It was a great day in the village of New Salem and Clary’s Grove. The match was held on the ground in front of the store in which Lincoln had been clerking. There was much betting on the result, the odds being against Lincoln. Hardly, however, had the two wrestlers taken hold of each other before the Armstrong youth found that he had “met a foe worthy his steel.” The two wrestled long and hard, each doing his utmost to throw the other but to no avail. Both kept their feet; neither could throw the other. The Armstrong youth being convinced that he could not throw Lincoln, tried a “foul.” This resort to dishonest means to gain an advantage inflamed Lincoln with indignation, and he immediately caught young Armstrong by the throat, held him at arm’s length and “shook him like a child.” Armstrong’s friends rushed to his rescue, and for a time it seemed as if Lincoln would be mobbed. But he held his own bravely and all alone, and by his daring excited the admiration of even those whose sympathies were with young Armstrong. What at one time seemed to result in a general fight resulted in a general handshake, even “Jack” Armstrong declaring that Lincoln was “the best fellow who ever broke into camp.” LINCOLN SPLIT 400 RAILS FOR A YARD OF BROWN JEANS. When Lincoln lived in Illinois (New Salem) he wore trousers made of flax and tow cut tight at the ankles and out at both knees. Though a very poor young man he was universally welcomed in every house of the neighborhood. Money was so scarce in those days that it is known that Lincoln once split 400 rails for every yard of brown jeans, dyed with white walnut bark, that would be necessary to make him a pair of trousers. LINCOLN AS A VERSE WRITER. Even when he was a boy Lincoln was sometimes called upon to write poetry. The following are among his earliest attempts at rhyme: Good boys who to their books apply, Will all be great men by and by. It is needless to say that Lincoln himself carried out what he wrote so well; in other words, he “practiced what he preached.” It was in a great measure owing to his constant application to his books that he afterward became a great man. The following poem Mr. Lincoln wrote in 1844, while on a visit to the home of his childhood: My childhood’s home I see again And sadden with the view; And, still, as memory crowds my brain, There’s pleasure in it, too. Oh, memory, thou midway world ’Twixt earth and paradise, Where things decayed and loved ones lost In dreamy shadows rise; And, freed from all that’s earthy vile, Seems hallowed, pure and bright, Like scenes in some enchanted isle, All bathed in liquid light. LINCOLN’S QUICK WIT IN HELPING A GIRL TO SPELL A WORD.