Lincoln could not rest for an instant under the consciousness that he
had, even unwittingly, defrauded anybody. On one occasion, while
clerking in Offutt's store, at New Salem, Ill., he sold a woman a
little bill of goods, amounting in value by the reckoning, to two
dollars six and a quarter cents. He received the money, and the woman
went away. On adding the items of the bill again, to make sure of its
correctness, he found that he had taken six and a quarter cents too
much. It was night, and, closing and locking the store, he started out
on foot, a distance of two or three miles, for the house of his
defrauded customer, and, delivering over to her the sum whose
possession had so much troubled him, went home satisfied.
On another occasion, just as he was closing the store for the night, a
woman entered, and asked for a half pound of tea. The tea was weighed
out and paid for, and the store was left for the night. The next
morning, Lincoln entered to begin the duties of the day, when he
discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. He saw at once that he
had made a mistake, and, shutting the store, he took a long walk
before breakfast to deliver the remainder of the tea. These are very
humble incidents, but they illustrate the man's perfect
conscientiousness--his sensitive honesty--better perhaps than they
would if they were of greater moment.