moving. He had very little goods, so borrowed a horse and put most of them into a pair of saddle-bags, rode up to Springfield and went into the store of his friend Speed and asked him how much it would cost to buy a bedroom set of furniture. Mr. Speed figured it up. About the cheapest would be seventeen dollars. A sad look came over Abraham's face, and he said, "Well Speed, I suppose that is cheap enough, but cheap as it is, I have not the money to pay for it." "Well," said Speed, "I tell you, Abraham, I have a big double bed up stairs, and if you want to occupy half of it with me, you are welcome." Mr. Lincoln grabbed his saddle-bags and went up stairs. In another minute he was down, with a smile on his face. "Well Speed, I moved," and he never moved again but once, and that was when he moved as president of the United States from Springfield to Washington. A strange comparison.

I must tell you a little story that happened to Mr. Lincoln at New Salem, before he moved to Springfield. One of the prominent families there was that of James Rutledge. They had a very pretty and sweet daughter named Anne. She was gentle, kind and good, and everyone loved her. She was also bright intellectually as a student, and a good many young men about there tried to court her. Although Mr. Lincoln was a very homely man, he had studied and developed his mind so much, and had so much information that he really was handsome.

It proves that what we know, not how we look is the important thing, and so he was the one favored by Anne Rutledge. They became quite in love with each other and were engaged.

While Mr. Lincoln was away, Anne was taken sick and continued to get worse. When he returned he found her past recovery. She died August 25th, 1835. Mr. Lincoln was wonderfully overcome with grief, and said to a friend who tried to cheer him, and urge him to control his sorrow, "I cannot. The thought of snow and rain on her grave fills me with indescribable grief," and it was a long time before he could shake off the melancholy and sadness of her death so as to apply himself to his regular duties. He was wont to go off to her grave, and said, "My heart is buried there." In years after, he said, "I really and truly loved the girl, and think often of her now, and I have always loved the name of Rutledge to this day."

CHAPTER V.

After settling in Springfield, Mr. Lincoln formed a law partnership with Mr. John T. Stewart, who was known as one of the leading lawyers in Springfield. They were quite successful. At that time it was customary for the lawyers to go around with the judge from one county-seat to another where court was held in the district. Judge David Davis was Circuit Judge at this time, and there were a number of men in the group that went around Central Illinois together, who afterward became famous men. Mr. Lincoln was one of the most popular in the crowd, for he was a splendid story-teller, and would keep the crowd amused for hours with funny stories after court was over for the day. One time the son of Jack Armstrong, whom Abraham had thrown in the wrestling match at New Salem, was accused of committing a murder. His mother was poor and Jack Armstrong was dead. She came to Mr. Lincoln and told him she had no money, but wished very much he could help her and defend her son. He did so. A man at the trial swore he saw by the moonlight this young Armstrong strike the man who was killed. Mr. Lincoln got the almanac and proved by it that there was no moon shining at that time. Then when he told the jury with tears in his eyes how the poor old mother was down in the pasture waiting with a sad heart for the verdict and that he believed the young man was innocent, they all believed him, for they knew him as "Honest Abe Lincoln," so they cleared young Armstrong and sent him to support his poor old mother. Mr. Lincoln used to win very many cases, for the juries all believed him. You remember he was so honest in the little New Salem store that he got the name of "Honest Abe Lincoln." Thus it was proved in his case very clearly that "honesty is the best policy." He never made much money, although he was so successful, because he was low in his charges and he was never a rich man. He tried many cases for poor people without charging them anything. One day as the lawyers were riding their horses along the road, some one said: "Where is Abe?" and another lawyer spoke up and said: "I left him back there hunting the nest for some birds that had lost it." You see by this how kind-hearted he was even towards birds and animals.

They used to have debating societies in Springfield and Abraham was fond of taking part. The practice he got in this way helped make him a fine speaker. The Washingtonian society was a strong temperance organization at that time. At one of its meetings, February 22, 1842, Mr. Lincoln spoke and said what has often been quoted since: "When the victory shall be complete, when there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth, how proud the title of that land which may claim to be the birth-place and cradle of those resolutions that shall have ended in victory."

You see by this, that as far back as 1842 Mr. Lincoln was a strong temperance man as well as opposer of slavery. When the committee came to notify him of his nomination for president, instead of treating them to wine, as was the custom, Mr. Lincoln gave them water and remarked that he would continue his habit of using and giving his guests "Adam's Ale," or pure water. Mr. Lincoln ran for congress against the famous Illinois pioneer preacher, Peter Cartwright. Mr. Cartwright was a very noted and popular man and it is therefore all the more to the credit of Mr. Lincoln that he was elected. He was only two years in congress and was not able in that length of time to make much of a record, as new men do not get heard very easily.

A beautiful young lady, Miss Mary Todd, came from Kentucky to live with her sister, Mrs. Edwards, in Springfield. The Edwards family was very prominent for the father had been governor of Illinois. Miss Todd was one of the popular belles in Springfield and was courted by many of the leading young men. Mr. Lincoln was the successful suitor, however, and they were married November 4, 1842. They had three boys. Only one of them is living now; the Honorable Robert Lincoln, a lawyer in Chicago and former American minister to Great Britain. The other boys died while little fellows.

Two young men who became very famous in the history of our country really started their careers at Springfield, Illinois. One was Stephen A. Douglas and the other Abraham Lincoln. It would be hard to say which of these young men was the smarter; they were both brilliant and hard workers. That is, they studied hard and that made them successful. Although they were both great men, they were not much alike in appearance or in disposition or in the quality of their minds.

Mr. Lincoln came from the South where they liked slavery and Mr. Douglas from Vermont where they hated slavery. They both came to Illinois at about the age of twenty-one, when they became citizens according to the law.

At this time Illinois was a sort of debating battle-ground. Emigrants came to it from the north and east, who were opposed to slavery; others came from the south, who were in favor of slavery, and these two classes, in the absence of slavery and on rather mutual ground, debated the rights and wrongs of slavery with constant and energetic debate.

The Democratic party at this time was mostly in the South and the Whig party mostly in the North. Slavery was in the South, but not in the North. Naturally, therefore, the Democratic party favored slavery, and the Whig party, while it did not oppose slavery, yet did not favor it. You would think, under the circumstances, that Mr. Lincoln coming from the South, would have been a Democrat, and Mr. Douglas coming from the North would have been a Whig. But they each did the opposite. The Democratic party was in the majority in Illinois at