A well-worn copy of Shakespeare was also his constant companion.

He rose rapidly in the profession; and this in spite of his incorrigible
lack of system. The mechanical side of the lawyer's task, now, as in the
days with Logan, annoyed him; he left the preparation of papers to his
junior partner, as formerly he left it to his senior partner. But the
situation had changed in a very important way. In Herndon, Lincoln had
for a partner a talented young man who looked up to him, almost adored
him, who was quite willing to be his man Friday. Fortunately, for all
his adoration, Herndon had no desire to idealize his hero. He was not
disturbed by his grotesque or absurd sides.

"He was proverbially careless as to his habits," Herndon writes. "In a
letter to a fellow lawyer in another town, apologizing for his failure
to answer sooner, he explains: 'First, I have been very busy in the
United States Court; second, when I received the letter, I put it in my
old hat, and buying a new one the next day, the old one was set aside,
so the letter was lost sight of for the time.' This hat of Lincoln's--a
silk plug--was an extraordinary receptacle. It was his desk and his
memorandum book. In it he carried his bank-book and the bulk of his
letters. Whenever in his reading or researches, he wished to preserve
an idea, he jotted it down on an envelope or stray piece of paper and
placed it inside the lining; afterwards, when the memorandum was needed,
there was only one place to look for it." Herndon makes no bones about
confessing that their office was very dirty. So neglected was it that a
young man of neat habits who entered the office as a law student under
Lincoln could not refrain from cleaning it up, and the next visitor
exclaimed in astonishment, "What's happened here!"(3)