with a new story, and as he would tell it in low tones the lawyers
would crowd about him to the neglect of everything else, and to the
great annoyance of the judge. He once called out: "Mr. Lincoln, we
can't hold two courts, one up here and one down there. Either yours or
mine must adjourn."

Once Lincoln came into the room late, leaned over the clerk's desk and
whispered to him a little story. Thereupon the clerk threw back his
head and laughed aloud. The judge thundered out, "Mr. Clerk, you may
fine yourself five dollars for contempt of court." The clerk quietly
replied, "I don't care; the story's worth it." After adjournment the
judge asked him, "What was that story of Lincoln's?" When it was
repeated the judge threw back his head and laughed, and added, "You may
remit the fine."

A stranger, hearing the fame of Lincoln's stories, attended court and
afterward said, "The stories are good, but I can't see that they help
the case any." An admiring neighbor replied with more zeal and justice
than elegance, "Don't you apply that unction to your soul." The
neighbor was right. Lincoln had not in vain spent the days and nights
of his boyhood and youth with Aesop. His stories were as luminous of
the point under consideration as were the stories which explained that
"this fable teaches."

Judge Davis wrote of him that "he was able to claim the attention of
court and jury when the cause was most uninteresting by the
_appropriateness_ of his anecdotes." Those who have tried to claim
Judge Davis' attention when he did not want to give it, will realize
the greatness of praise implied in this concession.