ABRAHAM LINCOLN 81 



at the landing of his plantation on the Mississippi River. In 

 due time the negro returned and made report : it was that the 

 unworthy suitor came with a group of his friends to witness 

 his success, mounted, and started to ride away, but the beast, 

 frisky from its long confinement, "stooped up behind," as the 

 darkeys phrase it, and threw his master and killed him. Whether 

 Lincoln had a hand in the negotiations which led to this finish 

 or not, I am sure that the humor of it must have tickled him. 



