The soldier hearing this double clatter of hoofs became bewildered, and stood still in the midroad, or, if anything, inclined toward the thundering danger. The cavalry chargers, trained to avoid hurting men--for a rider might be thrown--eluded contact, and the coachman neatly pulled aside. In the next moment, in a cloud of dust, the President, leaning out of the window, to ascertain the cause of the abrupt stop, saw the poor young soldier by his side. Lincoln threw out a hand to seize him by the arm, and reassure him of safety by the vibrating clutch. Then, perceiving the nature of the affair, he asked in a voice trembling with emotion about the man's regiment and disablement. The man was from the Northwest--Michigan. Lumbermen--and they are of the woods woody out there--and Lincoln believed in "the ax as the enlarger of our borders"--are brotherly. The next day the soldier was commissioned lieutenant with perpetual leave, but full pay.--(By the veteran reservist, H. W. Knight, of the escort.) * * * * * LITTLE DAVID AND THE STONE FOR GOLIATH. In the spring, 1862, spies and foreign officers who had seen the rebel ram _Merrimac_ being built at Norfolk, reported her as formidable. The United States _Galena_, our first ironclad, was a failure. There was no vessel of the kind to deal with the monster save Ericsson's floating battery, ready for sea in March, called the _Monitor_, as a warning to Great Britain, expected to interfere on behalf of the South and raise the blockade over the cotton ports. This craft with a revolving turret was just as much of a new idea as its prototype. On March 8, the _Merrimac_ came out of Norfolk and ran down the _Cumberland_ sloop of war; blew the _Congress_ to splinters, and compelled her being blown up to save her from the enemy; the _Minnesota_ was run aground to prevent being rammed. The victor returned to her dock to make ready for a fresh onslaught. The effect was profound; it seemed no exaggeration to suppose that the irresistible conqueror would pass through the United States fleet at Hampton Roads and, speeding along the coast, reduce New York to the most onerous terms or to ashes. On Sunday, the ninth, the _Monitor_ arrived after a sea passage, showing she rode too low for ocean navigation. Though in no fit state for battle, no time was allowed her, as the _Merrimac_ ran out to exult over the ruins of the encounter. The _Monitor_ threw herself in her way, bore her broadside without injury, and her shock with impunity, but on the other hand hurled her extremely heavy ball in, under her water-line. The ram backed out, and, wheeling and putting on full steam, returned to her haven. She was, it appears, too low to cross the bar to go up to Richmond, and was not ocean-going; she was blown up when Yorktown was evacuated by the Confederates in May, 1862.