but I little
thought then that he would become the greatest man that this country
ever produced, or perhaps ever will. Many a night I have sat up
listening to Lincoln's wonderful stories. That was a long time
ago--nearly sixty years. I shall be ninety-two years old in a few
days. I was six years older than Lincoln."

[Illustration: INVITATION TO A SPRINGFIELD COTILLION PARTY OF WHICH
LINCOLN WAS ONE OF THE MANAGERS.

The invitation is in the collection of Mr. C.F. Gunther of Chicago,
through whose courtesy it is here reproduced.]

"I used to play the fiddle a great deal, and have played for Lincoln a
number of times. He used to come over to where I was boarding and ask
me to play the fiddle for him; and I would take it with me when I went
over to visit him, and when he grew weary of telling stories he would
ask me to give him a tune, which I never refused to do."

LINCOLN MOVES TO SPRINGFIELD.

As soon as the Assembly closed, Lincoln returned to New Salem; but it
was not to stay. He had determined to go to Springfield. Major John
Stuart, the friend who had advised him to study law and who had lent
him books and with whom he had been associated closely in politics,
had offered to take him as a partner. It was a good opening, for
Stuart was one of the leading lawyers and politicians of the State,
and his influence would place Lincoln at once in command of more or
less business. From every point of view the change seems to have been
wise; yet Lincoln made it with foreboding.

To practise law he must abandon his business as surveyor, which was
bringing him a fair income; he must for a time, at least, go without
any certain income. If he failed, what then? The uncertainty weighed
on him heavily, the more so because he was burdened by the debts left
from his store and because he was constantly called upon to aid his
father's family. Thomas Lincoln had remained in Coles County, but he
had not, in these six years in which his son had risen so rapidly,
been able to get anything more than a poor livelihood from his farm.
The sense of responsibility Lincoln had towards his father's family
made it the more difficult for him to undertake a new profession. His
decision was made, however, and as soon as the session of the Tenth
Assembly was over he started for Springfield. His first appearance
there is as pathetic as amusing.

"He had ridden into town," says Joshua Speed, "on a borrowed horse,
with no earthly property save