"Come," said Mr. Lincoln, "wait a bit and I'll tell you a story;" and then he told the old man General Fisk's story about the swearing driver, as follows:

The general had begun his military life as a colonel, and when he raised his regiment in Missouri he proposed to his men that he should do all the swearing of the regiment. They assented; and for months no instance was known of the violation of the promise.

The colonel had a teamster named John Todd, who, as roads were not always the best, had some difficulty in commanding his temper and his tongue.

John happened to be driving a mule team through a series of mudholes a little worse than usual, when, unable to restrain himself any longer, he burst forth into a volley of energetic oaths.

The colonel took notice of the offense and brought John to account. "John," said he, "didn't you promise to let me do all the swearing of the regiment?"

"Yes, I did, colonel," he replied, "but the fact was, the swearing had to be done then or not at all, and you weren't there to do it."

As he told the story the old man forgot his boy, and both the President and his listener had a hearty laugh together at its conclusion.

Then he wrote a few words which the old man read, and in which he found new occasion for tears; but the tears were tears of joy, for the words saved the life of his son.

LINCOLN NOT GOOD AT IMPROMPTU.

"Lincoln was not a successful impromptu speaker," once remarked Governor Fenton, of New York.

"He required a little time for thought and arrangement of the thing to be said. I give an instance in point:

"After my election to the governorship of New York, just before I resigned my seat in Congress to enter upon my official duties as governor at Albany, New Yorkers and others in Washington thought to honor me with a serenade. I was the guest of ex-Mayor Bowen.

"After the music and speaking usual upon such occasions, it was proposed to call on the President. I accompanied the committee in charge of the proceedings, followed by bands and a thousand people.

"It was full nine o'clock when we reached the mansion. The President

was taken by surprise, and said he 'didn't know just what he could say to satisfy the crowd and himself.'

"Going from the library-room down the stairs to the portico front, he asked me to say a few words first, and give him, if I could, ‘a peg to hang on.' "It was just when General Sherman was en route from Atlanta to the sea, and we had no definite news as to his safety or whereabouts.

"After one or two sentences, rather commonplace, the President farther said he had no war news other than was known to all, and he supposed his ignorance in regard to General Sherman was the ignorance of all; that 'we all knew where Sherman went in, but none of us knew where he would come out.'

"This last remark was in the peculiarly quaint, happy manner of Mr. Lincoln, and created great applause.

"He immediately withdrew, saying he 'had raised a good laugh, and it was a good time for him to quit.'

"In all he did not speak more than two minutes, and, as he afterward told me, because he had no time to think of much to say."

LINCOLN IN ANOTHER LAW CASE.

Another case was that of a poor woman, nearly eighty years old, who came with a pitiful story. Her husband had been a soldier in the Revolutionary War under Washington.

He was dead, and she was entitled to a pension amounting to $400. A rascally fellow, pretending great friendship for her, had obtained the money, but had put half of it into his own pocket.

The poor woman was the only witness. The jury heard her story. Abraham Lincoln the while was making the following notes on a slip of

paper:

"No contract.

"Not professional services.

"Unreasonable charges.

"Money retained by defendant not given plaintiff.

"Revolutionary War.

"Describe Valley Forge.

"Ice. Soldiers' bleeding feet.

"Husband leaving home for the army.

"Skin defendant.

He rises and turns to the judge. Of the lawyers sitting around the table perhaps not one of them can say just what there is about him which hushes the room in an instant.

"May it please your honor" (the words are spoken slowly, as if he were not quite ready to go on with what he had to say); "gentlemen of the jury, this is a very simple case, so simple that a child can understand it.

"You have heard that there has been no contract-no agreement by the parties.

"You will observe that there has been no professional service by contract."

Slowly, clearly, one by one the points were taken up. Who was the man to whom the government of the United States owed the money? He had been with Washington at Valley Forge, barefooted in midwinter, marching with bleeding feet, with only rags to protect him from the cold, starving for his country.

The speaker's lips were tremulous, and his eyes filled with tears as he told how the soldiers of the Revolution marched amid the snows, shivered in the wintry winds, starved, fought, died, that those who came after them. might have a country.

Judge, jurymen, lawyers and the people who listen, wipe the tears from their eyes as he tells the story of the soldier parting from friends, from the wife, then in the bloom and beauty of youth, but now friendless and alone, old and poor. The man who professed to be her friend had robbed her of what was her due. His spirit is greatly stirred. The jury should right the wrong and compel the fellow to hand over the money.

