ht of
my report for the paper. There was nothing written but an abbreviated
introduction.

"It was some sort of satisfaction to find that I had not been 'scooped,'
as all the newspaper men present had been equally carried away by the
excitement caused by the wonderful oration and had made no report or
sketch of the speech."

WHEN "ABE" CAME IN.

When "Abe" was fourteen years of age, John Hanks journeyed from Kentucky
to Indiana and lived with the Lincolns. He described "Abe's" habits
thus:

"When Lincoln and I returned to the house from work, he would go to the
cupboard, snatch a piece of corn-bread, take down a book, sit down on a
chair, cock his legs up as high as his head, and read.

"He and I worked barefooted, grubbed it, plowed, mowed, cradled
together; plowed corn, gathered it, and shucked corn. 'Abe' read
constantly when he had an opportunity."

ETERNAL FIDELITY TO THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY.

During the Harrison Presidential campaign of 1840, Lincoln said, in a
speech at Springfield, Illinois:

"Many free countries have lost their liberty, and ours may lose hers;
but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was last to
desert, but that I never deserted her.

"I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and directed
by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of
political corruption in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping
with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land,
bidding fair to leave unscathed no green spot or living thing.

"I cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it, I, too, may be;
bow to it I never will.

"The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause which we believe to be just. It shall never
deter me.

"If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those
dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I
contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside,
and I standing up boldly alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious
oppressors.

"Here, without contemplating consequences, before heaven, and in the
face of the world, I swear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem
it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love; and who that thinks
with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath that I take?

"Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed.

"But if, after all, we shal