Presidents and First Ladies Trivia

[Eva Elisabeth]

One version of the story was already published in 1866 by Gordon Bill in: "Life of A.L." by Josiah Gilbert Holland (member of the Massachusetts Historical Society), pp.78-79:

"An amusing incident occurred in connection with one of these journeys, which gives a pleasant glimpse into the good lawyer's heart. He was riding by a deep slough, in which, to his exceeding pain, he saw a pig struggling, and with such faint efforts that it was evident that he could not extricate himself from the mud. Mr. Lincoln looked at the pig and the mud which enveloped him, and then looked at some new clothes with which he had but a short time before enveloped himself. Deciding against the claims of the pig, he rode on, but he could not get rid of the vision of the poor brute, and, at last, after riding two miles, he turned back, determined to rescue the animal at the expense of his new clothes. Arrived at the spot, he tied his horse, and coolly went to work to build of old rails a passage to the bottom of the hole. Descending on these rails, he seized the pig and dragged him out, but not without serious damage to the clothes he wore. Washing his hands in the nearest brook, and wiping them on the grass, he mounted his gig and rode along. He then fell to examining the motive that sent him back to the release of the pig. At the first thought, it seemed to be pure benevolence, but, at length, he came to the conclusion that it was selfishness, for he certainly went to the pig's relief in order (as he said to the friend to whom he related the incident,) to "take a pain out of his own mind." This is certainly a new view of the nature of sympathy, and one which it will be well for the casuist to examine."

Regarding the quote "take a pain out of his own mind" there seems to be another witness.
http://books.google.de/books?id=XG0FAAAA...&q&f=false

I just read that as a boy A. L. had also saved a ground hog (that had been stuck in a crevice beween two rocks) with a hook fastened to a long pole he fetched from a blacksmith about a quater of a mile away. It's in "Lincoln's animal friends", unfortunatelly without a source given. Does anyone know more? BTW, just to let you know what wonderful forum members there are - last Friday I found this book in a package in my mailbox. It was a gift from three forum members and one of the greatest gifts and surprises I could think of. Thank you so much again this way!!

One of my favorite stories, very similar, also from Herndon's Informants (Letter from Joshua F. Speed to William H. Herndon, 1883) is the following incident Joshua F. Speed recalled on the way back to Springfield in 1839:
"We were riding along a country road, two and two together, some distance apart, Lincoln and Jon. J. Hardin being behind. (Hardin was afterward made Colonel and was killed at Buena Vista). We were passing through a thicket of wild plum, and crab-apple trees, where we stopped to water our horses. After waiting some time Hardin came up and we asked him where Lincoln was. 'Oh,' said he, 'when I saw him last' (there had been a severe wind storm), 'he had caught two little birds in his hand, which the wind had blown from their nest, and he was hunting for the nest'. Hardin left him before he found it. He finally found the nest, and placed the birds, to use his own words, 'in the home provided for them by their mother'. When he came up with the party they laughed at him. Said he, earnestly, 'I could not have slept tonight if I had not given those two little birds to their mother'."