The stranger took a jack-knife from his pocket.

'This knife,' said he, 'was placed in my hands some years ago with the injunction that I was to keep it until I found a man uglier than myself.

I have carried it from that time to this.

Allow me to say, sir, that I think you are fairly entitled to the property.'" Mr.Gillespie says of Lincoln's passion for story-telling: "As a boon companion, Lincoln, although he never drank liquor or used tobacco in any form, was without a rival.

No one would ever think of 'putting in' when he was talking.