RAILS FOR RAIMENT. 31 Abraham.. He then set to work and split rails enough to fence ten acres, plowed and planted it before the first of June; and, having thus provided for his father's family, set out to seek his own fortune. He was sadly in need of sufficient clothing to cover his lank but muscular limbs, and the first necessity was to provide himself a new suit. A widow named Mrs. Nancy Miller had a loom and plenty of flax and wool. Abe opened negotiations with her on the subject of his necessities, and concluded a bargain to chop and split twenty-nine hundred good rails for a suit of jeans, to be spun, woven, and made to fit. The widow and the axman each performed their part of the contract, and Mr. Lincoln rejoiced in a substantial suit of new clothes, shirt included. Their old enemy, the fever and ague, again visited the Lincoln family, and the following spring they again abandoned their homes, this time removing to Coles County. Here Abraham worked about among the farmers, at such labor as he could get, for two years. It is related that a respectable-looking traveler stopped one evening at a farm-house where he was working, and requested a lodgment for the night. The host informed him that he was welcome, but that they had no spare bed, and that he would be obliged to sleep with his hired man. "Let me see him," said the gentleman. He was conducted around the house to where Abe lay, resting over six feet of himself upon the grass. "He'll do," said the traveler, and so stayed and slept with his future President. Abraham's faithfulness and honesty were soon known among his new acquaintances; also that he had held the "responsible position" of captain of a flat-boat. A Kentucky trader, Denton Offut, wishing to send a boat to New Orleans, applied to him to undertake the trip. John Hanks, a cousin of Abraham's mother, and a stout young man named Johnston, were employed to accompany him. The trip was successfully made, and the proceeds paid off to Offut with scrupulous honesty. At the period of Mr. Lincoln's life when he became of age, there was nothing in his personal appearance that would recommend him as a drygoods clerk, or indicate his probable success as a merchant. Six feet four inches high, clad in a blue warmus, with tow pantaloons a world too short, coarse cowskin shoes, lank arms, a weather A MERCHANT'S CLERK. 33 brown, angular face-the last man to twirl a yardstick, skip a counter, or play the agreeable to ladies—yet such was to be his next occupation. Offutt had a store in New Salem, of which the stock in trade consisted of an assortment of trace-chains, tea, sickles, sugar, mop-sticks, molasses, cheese, castor-oil, cotton lace, nails, ribbons, and similar goods, not forgetting a barrel of tar and one of vinegar in the cellar. His clerks had cheated and stolen from him to the extent that he was on the point of abandoning the business, but he concluded to make a trial of Abraham. He justified the confidence of his employer, and proved himself adequate to the business. The honesty of Abraham Lincoln was exhibited in numerous instances while in the employ of Offutt, in matters which would seem to a person less conscientious to be trivial and unnecessary. Once he sold a woman a little bill of goods amounting, as he reckoned it, to two dollars and a sixpence. She paid the amount and left the store. Abe ran over the figures again to see that all was right, and discovered that he had charged her six and a quarter cents too much. It was night and dark, and the woman lived nearly three miles away; but he closed the store, followed her home, and paid over the sixpence. Such exhibitions of rigid honesty show that he regarded strict adherence to principle as important in the smallest transactions. It was not a cunning attempt to secure a reputation for fair dealing and accuracy, for that would itself be dishonest, and wholly repugnant to his character. Most young men, in similar circumstances, would have quieted conscience by the reflection that the wrong was not intentional, and could be rectified at another time. His conduct shows that he did not consider this procrastination as honest. In this he was correct. Postponement is the first and fatal step in the total abandonment of duty. This scrupulous regard for truth and justice was not confined to the rights of others. He was mild, patient, amiable, forgiving, but would not permit himself to be injured or humiliated without earnest and usually effective protest. He was a peace man but not a non-combatant. A number of illustrations of this trait occurred during his life, before he gave that grand display of heroism, endurance, and persistence which resulted in the defeat and destruction of slavery. |