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[From a painting by G. P. A. Healy, in the Corcoran Gallery, Washington.]

river and fastened them with ropes under the bow of the boat, thus lifting it till clear of the obstruction. A thought came to the man who looked down upon the operation from the deck of the steamer. Quite likely he recalled the days when he took the Talisman over the sandbars of the Sangamon. Why not get up a contrivance-a flexible airchamber, to be attached to the hull of the boat? It could be pumped full of air whenever the vessel grounded, and so enable it to glide over. He thought about it all the way to Springfield; set Walter Davis, a carpenter, to work making a

model, which he sent to the Patent Office, and received a patent for his invention; but, like most of the patents issued, it came to nothing.

Zachary Taylor, who won the battle of Buena Vista in the war with Mexico, had been elected President. During the campaign Mr. Lincoln made many speeches favoring his election, and as a reward for what he had done could have an office. He started for Washington to see what the President would give him. In the early morning he took his seat in the stage at Ramsdell's tavern. There was only

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one other passenger, a Kentuckian, who took a plug of tobacco from his pocket, bit off a quid, and handed it to the silent man beside him. "No, I thank you, sir; I do not chew."

"Perhaps you will take a cigar?" and the Kentuckian held out a case well filled with cigars.

"Much obliged to you, but I do not smoke."

"Well, stranger, seeing you don't chew or smoke, perhaps you will take a little nice French brandy?" said the man, taking a flask from his pocket. "You are very kind, but I am not in the habit of drinking," replied Lincoln. The stage reached the tavern where the horses were changed, and where the Kentuckian was to stop. He did not quite understand the man who had declined the offered courtesies.

"See here, stranger," he said, "I think you are a real clever fellow; I wouldn't offend you for the world; but allow me to say that a`man who does not chew, smoke, or drink, who has no vices of any kind, is not likely to have many virtues."

Mr. Lincoln laughed heartily as he bade him good-bye.

At Terre Haute two prominent citizens of Indiana, Thomas H. Nelson and Judge Hammond, took seats for Indianapolis. It was early morning, the sun not up. They saw a man asleep, lying on the back seat and his long legs stretched across the vehicle.

"Hullo, my friend! Say, have you chartered the whole of this coach?" shouted the judge, slapping the sleeper on the shoulder.

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Beg your pardon, gentlemen; but I thought I would make myself as comfortable as I could," said Mr. Lincoln, as he courteously took the front seat.

The sun rises, and the two passengers see that their fellow-traveller is a tall man with deep-set eyes and thin cheeks. It is a warm morning, and he has laid aside vest and cravat. His hat is of palm-leaf, tipped back on his head. He must be a queer fellow, and they will have some fun with him. He laughs at their jokes, and does not seem to mind it when they make him the butt of their raillery. At night they behold a comet blazing in the sky. Ignorant people are fearful it is going to destroy the world. Judge Hammond and Mr. Nelson are surprised at what their fellow-passenger has to say upon astronomy. He seems to be well informed. "What do you think is to be the upshot of this comet business?" he asks.

"I differ from the scientific men and the philosophers. I should not be surprised if the world should follow the plaguy thing off," the reply

of Mr. Nelson.

The man without any vest or cravat laughs heartily, but does not controvert the opinion. Late in the evening the stage rolls up to Browning's Hotel, in Indianapolis, and Judge Hammond and Mr. Nelson go to their rooms to brush the dust from their clothing. They are astonished when they come down and see Judge McLean and half a dozen of the foremost public men of the State shaking hands with the man wearing the palm-leaf hat.

"Who is he?" Nelson asked of the landlord.

"That is Abraham Lincoln."

Mortified and ashamed of their joking and raillery, they sneak out of the back door and make their way to another tavern. They do not care to meet him after what has taken place.

Mr. Lincoln reached Washington, and learned that the President would appoint him Governor of Oregon. It was a territory far away, with but few inhabitants. It could be reached only after a tedious journey across the plains of Nebraska, over the Rocky Mountains and the sterile Snake River region. It would require many weeks of travel, and when there he would be, as it were, out of the world. The office was respectfully declined, and he returned to Illinois, to again "ride the circuit."

NOTES TO CHAPTER VIII.

(1) Joshua F. Speed, Lecture on Abraham Lincoln, p. 40.

(2) William H. Herndon, "Lincoln,” p. 233 (edition 1889).

(3) Ibid., p. 242.

(4) Ibid., p. 243.

(3) E. H. Merryman, letter to "Sangamon Journal," quoted in Herndon's "Lincoln," p. 248 (edition 1889).

(*) William H. Herndon, "Lincoln,” p. 231 (edition 1889).

(1) Joshua F. Speed, Lecture on Abraham Lincoln, p. 36.

(*) "Century Magazine," January, 1887.

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