Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/195

Rh and his brothers were very glad to see their old friend, and gathered about him to hear how he had fared in the long period of silence and separation. He talked to them awhile with evident emotion, and then said, “Mr. Carter, I don’t understand this. I came North, expecting to find coldness and alienation, and you welcome me as warmly as you ever did.” “Oh,” said Mr. Carter, laughing, “of course we welcome the repentant prodigal.” “But I am not repentant. I am conquered, but not convinced.” “We receive you as a Christian brother, any way. The war is over, and we will all accept its conclusions, and talk over only the many things on which we meet on common ground, and not the few on which we disagree.” This clergyman had lost everything during the war; he was unable to preach, and was sorely embarrassed. The same day, a prominent and wealthy man of Chicago came into the store, and said, “I want to buy a library, and expect to spend twenty thousand dollars on it. I wish you would help me in the selection of the books.” Mr. Carter told him that he had not time to go into such a work, which should be done with great care, and would be a year’s work for some one, but said, “You know Dr.&horbar;, who has just come up from the South. He is just the man to do such a work, and I know that he greatly needs employment.” The position was offered, and gladly accepted by the clergyman, who gratefully thanked Mr. Carter, saying, “You certainly obey the injunction, ‘If thine enemy hunger, feed him.’&thinsp;” The idea of Mr. Carter regarding a political opponent as an enemy was preposterous in the last degree.

Another Southerner, who came up from the South at the close of the war and renewed old friendship with Mr. Carter, was Mr. McCarter, at whose house