After they had proceeded on their journey for some distance, they came to a sugar plantation ; and having, as was their custom, secured their boat for the night, they lay down to rest. Suddenly, however, they were awakened by footsteps on the deck, and, jumping up, they saw that several negroes were just in the act of creeping on board, evidently bent on robbery or murder.

They had been aroused only just in time. Rushing towards them, they knocked down the first one as he stepped on deck; then they overpowered others that were following one by one, while the rest, who began to run off, were quickly chased and thrashed.

It was not, however, without being injured themselves, that Abraham and his companion thus got rid of the negroes; Lincoln, indeed, received one wound, the scar of which remained throughout his life.

CHAPTER III.

66 HONEST ABE."

ABRAHAM was just twenty-one years of age when his father determined to move into a new home. Mr. Lincoln had for some time felt a desire to move from the cabin where he had lived so long-among other reasons because the climate of Indiana was not very healthy; so he resolved to go westward, to the State

of Illinois, where an uncle of Dennis', named John Hanks, was living.

He, therefore, sold his farm and stock of pigs and corn; and in February, 1830, the Lincoln household, having packed their furniture, moved forth from the log cabin in a waggon drawn by four oxen, and in fifteen days they arrived at their destination, two hundred miles away.

Abraham, having now reached man's estate, would, had his family remained in Indiana, probably have gone out into the world, and have endeavoured to obtain employment and experience more congenial to his own taste and ambition. But, when he found his father desirous of moving to Illinois, he felt that he must at least assist him in getting to the new home, for he could not leave him at a time when he could be of so much service.

Accordingly he went, and immediately on arriving he helped to build a new dwelling-place. This was a much better and bigger one than that which the Lincolns had left in Indiana; and though made of logs, it was comfortable in every way. In addition to the cabin, a smoke-house for drying meat, with a stable adjoining, was constructed, and after completing this, Abraham and John Hanks set to work to plough and enclose the fifteen acres of ground which Mr. Lincoln had secured.

With their oxen they ploughed the whole of the land within a week, and then put the corn in it; and

afterwards Abraham and his uncle prepared rails, which were split by them from great logs, and roughly fenced the entire fifteen acres-no light task when we consider the area.

Abraham had always been noted for his proficiency in rail-splitting, his great strength enabling him to perform tasks which few other men could undertake. And you will find that two of the very rails which John Hanks and he fixed round Mr. Lincoln's new land in Illinois bore an important part in one of the many triumphal receptions with which in later years Abraham was greeted by his countrymen.

When young Lincoln had seen his father fairly settled in the new home, he for a time hired himself to some of the farmers in the neighbourhood, for he was reluctant to go far away from his parents so long as he felt they might need him.

One who knew him well speaks of Abraham as being at this period "the roughest looking man he ever knew." He was tall, angular, and ungainly, and wore trousers made of flax and tow, cut tightly at the ankles and loosely at the knees. He was very poor, but was welcome in every house in the neighbourhood. We are told that he would split rails in order to obtain clothing for his labour; and on one occasion, when he stood in need of some article of clothing, "he made a bargain with Mrs. Nancy Miller to split four hundred rails for every yard of jean, dyed with walnut bark, that would be required to make it."

Young Lincoln seems to have had few opportunities for reading just at this time; but whenever he could get a book he would make the best use of it, and would often be seen reading when going to his work-to which he had sometimes to walk six or seven miles. He was, however, keeping up the old habit of acquiring day after day whatever fresh information he could; and we may feel sure that, though for his father's and step-mother's sake he was staying near them, he was longing for the time when he could find a wider sphere for the realisation of his ambition than any of the farms in Illinois could afford.

It was when Abraham was hiring himself out at this period that one evening a well-dressed man rode up to the door of the farmhouse where he was at work, and, as was not unusual in sparsely populated districts in those days, he asked if he could have a night's lodging. The farmer replied that he could give the stranger some supper, and could take care of his horse, but he was afraid that he could not give him sleeping accommodation unless he were willing to share that of the hired hand. The man did not care to do this at first, but he consented to see what Abraham was like. So they went to look for him, and found him lying at full length on the ground deeply occupied with a book. "I reckon he'll do," said the stranger, as Abraham rose to speak to him; so the sleeping-place was secured.

Abraham's wished-for opportunity of changing

his mode of occupation now came before long. It was not, however, until he had again assisted his parents in removing from their home in Illinois. This they found they had to leave at the end of the first year, owing to a serious epidemic which broke out around them; so they resolved to remove to a healthier spot, and finally settled in a place in Coles County, Illinois-about sixty or seventy miles to the castward-where they remained.

It was in the succeeding winter (1830-1) that an offer of employment was made to young Lincoln which we can well imagine he was delighted to receive. A trader named Offutt, at New Salem, Illinois, had proposed to his uncle, John Hankswho was well known as a competent man in such undertakings-that he should go to New Orleans in charge of a boat and cargo, and the latter had consented, subject to Abraham agreeing to accompany him. A man named Johnson was also to go. With the recollection of his previous trip to the same place fresh in his memory, Abraham willingly accepted the offer, and, accompanied by Mr. Offutt, they started on their voyage, with a cargo consisting principally of pork and corn.

Only one incident of the trip itself need be mentioned. When the boat arrived at a difficult part of the river it stuck fast, and at first it was feared that it could hardly be floated again. However, as usual, Lincoln was equal to the occasion, and devised a