The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1869-08-19

ov1osJ euo 5ouemOCI0 W0en tnCy
left: Ho is loquaoious and proua
tclfvhat he knows Of "old Lincoln
and his boy. .
~ reckon" says tho sprightly oct
! genarian, II reckon Abe was the mo-
ill:gaiued, illcontrived urchiu that v.
ever born in Hardin county. He va
slow chap, and never had any mau
ners; though, to be sure, be was onl
nine years old when old man Line d
moved to Indiana. The old man 4.
mighty poor; hadn't any management
OF sccount and got shut of bis pror
crty mostly before he went away. Alb
was wbite-headed boy, and sometime
had to 60 all winter without shoes. /
heap Of the children did that way il
those days. The old man, being bar
pressed, dressed 10 very common home
spun, and reckon many i. winter wen
cold, and often without his dinner.
'fDid you ever expect to 80, that poo
boy President p
"Never never! Iwould a. soor
expect that one over there would be-
pointing to a dirty-faced, shabby-dresset
youngster, staring At US from the to]
of q horscblock.
"That is a pretty hard lookin,
boy ; is it yours?'
"Oh, no; it is my daughters youngest
and he is mighty pert. Hat is a grea
help to u.s."
"Do you say his name is Hat ?"
"We call him Hat, his name is Hat.
field. He's heap better looking than
Abe Lincoln was when he went t.
Indiana: He is not so slow and i'll
contrived. He is good t. jim round.
and Abe was too slow aud lazy"
''But Abe was mere boy"
eyes, to be sure, but Hat is only
nine, and We make him bring water
from the spring yonder, and he works
right smart"
I saw the former neighbor of the
Lincolas was not without some prejudice
and here our colloquy ended.
THE ENCLOSURE.
The enclosure in which the house
of the Lincolns stands, is now wholly
abandoned as a farm and is used only for
a pasture. A sassafras grove has
sprung up about the old logs, and the
yard is overgrown with hricrs aud fen
mel.
OLD FRUIT TREEs.
One venerable apple tree is struggling
for supremacy 10 a clump of young dog
woods At the corner which marks the
place where once stood an old stable.
A solitary pear tree towers up in the
bleak common under whose lonely
shade are crowding together. = small
flock Of sheep. A fev low peach trees
point where once stood the peach Or
chard, their dismantled tops properly
corresponding with the struggling lock
fence that runs by.
TIE N1lGHBoRHo0D.
To the south great old forest trees,
whose dark and denso boughs touch
The hazy sky, mark the meanderings
of Kane Run. Behind me, across the
road. is a long low house with a fat
roof, tall wellsweep in front, and
huge tobacco barn behind, with two
separate rooms opening by separate
doors upon dilapidated piazza, each
room occupied BY a negro family
Four little black boys, with shining
faces, habited in rags, are now poised
On the fence behind looking at me in
mute astonishmsnt. My good horse,
Dick, stands under an umbragecus
catalpha ruthlessly stamping aud dis
figuring tie ground where the young.
ster Lincoln played marbles halt cen :
tury ago, and the old man whipped
him round the corner for upsetting the
griudstone or filling his pocket with
Think not strange that I have in my
pocket small part Of the old door sill,
or that an unvarnished cane, taken from
tha aaasafraS 6rrnva dan0lea At kha y,om.