"Ready to go, Ann Rutledge?" he said when the party was over.
"I am waiting for mother," she answered with quiet dignity.
He laughed. "Who's afraid?" he whispered as they started home. But Ann walked beside her mother.
This did not prevent word going out that Abe Lincoln was shining up to Ann Rutledge. What other reason on earth could there be for a young man attending a quilting-bee and sitting by her and getting her all nervous right in the middle of her tulip-quilting.
POLITICS AND STEAMBOATS
There was considerable local pride in the pioneer hamlet of New Salem, and Abe Lincoln had entered into it with enthusiasm from the beginning of his citizenship. While he was ever present at political meetings and never silent, his opinion was that local needs were more pressing than national questions.