Mr. Lincoln used to tell the story of a shaggy old man, who was a great hunter and lived in the edge of the timber. One morning he stood out in front of his door firing away at a squirrel in a tree. He kept shooting, but the squirrel did not come down. His son came up and asked what he was firing at. The father said: "Don't you see that squirrel up there in the tree?" The son looked and looked in every possible way but could see no squirrel. Still the father kept firing away. At last the son looking at him said: "Father I see what's the matter. There is an ant hanging on the end of your eyebrow and you have been looking at it."
FIRST RIGHTFUL DECISION.
Attorney-General Bates objected to the appointment of a certain Judge to a government position. Mr. Lincoln said: "He did me a favor once, let me tell you about it."
"I was walking to court one morning with ten miles of bad road before me. The Judge overtook me and said:
"'Hello, Lincoln, going to the court house? Get in and I will give you a ride.'
"I got in and the Judge went on reading some court papers. Soon the carriage struck a stump on one side of the road and then something else on the other side. I looked out and saw the driver jerking from one side to the other on his seat, so I said, 'Judge I think your driver has taken a drop too much of liquor this morning.'
"'Well I declare Lincoln,' said he, 'I should not much wonder if you are right, for he has nearly upset me half a dozen times since starting.' Putting his head out of the window he shouted, 'You scoundrel, you are drunk.'
"Upon which pulling up his horses and turning around with gravity, the driver said, 'Golly, but that's the first rightful decision your honor has given for the last twelve months.'"