in his face from the banks of
the Ohio and the lower Mississippi. Though Cairo was then but a
desolate swamp, Memphis a wood-landing, and Vicksburg a timbered ridge
with a few stores at its base, even these were in striking contrast to
the sombre monotony of the great woods. The rivers were enlivened by
countless swift-speeding steamboats, dispensing smoke by day and flame
by night; while New Orleans, though scarcely one fourth the city she
now is, was the focus of a vast commerce, and of a civilization which
(for America) might be deemed antique. I doubt not that our tall and
green young backwoodsman needed only a piece of well-tanned sheepskin
suitably (that is, learnedly) inscribed to have rendered those two
boat trips memorable as his degrees in capacity to act well his part
on that stage which has mankind for its audience.

[1] _By permission of Mr. Joel Benton._

ABE LINCOLN'S HONESTY

From "Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln's Stories."

Lincoln could not rest for an instant under the consciousness that he
had, even unwittingly, defrauded anybody. On one occasion, while
clerking in Offutt's store, at New Salem, Ill., he sold a woman a
little bill of goods, amounting in value by the reckoning, to two
dollars six and a quarter cents. He received the money, and the woman
went away. On adding the items of the bill again, to make sure of its
correctness, he found that he had taken six and a quarter cents too
much. It was night, and, closing and locking the store, he started out
on foot, a distance of two or three miles, for the house of his
defrauded customer, and, delivering over to her the sum whose
possession had so much troubled him, went home satisfied.

On another occasion, just as he was closing the store for the night, a
woman entered, and asked for a half pound of tea. The tea was weighed
out and paid for, and the store was left for the night. The next
morning, Lincoln entered to begin the duties of the day, when he
discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. He saw at once that he
had made a mistake, and, shutting the store, he took a long walk
before breakfast to deliver the remainder of the tea. These are very
humble incidents, but they illustrate the man's perfect
conscientiousness--his sensitive honesty--better perhaps than they
would if they were of greater moment.

THE BOY THAT HUNGERED FOR KNOWLEDGE

From "Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln's Stories."

In his eagerness to