ERABLE MAN KNOWN IN THESE
PAGES AS JOSIAH TRAYLOR, WHO SAW THE GREAT PROCESSION OF EVENTS BETWEEN
ANDREW JACKSON AND WOODROW WILSON AND ESPECIALLY THE MAKING AND THE END
OF LINCOLN.

Now, as I have done often sitting in the chimney corner at the day's end,
I look back at my youth and manhood and tell, with one eye upon the
clock, of those years of fulfillment in the progress of our beloved
pilgrim. There are four and twenty of them that I shall try to review in
as many minutes. At this distance I see only the high places--one looming
above another like steps in a stairway.

The years of building and sentiment ended on the fourth of November,
1842, when he and Mary Todd were joined in marriage. Now, like one having
taken note of the storm clouds, he strengthens the structure.

Mary tried to teach him fine manners. It was a difficult undertaking.
Often, as might have been expected, she lost her patience. Mary was an
excellent girl, but rather kindlesome and pragmatic. Like most of the
prairie folk, for instance, Abe Lincoln had been accustomed to reach
for the butter with his own knife, and to find rest in attitudes
extremely indolent and unbecoming. He enjoyed sprawling on the floor in
his shirt-sleeves and slippers with a pillow under his head and a book in
his hand. He had a liking for ample accommodation not fully satisfied by
a bed or a lounge. Mary undertook to turn him into new ways and naturally
there was irritation in the house, but I think they got along very well
together for all that. Mary grew fond of him and proud of his great
talents and was a devoted wife. For years she did the work of the house
and bore him children. He milked the cow and took care of the horse when
he was at home.

Annabel and I, having just been married, went with him to Washington on
our wedding-tour in 1847. He was taking his seat in Congress that year.
We were with him there when he met Webster. Lincoln was deeply impressed
by the quiet dignity of the great man. We went together to hear Emerson
lecture. It was a motley audience--business men, fashionable ladies and
gentlemen, statesmen, politicians, women with their knitting, and
lion-hunters. The tall, awkward orator ascended the platform, took off
his top-coat and drew a manuscript from his pocket. He had a narrow,
sloping forehead, a prominent nose, gray eyes and a skin of singular
transparency. His voice was rich and mellow but not strong. Lincoln
listened with rapt attenti