us the previous evening. The water was remarkably clear for this river
of plants, and the fish appeared to be sporting with us as we moved
over or near them. On the next day after we left Pekin we overhauled a
raft of saw-logs, with two men afloat on it to urge it on with poles
and to guide it in the channel. We immediately pulled up to them and
went on the raft, where we were made welcome by various
demonstrations, especially by an invitation to a feast on fish, corn-
bread, eggs, butter, and coffee, just prepared for our benefit. Of
these good things we ate almost immoderately, for it was the only warm
meal we had made for several days. While preparing it, and after
dinner, Lincoln entertained them, and they entertained us for a couple
of hours very amusingly." Kindly human companionship was a luxury in
that green wilderness, and was readily appreciated and paid for.

The returning warriors dropped down the river to the village of
Havana--from Pekin to Havana in a canoe! The country is full of these
geographical nightmares, the necessary result of freedom of
nomenclature bestowed by circumstances upon minds equally destitute of
taste or education. There they sold their boat,--no difficult task,
for a canoe was a staple article in any river-town,--and again set out
"the old way, over the sand-ridges, for Petersburg. As we drew near
home, the impulse became stronger and urged us on amazingly. The long
strides of Lincoln, often slipping back in the loose sand six inches
every step, were just right for me; and he was greatly diverted when
he noticed me behind him stepping along in his tracks to keep from
slipping." Thus the two comrades came back from their soldierings to
their humble homes, from which Lincoln was soon to start on the way
marked out for him by Providence, with strides which no comrade, with
whatever goodwill, might hope to follow.