man got up, he imagined he saw a squirrel on a tree near his house. So he took down his rifle and fired at the squirrel, but the squirrel paid no attention to the shot. He loaded and fired again and again, until, at the thirteenth shot, he set down his gun impatiently, and said to his boy, who was looking on, 'Boy, there's something wrong about this rifle.' 'Rifle's all right, I know 'tis,' responded the boy, 'but where's your squirrel?' 'Don't you see him, humped up about half-way up the tree?' inquired the`old man, peering over his spectacles and getting mystified. 'No, I don't,' responded the boy; and then, turning and looking into his father's face, he exclaimed, 'I see your squirrel. You've been firing at a louse on your eyebrow!""

The House was convulsed with laughter, and the member from Wabash dropped his "unconstitutional " dodge.

Mr. Lincoln grew rapidly in public favour as a lawyer, and within ten years after he left his log-cabin home, in Macon County, citizens of Springfield would point him out to strangers on the street, and say: "One of the ablest lawyers in Illinois."

His partnership with Mr. Stuart terminated in 1840, and he soon after associated himself with Judge S. T. Logan. He married Miss Mary Todd, daughter of Honorable Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky, in 1842, when he was thirty-three years of age. The fruits of this marriage were four sons, viz., Robert, Edwards, William, and Thomas. Edwards died in infancy; William died at the age of twelve years, in Washington; Thomas died in Illinois at the age of twenty; and Robert afterwards became secretary of war at Washington.

Soon after his marriage he wrote two letters, which so reveal his strong friendships as well as his simplicity

of character that we quote a brief extract from each. The first he wrote to his old friend, J. F. Speed, of Louisville, Kentucky, and in addition to the characteristics of the man which it reveals, it discloses somewhat his humble mode of living. "We are not keeping house, but boarding at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept now by a widow by the name of Beck. Boarding only costs four dollars a week. I most heartily wish you and your Fanny will not fail to come. Just let us know the time a week in advance, and we will have a room prepared for you, and we'll be merry together for a while."

The other letter was penned to newly-married friends in another State, about a month after his own marriage. "I have no way of telling you how much happiness I wish you both, though I believe you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat jealous of both of you now, for you will be so exclusively concerned for one another that I shall be forgotten entirely. I regret to learn that you have resolved not to return to Illinois: I shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be arranged in this world! If we have no friends we have no pleasure, and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss. I did hope she and you would make your home here, yet I own I have no right to insist. You owe obligations to her ten thousand times more sacred than any you can owe to others, and in that light let them be respected and observed. It is natural that she should desire to remain with her relatives and friends. As to friends, she could not need them anywhere,—she would have them in abundance here. Write me often, and believe me, yours for ever, LINCOLN." His heart was in his pen, as it usually was in his hand.

W

XXI.

A SUCCESSFUL LAWYER.

WHEN Lincoln commenced the practice of law he was too poor to own a horse and saddlebags. He was obliged to borrow this outfit of a friend, until he scraped together enough money to purchase one. "But why did he need a horse and saddle-bags ?" the reader will ask.

At that time the Court went to the clients instead of the clients going to the Court. That is, Court business was laid out in Circuits; and the Court travelled from place to place, holding sessions, and transacting such business as the locality brought to it. Lincoln was in the "Eighth Judicial Circuit" of Illinois; and for several years travelled over it on horseback, with no other outfit than the contents of his saddle-bags and a cotton umbrella. A longer or shorter period was occupied in completing the "Circuit," according to the amount of business brought to the Court. Lincoln was sometimes absent three months from home on the Circuit. During one of these long absences his wife had a second storey and a new roof put upon their house, as a surprise to him. It was nicely finished when he returned. Coming in front of his old home, he sat upon his horse surveying the changed habitation, and pretending not to recognize it, he called to a man across the street,—

Stranger, can you tell me where Lincoln lives? He used to live here."

When he got a little more of this world's goods, he set up a one-horse buggy,—a very sorry and shabbylooking affair, which he generally used when the weather promised to be bad. But the lawyers were always glad to see him, and the landlords hailed his coming with pleasure.

Honesty, kindness, generosity, fairness, justice, and kindred qualities distinguished him in the practice of law. A whole volume of incidents might be related, illustrating these qualities of the man, but a few only can be given.

Lincoln.

A stranger called to secure his services. "State your case," said Mr. stated it at considerable length, prised him by saying,—

The man

when Lincoln sur

"I cannot serve you, for you are wrong and the other party is right."

"That is none of your business, if I hire and pay you for taking the case," retorted the man.

"My

"Not my business!" exclaimed Lincoln. business is never to defend wrong if I am a lawyer. I never take a case that is manifestly wrong."

"Well, you can make trouble for the fellow," added the applicant.

'Yes," responded Lincoln, "there is no reasonable doubt but that I can gain the case for you. I can set a whole neighbourhood at loggerheads; I can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless children, and thereby get for you six hundred dollars, which rightfully belongs as much to the woman and her children as it does to you. But I won't do it."

"Not for any amount of pay?" inquired the man.

"Not for all you are worth," replied Lincoln. "You

must remember that some things which are legally right are not morally right. I shall not take your

case,"

"I don't care a snap whether you do or not," angrily replied the man, starting to go; "there are other lawyers in the State."

"I'll give you a piece of advice without charge,” added Lincoln. "You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man. I would advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars some other way."

One afternoon an old coloured woman came into the office of Lincoln and Herndon to tell her sad story. She was once the slave of one Hinkle in Kentucky, who brought herself and children into Illinois, and made them free. Her son had gone down to New Orleans on a steamer, and very imprudently went ashore, when the police arrested him, under State law that authorized the seizure and sale of free negroes from other States; and he would be sold back into slavery unless immediately redeemed. Lincoln's sympathetic nature was deeply stirred, and his indignation was also aroused.

"Run over to the State House and ask Governor Bissell if something cannot be done to obtain possession of the negro," he said to Mr. Herndon.

The inquiry was soon made, and Herndon returned to say, "The governor says that he has no legal or constitutional right to do anything in the premises."

Lincoln was thoroughly aroused by this feature of inhumanity which the legal status disclosed, and starting to his feet, and raising his long right arm heavenward, he exclaimed,—

"By the Almighty's help I'll have the negro back

* Lincoln terminated partnership with Judge Logan in 1845, and then associated himself with William H. Herndon, Esq.