"Not at all. The hardships of my early life gave me strong muscles."

And as there happened to be in the yard, by the doorway, a
chopping-block with the ax left stuck on the top as usual, he took it
out, swung, and poised it to get the unfamiliar heft, and chopped up
a stick lying handy. When he paused, from no more left to do, he held
out the implement straight, forming one line with his extended arm,
and not a nerve quivered any more than the helve or the blade. The
workers, who knew what hard work was, gazed with wonder at what they
could not have done for a moment. One of them gathered up the chips
and disposed of them for relics to the sightseers who welcomed such
tokens of the great ruler.

(An American visiting Mr. Gladstone's country seat, Hawarden, and
seeing the premier chopping a tree for health's sake, observed
humorously, having also seen Mr. Lincoln employed as above:
"Your Grand Old Man is going in at the same hole ours went out!")


* * * * *


HE USED TO BE "GOOD ON THE CHOP."

In the beginning of 1865, the President was wont to pay visits to the
James River, not merely to inspect the camps and the field-hospitals,
but to have a peep at "the promised _land_"--that is, Richmond,
still held by the rapidly melting and discouraged Southerners as the
"Last Ditch." In one of his strolls he came upon a gang of lumbermen