a village of five hundred inhabitants, about forty miles northwest of Bloomington. It was beautifully and _quietly_ situated, eight miles from the railroad, and was at the time the county-seat of Woodford County, one of the finest agricultural portions of Illinois.