ks," related
Mr. Jones' son afterward, "was the largest item on the bill. The other
items were needles, pins, thread, buttons, and other little domestic
necessities. When the Lincolns reached their new home, Abraham wrote
back to my father stating that he had doubled his money on his purchases
by selling them along the road. Unfortunately we did not keep that
letter, not thinking how highly we would prize it afterward."

In the early days of his presidency, an international problem came
before the cabinet which reminded Mr. Lincoln of an experience he had on
this journey, so he told the several secretaries this story:

"The situation just now reminds me of a fix I got into some thirty years
ago when I was peddling 'notions' on the way from Indiana to Illinois. I
didn't have a large stock, but I charged large prices and I made money.
Perhaps you don't see what I am driving at.

"Just before we left Indiana and were crossing into Illinois we came
across a small farmhouse full of children. These ranged in age from
seventeen years to seventeen months, and were all in tears. The mother
of the family was red-headed and red-faced, and the whip she held in her
right hand led to the inference that she had been chastising her brood.
The father of the family, a meek-looking, mild-mannered, tow-headed
chap, was standing at the front door--to all appearances waiting his
turn!

"I thought there wasn't much use in asking the head of that house if she
wanted any 'notions.' She was too busy. It was evident that an
insurrection had been in progress, but it was pretty well quelled when I
got there. She saw me when I came up, and from her look I thought she
surmised that I intended to interfere. Advancing to the doorway--roughly
pushing her husband aside--she demanded my business.

"'Nothing, ma'am,' I answered as gently as possible. 'I merely dropped
in, as I came along, to see how things were going.'

"'Well, you needn't wait,' she said in an irritated way; 'there's
trouble here, and lots of it, too, but I kin manage my own affairs
without the help of outsiders. This is jest a family row, but I'll teach
these brats their places if I hev to lick the hide off every one of
them. I don't do much talking, but I run this house, an' I don't want no
one sneakin' round tryin' to find out how I do it either.'

"That's the case here with us. We must let the other nations know that
we propose to settle our family row in our own way, an' teach