"It was to him a time of rest, of reading, of social happiness, and of professional prosperity. He was already a father, and took an almost unbounded delight in his children. The most that he could say to any rebel in his household was, 'You break my heart, when you act like this.' A young man bred in Springfield speaks of a vision that has clung to his memory very vividly.... His way to school led by the lawyer's door. On almost any fair summer morning he could find Mr. Lincoln on the sidewalk in front of his house, drawing a child backward and forward, in a child's gig. Without hat or coat, and wearing a pair of rough shoes, his hands behind him holding on to the tongue of the gig, and his tall form bent forward to accommodate himself to the service, he paced up and down the walk forgetful of everything around him. The young man says he remembers wondering how so rough and plain a man should live in so respectable a house." Once Lincoln was sitting on the porch when three-year-old Willie escaped from the bathtub, ran out cf the house and the gate, up the street, and into a field. There his father caught him, and carried him home on his shoulder. The children liked to ride on his shoulder, and they clambered for the position. If they could not get there, they contented themselves with hanging to his coat tails. One day a neighbor heard the boys crying, and asked what was the matter. "Just what's the matter with the whole world," was Lincoln's reply. "I've got three walnuts, and each wants two." During the last day of the Republican Convention of 1860, which was in session in Chicago, Lincoln was in the office of the Springfield _Journal_, receiving word of the progress of events. A messenger came in and said to him, "The Convention has made a nomination, and Mr. Seward is--the second man on the list!" After reading the telegram, and receiving the congratulations of all in the office, Lincoln spoke of the little woman on Eighth Street who had some interest in the matter, and said he would go home and tell her the news. When the news became generally known, the citizens followed him to the house on Eighth Street. In the evening, after a meeting in the State House, the Republicans present marched to the Lincoln home. The nominee made a speech, and invited as many as could get in to enter the house. "After the fourth of March we will give you a larger house," came the laughing response. Next day Lincoln was in a quandary. Some of his friends had sent him a present of wines and other liquors, that he might be able to give what they thought would be appropriate refreshment to the Committee sent from Chicago to notify the nominee. Before the formal notification, Lincoln asked the members what he should do with the wine. J. G. Holland says that "the chairman at once advised him to return the gift, and to offer no stimulants to his guests."