Among those who called to congratulate Mr. Lincoln upon his nomination
for President was an old lady, very plainly dressed. She knew Mr.
Lincoln, but Mr. Lincoln did not at first recognize her. Then she
undertook to recall to his memory certain incidents connected with his
ride upon the circuit--especially his dining at her house upon the road
at different times. Then he remembered her and her home.
Having fixed her own place in his recollection, she tried to recall to
him a certain scanty dinner of bread and milk that he once ate at her
house. He could not remember it--on the contrary, he only remembered
that he had always fared well at her house.
“Well,” she said, “one day you came along after we had got through
dinner, and we had eaten up everything, and I could give you nothing but
a bowl of bread and milk, and you ate it; and when you got up you said
it was good enough for the President of the United States!”
The good woman had come in from the country, making a journey of eight
or ten miles, to relate to Mr. Lincoln this incident, which, in her
mind, had doubtless taken the form of a prophecy. Mr. Lincoln placed
the honest creature at her ease, chatted with her of old times, and
dismissed her in the most happy frame of mind.