arrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads; and He will not forget
the dying man who puts his trust in Him. Say to him, that if we
could meet now it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful
than pleasant; but that if it be his lot to go now he will soon
have a joyous meeting with loved ones gone before, and where the
rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere long to join them.

Write me again when you receive this.

Affectionately,
A. LINCOLN.

The step-brother, John Johnston, to whom the foregoing letter is
addressed, was the cause of considerable anxiety to Lincoln. It was with
him that their parents resided, and frequent were his appeals to
Lincoln to extricate him from some pecuniary strait into which he had
fallen through his confirmed thriftlessness and improvidence. "John
Johnston," Mr. Herndon says, "was an indolent and shiftless man, one who
was 'born tired.' Yet he was clever, generous and hospitable." The
following document affords a hint of Lincoln's kindly patience as well
as of his capacity for sound practical advice when it was much needed:

DEAR JOHNSTON:--Your request for eighty dollars I do not think it
best to comply with now. At the various times when I have helped
you a little you have said to me, 'We can get along very well now';
but in a very short time I find you in the same difficulty again.
Now, this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What that
defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an
idler. I doubt whether, since I saw you, you have done a good whole
day's work in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work,
and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to
you that you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly wasting
time is the whole difficulty; and it is vastly important to you,
and still more so to your children, that you should break the
habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to
live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it
easier than they can get out after they are in. You are now in need
of some money; and what I propose is that you shall go to work,
'tooth and nail,' for somebody who will give you money for it. Let
father and your boys take charge of things at home, prepare for a
crop, and make the crop, and you go to work for the bes