merchant, but he had all the while been a hard student, and so he continued to be during the rapid changes which now followed.

Mr. Lincoln himself never became a tavern keeper, but the firm narrowly missed adding such an enterprise to their other undertakings. Perhaps Mr. Berry's partner was inclined to believe him better fitted to that business, as it was then conducted in Illinois, than to anything demanding sobriety and good conduct. At all events, on March 6th, 1833, Berry took out a license from the County Court of Sangamon County for a tavern which was never to be opened. The fees amounted to seven dollars, and the license minutely specified the rates at which the public were to receive accommodations. The prices of liquors were fixed, with those of breakfast, dinner, supper, lodgings, and the keeping of horses.

The miserable character of Berry was more than a mere annoyance-it was a barrier in the way of success—and at about this time a pair of brothers named Trent offered to buy out the entire concern on credit. Their proposal was accepted, but Lincoln was not a good business man. He took their notes for the property, but did not make out to shift upon their shoulders the responsibilities which he had himself assumed. All he gained was an escape from association with Berry and from serving as a salesman in the store. Everything else was a dead loss, as the Trent Brothers quickly sold what they could of the stock and ran away, leaving only a pitiful sort of business wreck behind them. Berry had gone to ruin altogether, his bad habits ending

his life not long afterward, and the notes given for the three lots of goods had but one honest name upon them, that of Abraham Lincoln. He had no property, he had no paying occupation, but all of that paper was worth every dollar it promised to pay.

On May 7th, 1833, Mr. Lincoln was appointed postmaster of New Salem, and he held the office during three years following. It was no honor whatever, and it was not a source of profit. The settlers of the Sangamon were not letter writers or newspaper readers. It is even said that at times the postmaster's hat contained all the mail on hand for distribution, and that his office travelled around the village with him.

The moment of deliverance from store duties witnessed an increased devotion to the one object in life which really had any hold upon the hope or ambition of Lincoln. He was intensely, absorbingly a student of every law book that he could borrow, and he had latterly made friends, even as far away as Springfield, from whom he could obtain not only books but valuable suggestions as to their uses.

New settlers were coming in rapidly to turn the broad acres of the Sangamon prairie into farms, and the county surveyor, Mr. John Calhoun, found himself under an increasing pressure of work. He required trustworthy deputies in different localities of the wide area under his supervision. Among these was the New Salem precinct, and it contained only one man in whom he felt any confidence. He knew Mr. Lincoln, and although the latter knew nothing of surveying, Mr. Calhoun urged him to undertake

the business, bringing him a book of instruction. It was the visit of a friend in need, and an offer of an honorable, profitable occupation. The book on surveying was taken hold of with almost sleepless energy, and all the long hours already given to arithmetic in the Indiana woods and afterward became of present importance. At the end of only six weeks Lincoln reported to Mr. Calhoun for active service, and his new occupation began. Enough of business came to him at once to afford him the means of living and of even buying a book now and then. There was nothing merely temporary or experimental about it, for all the work done was honest, thorough, and accurate. When Mr. Calhoun's term of office expired, in September, 1835, his successor, Mr. T. M. Neale, needed just such a painstaking deputy in the New Salem precinct, and Mr. Lincoln was reappointed. His work had not been altogether local, however, for in 1834 he was appointed one of the viewers to locate a county road twenty-six miles in length, and the entire work was performed under his supervision.

The notes given for the several stocks of goods consolidated by Lincoln & Berry, and sold to the Trent Brothers, all fell due in the year 1833, but only one of them brought immediate trouble to Mr. Calhoun's hard-working deputy. It was the one for four hundred dollars given to Mr. Radford when Bill Greene's good bargain was taken off his hands. It had become the property of a man named Van Bergen, who was not disposed to wait for his money. He sued upon the note when it matured, obtained

judgment, and the sheriff did his duty. All the effects of the debtor upon which the officer could lay his hands were a horse, saddle, bridle, and a set of surveying instruments. These were seized, and their public sale was advertised. It was a severe blow, and there seemed no way of escape, since even if their unfortunate owner should attend the sale and buy them in, they would at once be liable to another seizure and another sale. He did not attend the sale, therefore, but two of his friends, named Short and Greene, were there to do for him better than he could do for himself. They purchased the entire lot for two hundred and forty-five dollars, and brought all back in triumph. The judgment was not satisfied, indeed, but it could not any more touch that property. Lincoln could ride around the county and survey in freedom with the horse and instruments owned by Short and Greene. The most popular man in all that region was not to be stripped altogether of the means of earning a living.

Popularity was coming through several new channels, and the New Salem people were beginning to feel something like Denton Offutt's early admiration for their tall postmaster. He now knew enough of law to pettifog small cases, and his neighbors brought to him their legal difficulties continually. He was sure to give pretty good advice, and they all took kindly to a lawyer who as yet did not consider himself entitled to charge any fee for his services. The entire community also, with one ac cord, elected him judge as well as counsellor. That is, the one public amusement for which they felt

any enthusiasm was horse racing, and not only was Lincoln an uncommonly good horseman, but he was an absolutely fair and just arbitrator of all racecourse disputes. It was of no use for any man to question one of his decisions, and no aggrieved party was at all likely to vent his disappointment by an attempt to “thrash the referee," in Western style. The invitations, therefore, to act as judge of races here and there became so numerous as to be irksome and compel a general rejection of the position. It was all a curious but emphatic declaration, nevertheless, of the verdict which Lincoln's neighbors had passed upon him.

There was yet another and exceedingly honorable channel through which popularity came. Great bodily strength, increasing now in a frame unassailed by bad habits of any kind, and accompanied by a high reputation for personal courage, enabled the postmaster to be also the peacemaker of New Salem. There could not any undisturbed fighting be done except in his absence. He could take any ordinary pair of combatants, one in each hand, and shake all the fight out of them. All the more respectable and orderly elements of society, therefore, came to look up to Lincoln as the trusted guardian of law and order. He was a continual and very practical witness against intemperance, never touching any kind of liquor and arguing against its use by others. He even abstained from tobacco, and all the tremendous natural forces which had been given him were kept in good condition while he was training himself for the great life work before him,