would gather and cluster around him to hear him talk. Mr. Lincoln was
figurative in his speech, talks, and conversation. He argued much from
analogy, and explained things hard for us to understand by stories,
maxims, tales, and figures. He would almost always point his lesson or
idea by some story that was plain and near us, that we might instantly
see the force and bearing of what he said."

There is one other testimony to his character as a boy which should
not be omitted. It is that of his step-mother:

"Abe was a good boy, and I can say, what scarcely one woman--a
mother--can say in a thousand, Abe never gave me a cross word or look,
and never refused, in fact or appearance, to do anything I requested
him. I never gave him a cross word in all my life.... His mind and
mine--what little I had--seemed to run together. He was here after he
was elected President. He was a dutiful son to me always. I think he
loved me truly. I had a son, John, who was raised with Abe. Both were
good boys; but I must say, both now being dead, that Abe was the best
boy I ever saw, or expect to see."

[Illustration: WILLIAM JONES.

The store in Gentryville, in which Lincoln first made his reputation
as a debater and story-teller, was owned by Mr. Jones. The year before
the Lincolns moved to Illinois Abraham clerked in the store, and it is
said that when he left Indiana, Mr. Jones sold him a pack of goods
which he peddled on his journey. Mr. Jones was the representative from
Spencer County in the State legislature from 1838 to 1841. He is no
longer living. His son, Captain William Jones, is still in
Gentryville.]