There came into the presidential hearing a man of French accent from
New Orleans. He was evidently a diffident person, not knowing how
precisely to state his case. But the burden of it was that he was a
real-estate holder in New Orleans, and, since the advent of military
rulers there, he could not collect his rents, his living.
"Your case, my friend," said the President, "may be a hard one, but it
might be worse. If, with your musket, you had taken your chances with
the boys before Richmond, you might have found your bed and board
before now! But the point is, what would you have me do for you? I have
much to do, and the courts have been opened to relieve me in this
regard."
The applicant, still embarrassed, said: "I am not in the habit of
appearing before _big men_."
"And for that matter," it was quickly responded, "you have no need to
change your habit, for you are not before very big men now;" playfully
adding: "I am too busy to go into the rent-collection business."
* * * * *