on
horseback, sometimes in their own vehicles, sometimes by stage. Among
the reminiscences of Lincoln on the circuit, are his "poky" old horse
and his "ramshackle" old buggy. Many and many a mile, round and round
the Eighth Judicial Circuit, he traveled in that humble style. What
thoughts he brooded on in his lonely drives, he seldom told. During
this period the cloud over his inner life is especially dense. The outer
life, in a multitude of reminiscences, is well known. One of its salient
details was the large proportion of time he devoted to study.

"Frequently, I would go out on the circuit with him," writes Herndon.
"We, usually, at the little country inn, occupied the same bed. In most
cases, the beds were too short for him and his feet would hang over the
footboard, thus exposing a limited expanse of shin bone. Placing his
candle at the head of his bed he would read and study for hours. I have
known him to stay in this position until two o'clock in the morning.
Meanwhile, I and others who chanced to occupy the same room would be
safely and soundly asleep. On the circuit, in this way, he studied
Euclid until he could with ease demonstrate all the propositions in
the six books. How he could maintain his equilibrium or concentrate his
thoughts on an abstract mathematical problem, while Davis, Logan, Swett,
Edwards and I, so industriously and volubly filled the air with our
interminable snoring, was a problem none of, us--could ever solve."(2)

A well-worn copy of Shakespeare was also his constant companion.

He rose rapidly in the profession; and this in spite of his incorrigible
lack of system. The mechanical side of the lawyer's task, now, as in the
days with Logan, annoyed him; he left the preparation of papers to his
junior partner, as formerly he left it to his senior partner. But the
situation had changed in a very important way. In Herndon, Lincoln had
for a partner a talented young man who looked up to him, almost adored
him, who was quite willing to be his man Friday. Fortunately, for all
his adoration, Herndon had no desire to idealize his hero. He was not
disturbed by his grotesque or absurd sides.

"He was proverbially careless as to his habits," Herndon writes. "In a
letter to a fellow lawyer in another town, apologizing for his failure
to answer sooner, he explains: 'First, I have been very busy in the
United States Court; second, when I received the letter, I put it in my
old hat, and buying a new