told the people they oughtn't to do so, and then the hired folks ate
in the kitchen." This differentiation was apparent to Lincoln and
a little discouraging. He was thinking vaguely, at the time of this
removal to Springfield, that perhaps he best marry a Miss Mary Owens,
with whom he had become intimately acquainted in 1836 in New Salem;
but Springfield society, and the impossibility of his supporting a
wife in it, discouraged him.

"I am often thinking of what we said about your coming to live
at Springfield," he wrote her in May.

"I am afraid you would not be satisfied. There is a great deal
of flourishing about in carriages here, which it would be your
doom to see without sharing it. You would have to be poor,
without the means of hiding your poverty. Do you believe you
could bear that patiently? Whatever woman may cast her lot
with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do
all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is
nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to
fail in the effort. I know I should be much happier with you
than the way I am, provided I saw no signs of discontent in
you. What you have said to me may have been in the way of
jest, or I may have misunderstood it. If so, then let it be
forgotten; if otherwise, I much wish you would think seriously
before you decide. What I have said I will most positively
abide by, provided you wish it. My opinion is that you had
better not do it. You have not been accustomed to hardship,
and it may be more severe than you now imagine. I know you
are capable of thinking correctly on any subject, and if you
deliberate maturely upon this before you decide, then I am