And then the people see the lawyer who has won the case tenderly accompanying the grateful woman to the railroad station.

He pays her bill at the hotel, her fare on the cars, and charges nothing for what he has done!

LINCOLN NEVER HARBORED RESENTMENT.

Senator Morgan, of Alabama, a Confederate general, pays this tribute to Lincoln:

"The character of Abraham Lincoln is not yet known to this generation. as it will be to those who shall live in later centuries.

"They will see, as we cannot yet perceive, the full maturity of his wisdom in its actual effects upon the destinies of two great races of men.

"Probably he had an inadequate conception of his own work.

"Had he lived to full age his guidance of the emancipation, that he decreed under military law, would have saved both races from many of the rough experiences that it has produced, and will yet cause, by the effort to fuse the races into political harmony, against the mutual instinct that will keep them forever separated by race and social antagonisms.

"The character of Mr. Lincoln was clearly displayed in his conduct of the war, but he was deprived of the opportunity for its full development in a period of peace and security.

"His most conspicuous virtue, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, was the absence of a spirit of resentment, or oppression, toward the enemy, and the self-imposed restraint under which he exercised the really absolute powers within his grasp.

"For this all his countrymen revere his memory, rejoice in the excellence of his fame, and those who failed in the great struggle hold him in grateful esteem."

ANDREW JOHNSON WAS SOMEWHAT DOUBTFUL.

Colonel Granville Moody, "the fighting Methodist parson," as he was called in Tennessee, while attending a conference in Philadelphia, met the President and related to him the following story, given as repeated by Mr. Lincoln to a friend.

"He told me," said Lincoln, "this story of Andy Johnson and General Buel, which interested me intensely:

"The colonel happened to be in Nashville the day it was reported that Buel had decided to evacuate the city. The rebels, strongly reinforced, were said to be within two days' march of the capital. Of course, the city was greatly excited. Moody said he went in search of Johnson at the edge of the evening and found him at his office closeted with two gentlemen, who were walking the floor with him, one on each side. As he entered they retired, leaving him alone with Johnson, who came up to him, manifesting intense feeling, and said:

"Moody, we are sold out. Buel is a traitor. He is going to evacuate the city, and in forty-eight hours we will all be in the hands of the rebels!'

"Then he commenced pacing the floor again, twisting his hands and chafing like a caged tiger, utterly insensible to his friend's entreaties to become calm. Suddenly he turned and said:

"Moody, can you pray?'

""That is my business, sir, as a minister of the gospel,' returned the colonel.

"Well, Moody, I wish you would pray,' said Johnson, and instantly both went down upon their knees at opposite sides of the room.

"As the prayer waxed fervent, Johnson began to respond in true Methodist style. Presently he crawled over on his hands and knees to Moody's side and put his arms over him, manifesting the deepest emotion.

"Closing the prayer with a hearty ‘amen' from each, they arose. "Johnson took a long breath, and said, with emphasis:

"Moody, I feel better.'

"Shortly afterward he asked:

"Will you stand by me?'

""Certainly I will,' was the answer.

66

'Well, Moody, I can depend upon you; you are one in a hundred thousand.'

"He then commenced pacing the floor again. Suddenly he wheeled, the current of his thought having changed, and said:

"“'Oh, Moody, I don't want you to think I have become a religious man because I asked you to pray.

"I am sorry to say it, I am not, and never pretended to be religious. "No one knows this better than you, but, Moody, there is one thing about it, I do believe in Almighty God, and I believe also in the Bible, and I say, d-n me if Nashville shall be surrendered"

"And Nashville was not surrendered."

LINCOLN WAS GLAD TO SEE OLD JOHN HANKS.

"It was during the dark days of 1863," said Schuyler Colfax, "on the evening of a public reception given at the White House. The foreign legations were there, and a young English nobleman was just being presented to the President.

"Inside the door, evidently overawed by the splendid assemblage, was an honest-faced old farmer, who shrank from the passing crowd until he and the plain-faced old lady clinging to his arm were pressed back to the wall. "The President, tall enough to look over the heads of the assembly, exclaimed, 'Excuse me, my lord, there's an old friend of mine.'

"Passing back, Mr. Lincoln said, as he grasped the old farmer's hand: