e wore golden bracelets. Her hair was combed low
about the ears. She evidently was much gratified over the nomination,
but was perfectly ladylike in her deportment.

"The only sign of refreshments visible was a white earthen pitcher
filled with ice-water. Probably it was Mr. Lincoln's little joke, for
the next morning I learned that his Republican neighbors had offered
to furnish wines and liquor, but he would not allow them in the house;
that his Democratic friends also sent round baskets of champagne,
which he would not accept.

"I met him the next morning in his law office, also his secretary, J.
G. Nicolay. It was a large, square room, with a plain pine table,
splint-bottomed chairs, law books in a case, and several bushels of
newspapers and pamphlets dumped in one corner. It had a general air of
untidiness.

"During the campaign I reported many meetings for the Boston
_Journal_, and was made night editor soon after Mr. Lincoln's
election. The position was very laborious and exacting. It was the
period of secession. Through the live-long night, till nearly 3 A. M.,
I sat at my desk editing the exciting news. The reporters usually left
the room about eleven, and from that time to the hour of going to
press, I was alone,--save the company of two mice that became so
friendly that they would sit on my desk, and make a supper of crackers
and cheese, which I doled out to them. I remember them with much
pleasure.

"The exacting labors and sleepless nights told upon my health. The
disturbed state of the country made everybody in business very
cautious, so much so that the proprietor of the _Journal_, Charles A.
Rogers, began to discharge his employees, and I was informed that my
services were no longer needed. I had been receiving the magnificent
sum of ten dollars per week, and this princely revenue ceased."

After President Lincoln had been inaugurated, Mr. Coffin went to
Washington, during the last week in March. His experiences there must
be told by himself:

"I took lodgings at a private boardinghouse on Pennsylvania Avenue,
where there was a poverty-stricken Virginian, of the old Whig school,
after an office. He did 'not think his State would secede.' I saw much
of the Republican members of Congress, who said if I wanted a position
they would do what they could for me. Senator Sumner suggested that I
would make a good secretary of one of the Western territories.

"I called upon my old schoolmate Sargeant who