However, the other could not be
restrained from reciting it for his own satisfaction.
"It is good--a good piece of writing and a fine tribute," said Queed.
"However, I read a shorter and in some ways an even better one in
_Harper's Weekly_ the other day."
"_Harper's Weekly!_ Good Heavens! They'll find out that William Lloyd
Garrison was for us next. What'd it say?"
"It was in answer to some correspondents who called Lee a traitor. The
editor wrote five lines to say that, while it would be exceedingly
difficult ever to make 'traitor' a word of honorable distinction, it
would be done if people kept on applying it to Lee. In that case, he
said, we should have to find a new word to mean what traitor means now."
The young man thought this over until its full meaning sank into him. "I
don't know how you could say anything finer of a man," he remarked
presently, "than that applying a disgraceful epithet to him left him
entirely untouched, but changed the whole meaning of the epithet. By
George, that's pretty fine!"
"My only criticism on the character, or rather on the greatness, of
Lee," said Queed, introspectively, "is that, so far as I have ever read,
he never got angry.
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