ABE (reading slowly, gravely)

"While the Union lasts, we have high prospects
spread out before us, for us and our children. Be-
yond that, I seek not to penetrate the veil. God
grant that in my day, at least, the curtain may
not rise."

MENTOR

Notice the use of verbs from here on.

ABE (reads)

"When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the
last time the sun in heaven, may I not see him
shining on the broken and dishonored fragments
of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered,
discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil
feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood!
Let their last feeble glance rather behold the glori-
ous ensign of the republic, now known and hon-
ored throughout the earth, not a single star of it
obscured, bearing for its motto no such miserable
interrogatory . . ." (He stumbles over the pro-
nunciation.)

MENTOR

Interrogatory.

ABE (continuing)

". . . interrogatory as 'What is all this worth?'
Nor, those other words of delusion and folly,
'Liberty first and Union afterwards'; but every-
where, spread all over in characters of living light,

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