"The life of the nation is at stake, madam," Stanton had growled at her. "We must keep the fighting ranks full. What is one boy's life to that of our country? It is unfortunate," the grim Secretary's tones grew softer at the sight of the mother's utter anguish, "it is unfortunate that the life happens to be that of your boy, but an example is needed and an example there shall be. I will do nothing. He dies at sunrise. Good-day." He rang the bell upon his desk. The sobbing mother was ushered out and the next person on the list was ushered in. An hour afterwards she was with Lincoln. There was no six days' wait at the White House for the mother of a Union soldier. When she fell to the floor in a faint, Tom sprang to help her, but the President was quicker than he. Lincoln's great arms lifted her like a child and laid her upon a sofa. He touched a bell and sent word to Mrs. Lincoln asking her to come to him. When she did so, she took charge of Mrs. Jenkins and speedily revived her. But it was the President, not his wife, who completed the cure and saved the weeping woman's reason from wreck and her life from long anguish. He pointed to the petition which had fallen from her nerveless fingers to the floor. "Hand me that paper, Tom." He put on his spectacles and started to read it. The glasses grew misty with the tears in his eyes. He wiped them with a red bandanna handkerchief, finished reading the paper, and wrote beneath it in bold letters: "This man is pardoned. A. Lincoln, Prest." Then he held the petition close to the sofa so that the first thing Mrs. Jenkins saw as she came back to consciousness in Mrs. Lincoln's arms was Jim Jenkins's pardon. It was that blessed news which made her herself again. She broke into a torrent of thanks, which Lincoln gently waved aside. "You see, ma'am," said the President, "I don't believe the way to keep the fighting ranks full is to shoot one of the fighters, 'cause he's been a bit careless. There's a Chinese proverb: 'Never drown a boy baby.' I guess that means that if a boy makes a mistake, it's better to give him a chance not to make another. You tell Jim from me to do better after this. Tom, you take Mrs. Jenkins over to the Secretary and show him that little line of mine. He won't like it very much. Usually he has his own way, but sometimes I have mine and this happens to be one of those times. Glad you came to see me, Mrs. Jenkins. There's lots of things you can do to an American boy that are better than shooting him. Here's a little note you can read later, ma'am. Hope it'll help you a bit. Good-by--and God bless you."