Part 30 (1/2)
Her face looked into Abraham's for the last time.
”Live,” she said, ”as I have taught you. Love your kindred, and wors.h.i.+p G.o.d.”
She faded away, and her husband made her coffin with a whip-saw out of green wood, and on a changing October day they laid her away under the trees. They were leaving her grave now, the humblest of all places then, but a shrine to-day, for her son's character has glorified it.
He must have always remembered the hymns that she used to sing. Some of them were curious compositions. In the better cla.s.s of them were; ”Am I a soldier of the cross,” ”Alas! and did my Saviour bleed,” and ”How tedious and tasteless the hour.” The camp-meeting melodies were simple, mere movements, like the negro songs.
Abraham swung his whip l.u.s.tily over the oxen's heads on that long spring journey, and directed the way. The wheels of the cart were great rollers, and they creaked along. Here and there the roads were muddy, but the sky was blue above, and the buds were swelling, and the birds were singing, and the little dog that belonged to the party kept close to his heels, and the poor people journeyed on under the giant timber, and out of it at times along the ocean-like prairies of the Illinois.
The world was before them--an expanse of forest and prairie that in fifty years were to be changed by the axe and plowshare into prosperous farms and homesteads, and settled by the restless nations of the world.
The journey was long. There were spells of wintry weather, for the spring advanced by degrees even here. Streams overflowing their banks lay across their way, and these had to be forded.
One morning the party came to a stream covered with thin ice. The oxen and horses hesitated, but were forced into the cold water. After a dreary effort the hardy pilgrims pa.s.sed over and mounted the western bank. A sharp cry was heard on the opposite side.
”You have left the dog, Abe,” said one. ”Good riddance to him! I am glad that we are quit of him at last.”
The dog's pitiable cry rang out on the crisp, cool air. He was barking _to_ Abraham, and the teamster's heart recognized that the animal's call was to him.
”See him run, and howl!” said another. ”Whip up, Abe, and we will soon be out of sight.”
Young Lincoln looked behind. The little animal would go down to the water, and try to swim across, but the broken ice drove him back. Then he set up a cry, as much as to say:
”Abe, Abe, you will not leave me!”
”Drive on,” said one of the men. ”He'll take care of himself. He'd no business to lag behind. What do we want of the dog, anyway?”
The animal cried more and more piteously and l.u.s.tily.
”Whoa!” said Lincoln.
”What are you going to do, Abe?”
”To do as I would be done by. I can't stand that.”
Lincoln plunged into the frozen water and waded across. The dog, overjoyed, leaped into his arms. Lincoln returned, having borne the little dog in his arms across the stream. He was cold and dripping, and was censured for causing a needless delay. But he had a happy face and heart.
Referring to this episode of the journey a long time afterward, Lincoln said to a friend:
”I could not endure the idea of abandoning even a dog. Pulling off shoes and socks, I waded across the stream, and triumphantly returned with the s.h.i.+vering animal under my arms. His frantic leaps of joy, and other evidences of grat.i.tude, repaid me for all the exposure I had undergone.”
CHAPTER XVIII.
MAIN-POGUE.
Jasper taught for a time near New Salem, then made again his usual circuit, after which he made his home for a time at Springfield, Illinois. When Jasper was returning from this last circuit of his self-appointed mission the Black Hawk war had begun again. He came one day, after long wanderings, to Bushville, in Schuyler County, Illinois, and found the place in a state of great excitement. The town was filling with armed men, and among them were many faces that he had seen at New Salem, when Waubeno was his companion.
He recognized a Mr. Green, whom he had known in New Salem, and said to him:
”My friend, what does this armed gathering mean?”