ERNEST COMES INTO HIS OWN
On Tuesday Bolton returned with Ernest. Two hours were spent in conference
with Stephen Ray. The latter fought hard, but yielded at last. He
understood the strength of his opponent's case.
Ernest consented to receive the estate as it was bequeathed to his father,
without any demand for back revenues. Whatever Stephen Ray had accumulated
besides, he was allowed to retain.
As this amounted to a hundred thousand dollars, Ray felt that it might
have been worse. Had he not been dissuaded by Bolton, Ernest would have
consented to share the estate with the usurper, but the lawyer represented
that this would be condoning the wrong done to his father.
In a month the whole matter was settled, and Stephen Ray removed to
Chicago, where he had business interests.
"But what shall I do with this large house?" asked Ernest. "I don't want
to live here."
"I know a gentleman who would like to hire it for a term of years,"
responded Bolton. "He will pay a rental of five thousand dollars a year.
The bonds which you inherit will yield an income equally large."
"So that my income will be ten thousand dollars a year?" said Ernest,
dazzled.
"Yes."
"What shall I do with it all?"
Bolton smiled.
"You are but seventeen," he said. "A few years hence you will probably
marry. Then you can occupy the house yourself. Meanwhile----"
"I will go back to California. Luke will expect me. While I am away I
appoint you my man of business. I wish you to have charge of my property
at a proper commission."
"I will undertake the charge with pleasure."
Bolton knew how much this would increase his importance in the eyes of the
firm by which he was employed. Ernest could not have made a better choice.
Bolton was no longer intemperate. He was shrewd and keen, and loyal to his
young employer.
Ernest returned to California, but he had lost his old zest for business,
now that his fortune was secure. He soon came East again, and entered upon
a plan of study, ending with a college course. He brought with him Frank
Fox, the son of the dead outlaw, who regarded him with devoted affection.
They lived together, and he placed Frank at a well-known school, justly
noted for the success of its pupils.
Of the many boys with whom Frank associated not one suspected that the
attractive lad, who was a favorite with all, was a son of the desperado
whose deeds were a matter of common knowledge in the West. Ernest had
cautioned the boy to say as little as possible of his past history.
Years have gone, what Bolton predicted has come to pass. Ernest is a
college graduate, and will soon marry a young lady of high position in the
city of New York. He will go abroad for a year, and on his return will
make his home on his ancestral estate.
Last week he received a letter from a patient in a New York City hospital.
It was signed John Franklin, a name with which he was not familiar.
In some wonder he answered the call, and was led to a bed on which lay a
gaunt, spectral man, evidently in the last stage of existence.
"Is this John Franklin?" asked Ernest doubtfully.
"That is the name I go by now," answered the dying man.
"Do I know you? Have I ever met you?"
"Yes."
"I don't remember you."
"If I tell you my real name, will you keep it secret?"
"Yes."
"Then I am John Fox. You will not betray me?"
"No; certainly not. Can I do anything for you?"
"Yes; you are the guardian of my brother's child."
"Yes."
"Is he alive? Is he well?"
"Yes."
"Will you bring him here before I die?"
"I will. I cannot refuse the request of a dying man." Ernest brought Frank
to the bedside of his dying uncle. It was a sad interview. Frank was
moved, but John Fox, seeing him strong, handsome, robust, felt comforted.
"He at least has profited by the fate that overtook his father and myself.
I shall die content, for I leave him in good hands. Don't let him think
too hardly of us!"
"I will not. So far as I can compass it, his future life shall be happy."
The dying outlaw reached out his hand and pressed Ernest's gratefully. A
day later he was dead.
THE END
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber's Note: Bound with the preceeding book is an excerpt from
"Lincoln's Stories and Speeches," specifically from the chapter
"Early Life." As originally published, that material is included here.
How Lincoln Became a Captain.
In the threatening aspect of affairs at the time of the Black Hawk War,
Governor Reynolds issued a call for volunteers, and among the companies
that immediately responded was one from Menard County, Illinois. Many of
the volunteers were from New Salem and Clarey's Grove, and Lincoln, being
out of business, was first to enlist. The company being full, they held a
meeting at Richland for the election of officers. Lincoln had won many
hearts and they told him that he must be their captain. It was an office
that he did not aspire to, and one for which he felt that he had no
special fitness; but he consented to be a candidate. There was but one
other candidate for the office (a Mr. Kirkpatrick), and he was one of the
most influential men in the county. Previously, Kirkpatrick had been an
employer of Lincoln, and was so overbearing in his treatment of the young
man that the latter left him.
