Abe Lincoln, and bring him back in the buggy to appear on the case. Guess he'll come if he can!" So he set off. He found the young law yer, not in his office, but at a street corner, surrounded by a troop of small urchins, he laughing heartily at the fun. The letter was handed to him. But, being otherwise en gaged, he said : "All right, wait a minute, I must clean out these young 'uns at ' knucks ' first!" The operation went on amid peals of laughter. That concluded, he proceeded to accompany the son-in-law of his friend in his buggy to the neighboring town. And the peals of ringing laughter continued, as Abe recounted story after story in his inimitable way, so much so, that the driver says, to-day, he never had such a job to hold his lines and guide his horse in his life. At length, so con vulsed was he that the horse guided himself, — into the ditch, — turned over the vehicle, upset the occupants and smashed up the buggy. "You stay behind and look after the buggy," said Lincoln, " I'll walk on." This he did in time for the court, went in and won the case. "What am I to pay you?" inquired the delighted client. "I hope you won't think ten or fifteen dollars too much," answered the young law yer, " but I'll pay the half-hire of the buggy and half the cost of getting it repaired." "There was another young lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, at that time, who was reckoned as smart as Abe Lincoln," con tinued the old gentleman of the wagon
factory, " and by some considered smarter. If one was engaged on one side in a case, the other was sure to be selected by the other side as his opponent. They were for ever tilting one against the other in court. Outside they were the best of friends and when the case was over would leave the courtroom arm in arm. Church ( that was the other man's name) took to drinking. He would sober up for a time and then go at it as bad as ever. This went on, drinking down and sobering up, year after year. Finally, just at the time the war was thick est, Church thought he would go right away from his old haunts and see if he could not do better. "As he was moving along he got tangled up with the guerillas on the Confederate side and was taken prisoner with a lot of them. He denied being one of them, but would not give his name and could bring no proof. Consequence was, he was condemned to death, but took it mighty cool. He said he knew he'd get off! The day for the execu tion came along, but the man was as cool as ever. On the morning he scribbled off a bit of a telegram and asked to have it sent at once. It was to the President, signed with a gibberish name of three letters that meant nothing, it seemed. In an hour came the telegraphed orders from President Lin coln, 'Set my friend Church at liberty at once.' "It appeared the three-lettered signature was some pet name Abe Lincoln had formerly for his chum. "Church was, of coutse, liberated at once; he disappeared into parts unknown, and has never been heard of since."
