On election day he was more affable than ever. He was at hand to lift up a drunken rowdy who had fallen over the pumpkin, and led him at once to the voting place, to poll his vote for himself and Breckinridge. But the pumpkin remained.
Later in the day, two rowdies, from the country, having imbibed too much of the electioneering beverage, got in a quarrel. One struck the other, and he fell by the pumpkin. A friend of the fallen man seized the pumpkin, and broke it into fragments over the other man's head, bringing him to the ground, of course. A general melee was averted only by the appearance of some good-natured candidate, who tried to restore peace, followed by a couple of constables, who at once arrested the malcontents.
In the afternoon Abner and Oleah went up to the polls. The two brothers had been silent during the forenoon, both seeming to avoid the political question which was agitating the Nation.
"Who are you going to vote for, Abner?" asked Mr. Diggs, strutting up to the young planter with a smile he thought becoming a District Attorney. "Is it Breckinridge, Douglas, or constitutional unionist Bell?"
"Who, then, is your man?" asked the inquisitive Mr. Diggs, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, and tipping first on his heels then on his toes, as he looked up, with an engaging smile, into the face of the man before him.
"I shall vote for Abraham Lincoln," Abner answered firmly.
"Pshaw! you are joking," said Mr. Diggs, his little eyes twinkling idiotically behind his glasses.
"Why, man, they'd hang you if you voted for Lincoln!"
His brother's words brought a sharp pain to Oleah's heart. He stopped suddenly, and laid a detaining hand on Abner's arm.
"Abner, you surely do not intend to vote for that Abolitionist?" he said, with a ring of defiance in his voice.
"For heaven's sake, think what you are about. Do you want to ruin the country?" Entreaty and distress was melting his indignation.
"No, I want to save it," was the calm reply.
"How can it be that you will vote for an abolitionist?"
"Because his principles and mine are the same," said Abner, earnestly.
The brothers were nearer a quarrel than they had ever been in their lives. Oleah's feelings were wounded, and he turned away, leaving his brother to go his way alone.