The simple mode of electing their captain, adopted by the company, was by
placing the candidates apart, and telling the men to go and stand with the
one they preferred. Lincoln and his competitor took their positions, and
then the word was given. At least three out of every four went to Lincoln
at once. When it was seen by those who had ranged themselves with the
other candidate that Lincoln was the choice of the majority of the
company, they left their places, one by one, and came over to the
successful side, until Lincoln's opponent in the friendly strife was left
standing almost alone.
"I felt badly to see him cut so," says a witness of the scene.
Here was an opportunity for revenge. The humble laborer was his employer's
captain, but the opportunity was never improved. Mr. Lincoln frequently
confessed that no subsequent success of his life had given him half the
satisfaction that this election did. He had achieved public recognition;
and to one so humbly bred, the distinction was inexpressibly delightful.
A Humorous Speech--Lincoln in the Black Hawk War.
The friends of General Cass, when that gentleman was a candidate for the
Presidency, endeavored to endow him with a military reputation. Mr.
Lincoln, at that time a representative in Congress, delivered a speech
before the House, which in its allusions to Mr. Cass, was exquisitely
sarcastic and irresistibly humorous:
"By the way, Mr. Speaker," said Mr. Lincoln, "do you know I am a military
hero? Yes, sir, in the days of the Black Hawk War, I fought, bled and came
away. Speaking of General Cass' career reminds me of my own. I was not at
Stillman's Defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass to Hull's surrender;
and like him I saw the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I
did not break my sword, for I had none to break, but I bent my musket
pretty badly on one occasion. * * * If General Cass went in advance of me
in picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him in charges upon the
wild onion. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it is more than I did,
but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and although I
never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very
hungry."
Mr. Lincoln concluded by saying that if he ever turned Democrat and should
run for the Presidency, he hoped they would not make fun of him by
attempting to make him a military hero!
Elected to the Legislature.
In 1834, Lincoln was a candidate for the legislature, and was elected by
the highest vote cast for any candidate. Major John T. Stuart, an officer
in the Black Hawk War, and whose acquaintance Lincoln made at Beardstown,
was also elected. Major Stuart had already conceived the highest opinion
of the young man, and seeing much of him during the canvass for the
election, privately advised him to study law. Stuart was himself engaged
in a large and lucrative practice at Springfield.
Lincoln said he was poor--that he had no money to buy books, or to live
where books might be borrowed or used. Major Stuart offered to lend him
all he needed, and he decided to take the kind lawyer's advice, and accept
his offer. At the close of the canvass which resulted in his election, he
walked to Springfield, borrowed "a load" of books of Stuart, and took them
home with him to New Salem.
Here he began the study of law in good earnest, though with no preceptor.
He studied while he had bread, and then started out on a surveying tour to
win the money that would buy more.
One who remembers his habits during this period says that he went, day
after day, for weeks, and sat under an oak tree near New Salem and read,
moving around to keep in the shade as the sun moved. He was so much
absorbed that some people thought and said that he was crazy.
[Illustration]
Not unfrequently he met and passed his best friends without noticing them.
The truth was that he had found the pursuit of his life, and had become
very much in earnest.
During Lincoln's campaign he possessed and rode a horse, to procure which
he had quite likely sold his compass and chain, for, as soon as the
canvass had closed, he sold the horse and bought these instruments
indispensable to him in the only pursuit by which he could make his
living.
When the time for the assembling of the legislature had arrived Lincoln
dropped his law books, shouldered his pack, and, on foot, trudged to
Vandalia, then the capital of the State, about a hundred miles, to make
his entrance into public life.
"The Long Nine."
The Sangamon County delegation to the Illinois Legislature, in 1834, of
which Lincoln was a member, consisting of nine representatives, was so
remarkable for the physical altitude of its members that they were known
as "The Long Nine." Not a member of the number was less than six feet
high, and Lincoln was the tallest of the nine, as he was the leading man
intellectually in and out of the House.
Among those who composed the House were General John A. McClernand,
afterwards a member of Congress; Jesse K. DuBois, afterwards Auditor of
the State; Jas. Semple, afterwards twice the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, and subsequently United States Senator; Robert Smith,
afterwards member of Congress; John Hogan, afterwards a member of Congress
from St. Louis; General James Shields, afterwards United States Senator
(who died recently); John Dement, who has since been Treasurer of the
State; Stephen A. Douglas, whose subsequent career is familiar to all;
Newton Cloud, President of the convention which framed the present State
Constitution of Illinois; John J. Hardin, who fell at Buena Vista; John
Moore, afterwards Lieutenant Governor of the State; William A. Richardson,
subsequently United States Senator, and William McMurtry, who has since
been Lieutenant Governor of the State.
This list does not embrace all who had then, or who have since been
distinguished, but it is large enough to show that Lincoln was, during the
term of this legislature, thrown into association, and often into
antagonism, with the brightest men of the new State.
