"'Why, yes,' said Dick, pointing with his toe, 'don't you see there is the shape of it; there's the steps and front door—here the pews, where the folks set—and there's the pulpit.
"Yes, I see,' said I; 'but why don't you make a minister?
"'Laws,' answered Dick, with a grin, 'I hain't got mud enough.'"
How Lincoln Stood Up for the Word "Sugar-Coated."
Mr. Defrees, the Government printer, states, that, when one of the President's message was being printed, he was a good deal disturbed by the use of the term "sugar-coated," and finally went to Mr. Lincoln about it. Their relations to each other being of the most intimate character, he told the President frankly, that he ought to remember that a message to Congress was a different affair from a speech at a mass meeting in Illinois; that the messages became a part of history, and should be written accordingly.
"What is the matter now?" inquired the President.
"Why," said Mr. Defrees, "you have used an undignified expression in the message;" and then, reading the paragraph aloud, he added, I would alter the structure of that if I were you."
"Defrees," replied Mr. Lincoln, "that word expresses exactly my idea, and I am not going to change it. The time will never come in this country when the people won't know exactly what 'sugar-coated' means."
On a subsequent occasion, Mr. Defrees states that a certain sentence of another message was very awkwardly constructed. Calling the President's attention to it in the proof-copy, the latter acknowledged the force of the objection raised, and said, "Go home, Defrees, and see if you can better it."
The next day Mr. Defrees took into him his amendment. Mr. Lincoln met him by saying: