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matron, Mrs Ninian W. Edwards, had a Kentucky sister to live with her, Mary Todd, daughter of Robert S. Todd, of Lexington. Miss Todd was of distinguished family in both States, her mother had died young, and she had been educated by "a French lady." She had a keen sense of the ridiculous, was sharp, ambitious, hightempered; according to Lamon, "high-bred, proud, brilliant, witty, and with a will that bent everyone else to her purpose, she took Lincoln captive the moment she considered it expedient to do so.

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She was ambitious to be the wife of a president, and was courted by Douglas until she dismissed him for his bad morals. She said of one of her mates who had married a wealthy old gentleman, "I would rather marry a good man, a man of mind, with hope and bright prospects ahead for position, fame and power, than to marry all the horses, gold and bones in the world."

Lincoln and Miss Todd became engaged, though a pretty sister of Edwards, came near shipwrecking this match.

Pretty girls must have been distressingly thick in those days, when Kentucky was sending her best blood into Il

linois. Lincoln felt the Edwards attachment so strongly that he begged to be released by Miss Todd (the Edwards girl married another man, for Lincoln never mentioned it to her), and he "ran off the track" again, to use the expression by which he once described his attack of insanity.

He was "crazy as a loon" for nearly a year, and did not attend the session of the legislature of 1841-42, to which he had been chosen. They had to keep knives and razors away from him. As he came out of it, the Edwards' advised Abe and Mary not to marry, as they were unfitted to each other, and probably in consequence of that advice they went and married on "one or two hours' notice."

Lincoln said to Matheney, who made out the license, Jim, I shall have to marry that girl," and he "looked as if he was going to the slaughter,” and said he was "driven into it" by the Edwards family. But, perhaps, these expressions ought not to be taken too seriously.

Lamon prints letters from Lincoln to Speed earlier in the year, indicating his embarrassing position, and his "great agony," as Lamon calls it.

The "Shield's duel" was fought a month or two before the marriage, and was occasioned by Miss Todd's satirical sketches in The Sangamon Journal. These sketches were dated from the "Lost Township," a humorous expression of indefiniteness of locality which had a local point, and were written in vernacular and signed "Rebecca." The last one was in verse and signed "Cathleon,"

That Miss Todd was no green Western girl is evinced

by the spirit of these sketches of local life, which are reproduced in "Lamon's Life of Lincoln." She teased Shields in them, and he demanded to know the author. Lincoln accepted the responsibility.

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Didn't Know His Own House-How Mrs. Lin. coln Surprised Her. Husband.

A funny story is told of how Mrs, Lincoln made a little surprise for her husband.

In the early days it was customary for lawyers to go from one county to another on horseback, a journey which often required several weeks. On returning from one of these jaunts, late one night, Mr. Lincoln dismounted from his horse at the familiar corner and then turned to go into the house, but stopped; a perfectly unknown structure was before him. Surprised, and thinking there must be some mistake, he went across the way and knocked at a neighbor's door. The family had retired

and so called out:

"Who's there?"

"Abe Lincoln," was the reply. "I am looking for my house. I thought it was across the way, but when I went away, a few weeks ago, there was only a one-story house there, and now there is two. I think I must be lost."

The neighbors then explained that Mrs. Lincoln had added another story during his absence. And Mr. Lincoln laughed and went to his remodeled house.

Lincoln's Foster-Mother-Her Romantic Mar

riage to Thomas Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln was 7 or 8 years old when his father, Thomas Lincoln, removed from Kentucky to Indiana,. where, in a year or two, his wife died. The year following her death, says a writer in the Christain Union, Mr. Lincoln returned to Elizabethtown to search out, if possible, a former neighbor and friend, Mrs. Sally Johnston, whom, upon inquiry, he found still a widow, and to whom he at once made a proposal of marriage.

On entering Mrs. Johnston's humble dwelling, Mr. Lincoln asked if she remembered him.

"Yes," said she, "I remember you very well, Tommy Lincoln. What has brought you back to old Kentucky?"

"Well," he said in answer, "my wife, Nancy, is dead."

"Why, you don't say so!"

"Yes," said Mr. Lincoln, "she died more than a year ago, and I have come back to Kentucky to look for another wife. Do you like me, Mrs. Johnston¿"

"Yes," replied Mrs. Johnston, "I like you Tommy Lincoln."

"Do yo like me well enough to marry me?"

"Yes," she said, "I like you, Tommy Lincoln, and I like you well enough to marry you, but I can't marry you now."

"Why not?" said he.

"Because I am in debt, and I could never think of burdening the man I marry with debt; it would not be right. “What are those debts?" said he.

[273] THE LINCOLN FAMILY REMOVING FROM KENTUCKY TO INDIANA IN 1816.

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