four hundred rails for every yard of brown jeans, dyed with white walnut bark, that would be necessary to make him a pair of trousers; and that was the way he got trousers that were not out at the knees.”

“What about reading? Was he fond of books?”

“When I worked with him, he’d not much chance to fool with books; but he was allers talkin’ history, and politics, and great men; and I have seen him goin’ to his work with a book in his hand. Then, Abe walked five, six, and seven miles to his work.”

It is quite evident that Abraham made himself extremely useful in Illinois in the year 1830 by his industry and hard labour. He made himself very agreeable, also, by his intelligence and social qualities. George Cluse says, “He was a welcome guest in every house in the neighbourhood.”

In the autumn of that year fever and ague visited the region of Decatur, and every member of the Lincoln family was attacked by it—not severely, nevertheless with sufficient violence to make them “shake.” Even Abraham’s stalwart frame came under its power for a brief season; but he shook it off before it had much of a chance to shake him. The experience, however, satisfied the family that their location in Illinois was not favourable to health. And we may state here as well as anywhere, that, in consequence of the appearance of this disease, Mr. Lincoln removed subsequently to a more favourable locality, and finally settled in Cole’s County, where he died on the 17th of January, 1851.

The first winter of the Lincolns in Illinois was a very trying one. It was the winter of the “great snow,” as it was called, when, for weeks, it averaged three feet deep. Being chiefly dependent upon the rifle for meat, the severity of the winter interfered somewhat with their supplies. But for the strength, endurance, and perseverance of Abraham, their comforts would have been abridged much more. His use of the rifle during that rigorous winter well nigh disproved what one of his early associates writes to us, viz.: “Abe was not much of a hunter; we seldom went hunting together. The time spent by us boys in this amusement was improved by him in the perusal of some good book.”