ith furnished much
of the humor, and Josiah Crawford, or "Blue-Nose Crawford," as he was
called, was regarded as the man of hard sense on such occasions as
require a Solomon, or a Daniel, or a Portia, and he was very proud to be
so regarded.

There was a revival of interest in the cause of temperance in the
country at this time, and the noble conduct of Abraham Lincoln, in
carrying to his cousin Dennis's the poor drunkard whom he had found in
the highway on the chilly night after the debate at Jones's store, may
have led to a plan for a great debate on the subject of the pledge,
which was appointed to take place in the log school-house at Pigeon
Creek. The plan was no more than spoken of at the store than it began to
excite general attention.

"We must debate this subject of the temperance pledge," said Thomas
Lincoln, "and get the public sense. New times are at hand. On general
principles, I'm a temperance man; and if nobody drank once, then nobody
would drink twice, and the world would all go dry. But there's the
corn-huskin's, and the hoe-down, and the mowin' times, and the
hog-killin's, and the barn-raisin's. It is only natural that men should
wet their whistles at such times as these. In the old Scriptur' times
people who wanted to get great spiritual power abstained from strong
drink; but you can't expect no such people as those down here at Pigeon
Creek."

"But Abe is a temperancer, and I want the debate to come off in good
shape, so that all you uns can hear what he has to say."

It was decided by the leading debaters that the subject for the debate
should be, "Ought temperance people to sign the temperance pledge?" and
that Abraham Lincoln should sustain the affirmative view of the
question.

The success of young Lincoln as a debater had greatly troubled Aunt
Indiana.

"It's all like the rattlin' of a pea-pod in the blasts o' ortum," she
said. "It don't signify anything. He just rains words upon ye, and makes
ye laugh, and the first thing ye know he's got ye. Beware--beware! his
words are just like stool-pigeons, what brings you down to get shot.
It's amazin' what a curi'us gift of talk that boy has!"

When she heard of the plan of the debate, and the part assigned to young
Lincoln, she said:

"'Twill be a great night for Abe, unless I hinder it. I'm agin the
temperance pledge. Stands to reason that a man's no right to sign away
his liberty. And I'm agin Abe Linkern, because he's too smart for
anyth