A Joke on Lincoln's Big Feet.
He had walked his hundred miles to Vandalia; in 1836, as he did in 1834,
and when the session closed he walked home again. A gentleman in Menard
County remembers meeting him and a detachment of "The Long Nine" on their
way home. They were all mounted except Lincoln, who had thus far kept up
with them on foot.
If he had money he was hoarding it for more important purposes than that
of saving leg-weariness and leather. The weather was raw, and Lincoln's
clothing was none of the warmest.
Complaining of being cold to one of his companions, this irreverent member
of "The Long Nine" told his future President that it was no wonder he was
cold--"there was so much of him on the ground." None of the party
appreciated this homely joke at the expense of his feet (they were
doubtless able to bear it) more thoroughly than Lincoln himself.
We can imagine the cross-fires of wit and humor by which the way was
enlivened during this cold and tedious journey. The scene was certainly a
rude one, and seems more like a dream than a reality, when we remember
that it occurred not very many years ago, in a State which contains hardly
less than three millions of people and seven thousand and six hundred
miles of railway.
Lincoln's Marriage--Interesting Letters.
In 1842, in his thirty-third year, Mr. Lincoln married Miss Mary Todd, a
daughter of Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky. The marriage took
place in Springfield, where the lady had for several years resided, on the
fourth of November of the year mentioned. It is probable that he married
as early as the circumstances of his life permitted, for he had always
loved the society of women, and possessed a nature that took profound
delight in intimate female companionship.
A letter written on the eighteenth of May following his marriage, to J. F.
Speed, Esq., of Louisville, Kentucky, an early and a life-long personal
friend, gives a pleasant glimpse of his domestic arrangements at this
time. "We are not keeping house," Mr. Lincoln says in this letter, "but
boarding at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept by a widow lady of
the name of Beck. Our rooms are the same Dr. Wallace occupied there, and
boarding only costs four dollars a week. * * * I most heartily wish you
and your Fanny will not fail to come. Just let us know the time, a week in
advance, and we will have a room prepared for you, and we'll all be merry
together for awhile."
He seems to have been in excellent spirits, and to have been very hearty
in the enjoyment of his new relation. The private letters of Mr. Lincoln
were charmingly natural and sincere. His personal friendships were the
sweetest sources of his happiness.
To a particular friend, he wrote February 25, 1842: "Yours of the 16th,
announcing that Miss ---- and you 'are no longer twain, but one flesh,'
reached me this morning. I have no way of telling you how much happiness I
wish you both, though I believe you both can conceive it. I feel somewhat
jealous of both of you now, for you will be so exclusively concerned for
one another that I shall be forgotten entirely. My acquaintance with Miss
---- (I call her thus lest you should think I am speaking of your mother),
was too short for me to reasonably hope to long be remembered by her; and
still I am sure I shall not forget her soon. Try if you cannot remind her
of that debt she owes me, and be sure you do not interfere to prevent her
paying it.
[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RESIDENCE AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL.]
"I regret to learn that you have resolved not to return to Illinois. I
shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be
arranged in this world! If we have no friends we have no pleasure; and if
we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss.
"I did hope she and you would make your home here, yet I own I have no
right to insist. You owe obligations to her ten thousand times more sacred
than any you can owe to others, and in that light let them be respected
and observed. It is natural that she should desire to remain with her
relations and friends. As to friends, _she_ should not need them
anywhere--she would have them in abundance here. Give my kind regards to
Mr. ---- and his family, particularly to Miss E. Also to your mother,
brothers and sisters. Ask little E. D---- if she will ride to town with me
if I come there again. And, finally, give ---- a double reciprocation of
all the love she sent me. Write me often, and believe me, yours forever,
LINCOLN."
Lincoln's Mother--How He Loved Her.
"A great man," says J. G. Holland, "never drew his infant life from a
purer or more womanly bosom than her own; and Mr. Lincoln always looked
back to her with unspeakable affection. Long after her sensitive heart and
weary hands had crumbled into dust, and had climbed to life again in
forest flowers, he said to a friend, with tears in his eyes: 'All that I
am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother--blessings on her memory!'"
She was five feet, five inches high, a slender, pale, sad and sensitive
woman, with much in her nature that was truly heroic, and much that shrank
from the rude life around her.
Her death occurred in 1818, scarcely two years after her removal from
Kentucky to Indiana, and when Abraham was in his tenth year. They laid her
to rest under the trees near their cabin home, and, sitting on her grave,
the little boy wept his irreparable loss.
Gen. Linder's Early Recollections--Amusing Stories.
I did not travel, says Gen. Linder, on the circuit in 1835, on account of
my health and the health of my wife, but attended court at Charleston that
fall, held by Judge Grant, who had exchanged circuits with our judge,
Justin Harlan.
