what I did that for. I told him I didn't want the
old horse bitten in that way.

"'Why,' said my brother,'that's all that made him go.'"

"Now if Mr. Chase (the Secretary of the Treasury) has a presidential
'chin fly' biting him, I'm not going to knock it off, if it will only
make his department go."

"OLD BLUE NOSE'S" HIRED MAN

It seemed to be the "irony of fate" that Abe should have to work for
"Old Blue Nose" as a farm hand. But the lad liked Mrs. Crawford, and
Lincoln's sister Nancy lived there, at the same time, as
maid-of-all-work. Another attraction, the Crawford family was rich, in
Abe's eyes, in possessing several books, which he was glad of the chance
to read.

Mrs. Crawford told many things about young Lincoln that might otherwise
have been lost. She said "Abe was very polite, in his awkward way,
taking off his hat to me and bowing. He was a sensitive lad, never
coming where he was not wanted. He was tender and kind--like his sister.

"He liked to hang around and gossip and joke with the women. After he
had wasted too much time this way, he would exclaim:

"'Well, this won't buy the child a coat,' and the long-legged hired boy
would stride away and catch up with the others."

One day when he was asked to kill a hog, Abe answered promptly that he
had never done that, "but if you'll risk the hog, I'll risk myself!"

Mrs. Crawford told also about "going to meeting" in those primitive
days:

"At that time we thought it nothing to go eight or ten miles. The ladies
did not stop for the want of a shawl or riding dress, or horses. In the
winter time they would put on their husbands' old overcoats, wrap up
their little ones, and take two or three of them on their beasts, while
their husbands would walk.

"In winter time they would hold church in some of the neighbors' houses.
At such times they were always treated with the utmost kindness; a
basket of apples, or turnips--apples were scarce in those days--was set
out. Sometimes potatoes were used for a 'treat.' In old Mr. Linkhorn's
(Lincoln's) house a plate of potatoes, washed and pared nicely, was
handed around."

FEATS OF STRENGTH

Meanwhile the boy was growing to tall manhood, both in body and in mind.
The neighbors, who failed to mark his mental growth, were greatly
impressed with his physical strength. The Richardson family, with whom
Abe seemed to have lived as hired man, used to tell marvelous tales of
his prowess, some of which may have g