When Lincoln was in the Black Hawk War as captain, the volunteer soldiers drank in with delight the jests and stories of the tall captain. Aesop's Fables were given a new dress, and the tales of the wild adventures that he had brought from Kentucky and Indiana were many, but his inspiration was never stimulated by recourse to the whisky jug.
When his grateful and delighted auditors pressed this on him he had one reply: "Thank you, I never drink it."
From "Abe" Lincoln's Yarns and Stories, © 1901, Henry Neil
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