Since I began this letter a messenger came to tell me Bob was lost; but by the time I reached the house his mother had found him and had him whipped.
By now, very likely, he is run away again." December 21, 1850, a third son, William Wallace, was born to him; and on April 4, 1853, a fourth and last child, named Thomas.
"A young man bred in Springfield," says Dr.Holland, "speaks of a vision of Lincoln, as he appeared in those days, that has clung to his memory very vividly.

The young man's way to school led by the lawyer's door.

On almost any fair summer morning he would find Lincoln on the sidewalk in front of his house, drawing a child backward and forward in a little gig.

Without hat or coat, wearing a pair of rough shoes, his hands behind him holding 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 and intent only on some subject that absorbed his mind.

The young man says he remembers wondering in his boyish way how so rough and plain a man should happen to live in so respectable a house.