It was here I first met Abraham Lincoln, of Springfield, at that time a
very retiring and modest young man, dressed in a plain suit of mixed
jeans. He did not make any marked impression upon me, or any other member
of the bar. He was on a visit to his relations in Coles, where his father
and stepmother lived, and some of her children.
Lincoln put up at the hotel, and here was where I saw him. Whether he was
reading law at this time I cannot say. Certain it is, he had been admitted
to the bar, although he had some celebrity, having been a captain in the
Blackhawk campaign, and served a term in the Illinois Legislature; but if
he won any fame at that season I have never heard of it. He had been one
of the representatives from Sangamon.
If Lincoln at this time felt the divine afflatus of greatness stir within
him I have never heard of it. It was rather common with us then in the
West to suppose that there was no Presidential timber growing in the
Northwest, yet, he doubtless had at that time the stuff out of which to
make half a dozen Presidents.
I had known his relatives in Kentucky, and he asked me about them. His
uncle, Mordecai Lincoln, I had known from my boyhood, and he was naturally
a man of considerable genius; he was a man of great drollery, and it would
almost make you laugh to look at him. I never saw but one other man whose
quiet, droll look excited in me the same disposition to laugh, and that
was Artemus Ward.
He was quite a story-teller, and in this Abe resembled his Uncle Mord, as
we called him. He was an honest man, as tender-hearted as a woman, and to
the last degree charitable and benevolent.
No one ever took offense at Uncle Mord's stories--not even the ladies. I
heard him once tell a bevy of fashionable girls that he knew a very large
woman who had a husband so small that in the night she often mistook him
for the baby, and that upon one occasion she took him up and was singing
to him a soothing lullaby, when he awoke and told her that she was
mistaken, that the baby was on the other side of the bed.
Lincoln had a very high opinion of his uncle, and on one occasion he said
to me: "Linder, I have often said that Uncle Mord run off with the talents
of the family."
Old Mord, as we sometimes called him, had been in his younger days a very
stout man, and was quite fond of playing a game of fisticuffs with any one
who was noted as a champion.
He told a parcel of us once of a pitched battle that he had fought on the
side of a hill or ridge; that at the bottom there was a rut or canal,
which had been cut out by the freshets. He said they soon clinched, and he
threw his man and fell on top of him.
He said he always thought he had the best eyes in the world for measuring
distances, and having measured the distance to the bottom of the hill, he
concluded that by rolling over and over till they came to the bottom his
antagonist's body would fill it, and he would be wedged in so tight that
he could whip him at his leisure. So he let the fellow turn him, and over
and over they went, when about the twentieth revolution brought Uncle
Mord's back in contact with the rut, "and," said he, "before fire could
scorch a feather, I cried out in stentorian voice: 'Take him off!'"
"Clary's Grove Boys"--A Wrestling Match.
There lived at the time young Lincoln resided at New Salem, Illinois, in
and around the village, a band of rollicking fellows, or more properly,
roystering rowdies, known as the "Clary's Grove Boys." The special tie
that united them was physical courage and prowess. These fellows, although
they embraced in their number many men who have since become respectable
and influential, were wild and rough beyond toleration in any community
not made up like that which produced them. They pretended to be
"regulators," and were the terror of all who did not acknowledge their
role; and their mode of securing allegiance was by flogging every man who
failed to acknowledge it.
They took it upon themselves to try the mettle of every newcomer, and to
learn the sort of stuff he was made of.
Some of their number was appointed to fight, wrestle, or run a foot-race
with each incoming stranger. Of course Abraham Lincoln was obliged to pass
the ordeal.
Perceiving that he was a man who would not easily be floored; they
selected their champion, Jack Armstrong, and imposed upon him the task of
laying Lincoln upon his back.
There is no evidence that Lincoln was an unwilling party to the sport, for
it was what he had always been accustomed to. The bout was entered upon,
but Armstrong soon discovered that he had met more than his match.
The boys were looking on, and seeing that their champion was likely to get
the worst of it, did after the manner of such irresponsible bands. They
gathered around Lincoln, struck and disabled him, and then Armstrong, by
"legging" him, got him down.
Most men would have been indignant, not to say furiously angry, under such
foul treatment as this; but if Lincoln was either, he did not show it.
Getting up in perfect good humor, he fell to laughing over his
discomfiture, and joking about it. They had all calculated upon making him
angry, and they intended, with the amiable spirit which characterized the
"Clary's Grove Boys," to give him a terrible drubbing. They were
disappointed, and, in their admiration of him, immediately invited him to
become one of the company.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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By John Luther Langworthy
1. The Aeroplane Boys; or, The Young Pilots First Air Voyage
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