Lincoln never forgot a benefactor. He not only repaid the money with
interest, but nearly thirty years later remembered the kindness in a
most substantial way. After Lincoln left New Salem financial reverses
came to James Short, and he removed to the far West to seek his
fortune anew. Early in Lincoln's presidential term he heard that
"Uncle Jimmy" was living in California. One day Mr. Short received a
letter from Washington, D.C. Tearing it open, he read the gratifying
announcement that he had been commissioned an Indian agent.


THE KINDNESS SHOWN LINCOLN IN NEW SALEM.

The kindness of Mr. Short was not exceptional in Lincoln's New
Salem career. When the store had "winked out," as he put it, and the
post-office had been left without headquarters, one of his neighbors,
Samuel Hill, invited the homeless postmaster into his store. There was
hardly a man or woman in the community who would not have been glad
to do as much. It was a simple recognition on their part of Lincoln's
friendliness to them. He was what they called "obliging"--a man who
instinctively did the thing which he saw would help another, no matter
how trivial or homely it was. In the home of Rowan Herndon, where he
had boarded when he first came to the town, he had made himself loved
by his care of the children. "He nearly always had one of them
around with him," says Mr. Herndon. In the Rutledge tavern, where he
afterwards lived, the landlord told with appreciation how, when his
house was full, Lincoln gave up his bed, went to the store, and slept
on the counter, his pillow a web of calico. If a traveller "stuck in
the mud" in New Salem's one street, Lincoln was always the first to
help pull out the wheel. The widows praised him because he "chopped
their wood;" the overworked, because he was always ready to give them