SCENE: The Lincoln kitchen and living-room. Place: Little Pigeon Creek,
Indiana. Time, 1823.

The room is bright and clean, showing both thrift and poverty. There
are two windows in background, with well-mended, faded curtains of the
cheapest cotton. Between these two windows a stout door, which gives on
the outside road. On the door is tacked a raccoon skin.

By the window at right a plain pine table and chair. The end of the
table is set with a plate, knife, fork, drinking-cup, etc., for one
person, and there are corndodgers in generous quantities, and a jug of
molasses.

In the middle of the right wall there is a wide-mouthed fireplace, with
black andirons, several iron pots, and a skillet. Above the hearth
strips of leather nailed to the wall serve as holders for empty powder-
horns, knives, etc. There is a pine bench by the hearth, placed so that
those sitting on it face the audience. Also a three-legged pine stool.
Beyond the hearth, towards the background, a dresser with a few dishes.

Fastened to the wall, left foreground, is a pine shelf on which stand
Abraham Lincoln's books, well-worn copies of "Robinson Crusoe" "Aesop's
Fables," "Pilgrim's Progress," etc., etc. Above this shelf a clock,
battered yet adequate. A bearskin rug on the floor. The whole scene is
homely, peaceful, intimate.

The embers on the hearth give out a dull glow which leaves the room in
semi-darkness, yet lights up several objects by the hearthstone--
namely, a heap of pine cones, some dried spice-wood bushes, a rude