of Milroy had run away in affright, and
squads of them on different parallel roads had alarmed each other, and
each fled in terror with all speed to Harrisburg. This alone was
asserted to be the basis of the great panic which had alarmed
Pennsylvania and the country. The President," continues Mr. Welles, "was
in excellent humor. He said this flight would be a capital joke for
Orpheus C. Kerr[D] to get hold of. He could give scope to his
imagination over the terror of broken squads of panic-stricken
teamsters, frightened at each other and alarming all Pennsylvania.
General Meigs, who was present, inquired with great simplicity who this
person (Orpheus C. Kerr) was. 'Why,' said the President, 'have you not
read those papers? They are in two volumes; anyone who has not read them
is a heathen.' He said he had enjoyed them greatly--except when they
attempted to play their wit on him, which did not strike him as very
successful, but rather disgusted him. 'Now, the hits that are given to
you, Mr. Welles, or to Chase,' he said, 'I can enjoy; but I daresay they
may have disgusted you while I was laughing at them. So _vice versa_ as
regards myself.'"

Hon. Lawrence Weldon relates that on one occasion he called upon the
President to inquire as to the probable outcome of a conflict between
the civil and military authorities for the possession of a quantity of
cotton in a certain insurrectionary district. As soon as the inquiry had
been made, Lincoln's face began lighting up, and he said: "What has
become of our old friend Bob Lewis, of DeWitt County? Do you remember a
story that Bob used to tell us about his going to Missouri to look up
some Mormon lands that belonged to his father? You know that when
Robert became of age he found among the papers of his father a number of
warrants and patents for lands in Northeast Missouri, and he concluded
the best thing he could do was to go to Missouri and investigate the
condition of things. It being before the days of railroads, he started
on horseback, with a pair of old-fashioned saddlebags. When he arrived
where he supposed his land was situated, he stopped, hitched his horse,
and went into a cabin standing close by the roadside. He found the
proprietor, a lean, lank, leathery looking man, engaged in the pioneer
business of making bullets preparatory to a hunt. On entering, Mr. Lewis
observed a rifle suspended in a couple of buck-horns above the fire. He
said to the man, 'I am looking up