ys, scribbled verses;
and so far as I was capable of judging, their quality was above the
average. It was accidentally that I learned this. In arranging the books
and papers in the office, I found two or three quires of letter-paper
stitched together in book form, nearly filled with poetical effusions in
Mr. Lincoln's handwriting, and evidently original. I looked through them
somewhat hurriedly, and when Lincoln came in I showed him the
manuscript, asking him if it was his. His response was, 'Where did you
find it?' and rolling it up, he put it in his coat-tail pocket; and I
saw it no more. Afterwards, in speaking of the matter to Mr. Lincoln's
partner, he said, 'I believe he has at times scribbled some verses; but
he is, I think, somewhat unwilling to have it known.'"

Lincoln's love of poetry is further shown by the following incident,
related by a gentleman who visited the old law-office of Lincoln &
Herndon, at Springfield. He says: "I took up carelessly, as I stood
thinking, a handsome octavo volume lying on the office table. It opened
so persistently at one place, as I handled it, that I looked to see what
it was, and found that somebody had thoroughly thumbed the pages of 'Don
Juan.' I knew Mr. Herndon was not a man to dwell on it, and it darted
through my mind that perhaps it had been a favorite with Lincoln. 'Did
Mr. Lincoln ever read this book?' I said, hurriedly. 'That book!' said
Herndon, looking up from his writing and taking it out of my hand. 'Oh,
yes; he read it often. It is the office copy.'" Lincoln was so fond of
the book that he kept it ready to his hand.

Mr. John T. Stuart, Lincoln's first law-partner, says of him that his
accounts were correctly kept, but in a manner peculiar to himself. Soon
after their law-partnership was formed, Mr. Stuart was elected to
Congress, thereafter spending much of his time in Washington. Lincoln
conducted the business of the firm in his absence. When Mr. Stuart
reached home, at the close of the first session of Congress, Lincoln
proceeded to give him an account of the earnings of the office during
his absence. The charges for fees and entry of receipts of money were
not in an account book, but stowed away in a drawer in Lincoln's desk,
among the papers in each case. He proceeded to lay the papers before Mr.
Stuart, taking up each case by itself. The account would run in this
way:

Fees charged in this case................$
Amount collected.....................