We all no doubt think ourselves honest; but I wonder if we are as strictly honest as Mr. Lincoln was. After measuring out some tea for a lady one evening in the store, he gave it to her. After attending to other work in the store, he happened to pass by the scales and noticed he had made a mistake and given her too little. He measured out the difference, wrapped it up, and although the woman lived a long distance away, he hastened off to bring her the difference. Perhaps the most of us might have thought that we would wait until she came in again and give it to her and perhaps then forget all about it; but that was not Mr. Lincoln's way. One evening after discovering that he had taken six and a fourth cents too much from a customer, he walked three miles and returned the money at once. He also was postmaster, but the postoffice was so small and did such a little business that the government closed it up. They neglected, however, to get the balance due them of about sixteen dollars. Many years afterwards when Mr. Lincoln was living in Springfield, the agent for the government came to his office for the money. In the meantime Mr. Lincoln had been through some very great poverty, and often needed just a little money very much. I presume many people would have borrowed that sixteen dollars for the time and returned it when the agent came for it. A friend of Mr. Lincoln's called him to one side when the agent came for the money, and said he knew he was poor, and probably did not have that amount with him, and he would loan it to him; but Mr. Lincoln said he did not need it, and asking the agent to wait awhile, he went over to his room and got an old sock out of his trunk and bringing this back to the office, untied it and dumped on the table the exact money he had received as the postmaster many years before. Here is a good lesson for us in strict and exact honesty. This instance illustrates Mr. Lincoln's very strict honesty, and as he became known about New Salem, and this characteristic was seen by the people, he was nicknamed "Honest Abe," and this name for honesty went with him ever afterward, and when he would speak to the jury in a law suit, and tell them the facts, they would always believe him because he was known as "Honest Abe," and would not tell a lie. So you see that it was a very great advantage to him in after years to have been so strictly honest. It proves the old saying true, that "Honesty is the best policy."