When Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer in Illinois, he and a certain Judge
once got to bantering one another about trading horses; and it was
agreed that the next morning at 9 o'clock they should make a trade,
the horses to be unseen up to that hour, and no backing out, under a
forfeiture of $25.
At the hour appointed the Judge came up, leading the sorriest-looking
specimen of a horse ever seen in those parts. In a few minutes Mr.
Lincoln was seen approaching with a wooden saw-horse upon his
shoulders. Great were the shouts and the laughter of the crowd, and
both were greatly increased when Mr. Lincoln, on surveying the Judge's
animal, set down his saw-horse, and exclaimed: "Well, Judge, this is
the first time I ever got the worst of it in a horse trade."