Of Lincoln’s life at this period, another writer says:  “He lived simply, comfortably, and respectably, with neither expensive tastes nor habits.  His wants were few and simple.  He occupied a small unostentatious house in Springfield, and was in the habit of entertaining, in a very simple way, his friends and his brethren of the bar during the terms of the court and the sessions of the Legislature.  Mrs. Lincoln often entertained small numbers of friends at dinner and somewhat larger numbers at evening parties.  In his modest and simple home everything was orderly and refined, and there was always, on the part of both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, a cordial and hearty Western welcome which put every guest at ease.  Yet it was the wit and humor, anecdote, and unrivalled conversation of the host which formed the chief attraction and made a dinner at Lincoln’s cottage an event to be remembered.  Lincoln’s income from his profession was now from $2,000 to $3,000 per annum.  His property consisted of his house and lot in Springfield, a lot in the town of Lincoln which had been given to him, and 160 acres of wild land in Iowa which he had received for his services in the Black Hawk War.  He owned a few law and miscellaneous books.  All his property may have been of the value of $10,000 or $12,000.”

Lincoln was at this time the father of two sons:  Robert Todd, born on the 1st day of August, 1843; and Edward Baker, born on the 10th of March, 1846.  In a letter to his friend Speed, dated October 22 of the latter year, Lincoln writes:  “We have another boy, born the 10th of March.  He is very much such a child as Bob was at his age, rather of a longer order.  Bob is ‘short and low,’ and I expect he always will be.  He talks very plainly, almost as plainly as anybody.  He is quite smart enough.  I sometimes fear he is one of the little rare-ripe sort that are smarter at about five than ever after.  He has a great deal of that sort of mischief that is the offspring of much animal spirits.  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