One evening while E.D.  Baker was speaking in the crowded village court room above Lincoln’s office and was rudely interrupted and in danger of assault, the long legs of Honest Abe suddenly appeared through a scuttle hole in the ceiling above the platform.  He leaped upon it and seizing a stone water pitcher defied any one to interfere with the right of free speech in a worthy cause.

So it will be seen that there were zestful moments in these sundry vindications of the principles of Democracy in the prairie capital.

About this time Miss Mary Todd, the daughter of a Kentucky banker, arrived in Springfield to visit her sister, Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards.  She was a fashionably dressed, good-looking girl of blue-gray eyes and dark hair.  She had been well educated in the schools of Lexington and could speak French as well as English.

“Well, Mary, haven’t you found the fortunate young man yet?” Mr. Edwards playfully asked the day of her coming.

“You know my husband is going to be President of the United States and I hoped that I would find him in Springfield,” Mary answered in a like vein.

“There’s great fishing here,” said Mr. Edwards.  “I know the very man you are looking for.  He has come up from the ranks and is now the most popular member of the Legislature.  He can make a stirring speech and they say he is going to be the President of the United States.  He’s wise and witty and straight as a string but a rough diamond—­big, awkward and homely.  You’re just the girl to take him in hand and give him a little polish and push him along.  His name is Abraham Lincoln.”

Speed knew the Todds—­a distinguished Kentucky family with a Governor of Virginia and other historic figures in its record.  When he called upon Mary she asked about Mr. Lincoln and said she would like to meet him.

“She’s just the girl for you, Abe,” Speed said to him that evening.  “She is bright and well educated and her family has influence.  She could be a great help to you.”

This interested the member from Sangamon County who was indeed eager to get along.  The companionship of a refined young lady was the very thing he needed.

“Let’s go over and pay our respects to her,” Speed suggested.  They went, Lincoln being carefully dressed in his first suit of black clothes.  Miss Todd was a bright, vivacious girl of middle stature, twenty-two years old.  She was fashionably dressed and carried her head proudly—­a smart-looking, witty, well spoken girl but not especially handsome.  She was most agreeable to the young men.  Honest Abe was deeply impressed by her talk and fine manners and general comeliness.  He felt her grace and charm and spoke of it, with enthusiasm.  But to him and to her there seemed to be an impassable gulf between them.  She changed her mind about that, however, when she heard him speak and felt the power of his personality and saw his face lighted by the candle of his spirit.  It was a handsome