The woods were still and shady. You could hear the water rushing
in the timber. The full moon hung in the clear sky over the river, and
seemed to lay on the water like a sparkling boat. I was happy then. On
our journey home we were chased by a bear. I don't think that the bear
would have hurt us, but the scent of him frightened the horse and made
him run like a deer.

"Well, we portaged a stream at midnight, just as the moon was going
down. We made our curtilage here, and here we lived happy until husband
died of a fever. I'm a middlin' good woman. I go to all the meetin's
round, and wake 'em up. I've got a powerful tongue, and there isn't a
lazy bone in my whole body. Work away--work away! That's the way to get
along in the world. Peg away!"

While Aunt Olive had been relating this odd story, John Hanks, a cousin
of the Lincolns, had come quietly to the door, and entered and sat down
beside the Tunker. He had come to Indiana from Kentucky when Abraham was
fourteen years of age, and he made his home with the Lincolns for four
years, when he went to Illinois, and was enthused by the wonders of
prairie farming. It was Uncle John who gave to Abraham Lincoln the name
of rail-splitter. He loved the boy Lincoln, and led his heart away to
the rich prairies of Illinois a few years after the present scenes.

"He and I," he once said of Abraham, "worked barefooted, grubbed,
plowed, mowed, and cradled together. When we returned from the field, he
would snatch a piece of corn-bread, sit down on a chair, with his feet
elevated, and read. He read constantly."

This man had heard Aunt Olive--Indiana, or "Injiany," he called
her--relate her marriage experiences many times. He was not interested
in the old story, but he took a keen delight in observing the curiosity
and surprise that such a novel tale awakened in the mind of the Tunker.

"This is very extraordinary," said the Tunker, "very extraordinary. We
do not have in Germany any stories like that. I hardly know what my
people would say to such a story as that. This is a very extraordinary
country--very extraordinary."

"I can tell you a wedding story worth two o' that," said Uncle John
Hanks. "Why, that ain't nowhere to it.--Now, Aunt Injiany, you wait, and
set still. I'm goin' to tell the elder about the 'TWO TURKEY-CALLS.'"

The Tunker only said, "This is all very extraordinary." Uncle John
crossed his legs and bent forward his long whiskers, stretched out one
arm, and was