_Mr. Stone (resuming his seat):_ By no means, ma'am.

_Mrs. Lincoln:_ I shall be obliged to you.

_Mr. Cuffney:_ Has Abraham decided what he will say to the invitation?

_Mrs. Lincoln:_ He will accept it.

_Mr. Stone:_ A very right decision, if I may say so.

_Mrs. Lincoln:_ It is.

_Mr. Cuffney:_ And you, ma'am, have advised him that way, I'll be
bound.

_Mrs. Lincoln:_ You said this was a great evening for me. It is, and
I'll say more than I mostly do, because it is. I'm likely to go into
history now with a great man. For I know better than any how great he
is. I'm plain looking and I've a sharp tongue, and I've a mind that
doesn't always go in his easy, high way. And that's what history will
see, and it will laugh a little, and say, "Poor Abraham Lincoln."
That's all right, but it's not all. I've always known when he should
go forward, and when he should hold back. I've watched, and watched,
and what I've learnt America will profit by. There are women like
that, lots of them. But I'm lucky. My work's going farther than
Illinois--it's going farther than any of us can tell. I made things
easy for him to think and think when we were poor, and now his
thinking has brought him to this. They wanted to make him Governor
of Oregon, and he would have gone and have come to nothing there. I