a lift. It was the spontaneous, unobtrusive helpfulness of the man's
nature which endeared him to everybody and which inspired a general
desire to do all possible in return. There are many tales told of
homely service rendered him, even by the hard-working farmers' wives
around New Salem. There was not one of them who did not gladly "put on
a plate" for Abe Lincoln when he appeared, or would not darn or mend
for him when she knew he needed it. Hannah Armstrong, the wife of the
hero of Clary's Grove, made him one of her family. "Abe would come out
to our house," she said, "drink milk, eat mush, cornbread and
butter, bring the children candy, and rock the cradle while I got him
something to eat.... Has stayed at our house two or three weeks at
a time." Lincoln's pay for his first piece of surveying came in the
shape of two buckskins, and it was Hannah who "foxed" them on his
trousers.

His relations were equally friendly in the better homes of the
community; even at the minister's, the Rev. John Cameron's, he was
perfectly at home, and Mrs. Cameron was by him affectionately called
"Aunt Polly." It was not only his kindly service which made Lincoln
loved; it was his sympathetic comprehension of the lives and joys and
sorrows and interests of the people. Whether it was Jack Armstrong
and his wrestling, Hannah and her babies, Kelso and his fishing and
poetry, the schoolmaster and his books--with one and all he was at
home. He possessed in an extraordinary degree the power of entering
into the interests of others, a power found only in reflective,
unselfish natures endowed with a humorous sense of human foibles,
coupled with great tenderness of heart. Men and women amused Lincoln,
but so long as they were sincere he loved them and sympathized with
them. He was human in the best sense of that fine word.