son, who always treated her with tenderest consideration.

For a time he worked wherever he chanced upon an opportunity, now splitting fence rails, and again helping to plant, cultivate and harvest a crop of corn. He once made a bargain to split rails for a woman, who was to furnish cloth and make him a pair of trousers in return for his labor. He agreed to split three hundred rails for every yard of cloth used in manufacturing the garments, and faithfully carried out his part of the bargain.

Shortly afterwards a speculator, Offutt by name, came into the neighborhood looking for men to take a flatboat loaded with country produce to New Orleans and dispose of it. As young Lincoln had made one trip to New Orleans he engaged him to take charge of the expedition with two or three of his friends as helpers.

As the boat was not ready at the appointed time, they were compelled to make one, a somewhat difficuli task, as the materials were scarce and hard to obtain. But the ingenuity of Lincoln overcame all obstacles, and a good serviceable boat was completed and launched in four weeks. The voyage was safely made, although on the downward trip the boat was stranded on the dam at New Salem, a small place a few miles below Springfield, and nearly lost, but was saved together with its cargo by the skill and strength of Lincoln.

New Salem was a small place, and the arrival and sad plight of the boat caused considerable excitement. The whole population gathered upon the banks of the river and watched the operation of re

leasing it from the dam where it had stranded and partially filled with water. After all the efforts of the crew had proven fruitless Lincoln rolled up the legs of his trousers and stepped into the water, his length of limb standing him in good stead. By sheer strength he lifted the boat upon the edge of the dam and balanced it; then borrowing an auger he bored a hole in the bottom and allowed the water to escape. Having stopped up the hole, they continued the journey. This was Lincoln's first introduction to a community of which he was destined to become a prominent and beloved member, while the people who had watched him were struck with admiration of his strength and ingenuity.

This trip made a far deeper impression upon the mind of Lincoln than the former one. At New Orleans he first came into actual contact with the most horrible features of slavery. For the first time he entered the slave-market and saw human beings put up at auction and sold like cattle. He saw families separated and the hopeless sorrow of father and mother as the children were torn from their arms to be led away into a servitude which was worse than death. He saw the whipping-post with all its attendant horrors, and heard the stinging blows of the lash and the groans of the poor victims.

He said to one of his companions as they turned away from these terrible scenes, "If I ever get a chance to hit that institution, I will hit it hard, John!" His companions remarked of him that "his heart bled, he was mad, thoughtful, abstracted, sad and depressed."

He did not at once become an Abolitionist. Indeed,

it is doubtful if he was ever an Abolitionist in the strict meaning of the term. His was not a nature to leap hastily to a conclusion. It was only after long thought and observation that his opinions attained the strength of convictions, but once formed, it was almost impossible to shake him from them. So now he observed all these things and meditated upon them, but it was many years before he became identified with an anti-slavery movement of any kind.

There is a tradition that on this trip to New Orleans, in company with John Hanks, he visited a voodoo fortune-teller, and that during the interview "she became much excited and after various other predictions said: You will be President, and all the negroes will be free.' The truth of this tradition cannot be established.

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If God, in times of old, appeared to Moses and foretold the great responsibility, about to devolve upon him, of leading the Children of Israel out from the land of bondage into freedom, might not the veil of the future have been raised a little from before the eyes of this modern Moses in order that he might obtain a glimpse of the greet deeds which he was destined to perform? However this may be, he could never again look upon slavery as a dim shadow which lay upon a section of this sunny land, but it must henceforth be a grim and horrid reality which should oppress his spirits and excite his hatred and apprehension.

Upon his return to Illinois his employer was so impressed with his ability and faithfulness that he determined to retain his services. He had recently opened a store and a flouring mill, at the little settlement of

New Salem, about twenty miles from Springfield. He offered Lincoln the position of clerk, which was accepted as the best opening that presented itself.

Mr. Offutt was very proud of the strength and learning of his clerk, and frequently boasted of them. There were at that time, living in the adjoining settlement of Clary's Grove, a number of rude, quarrelsome boys, who had made themselves the terror of their neighbors by their wild and lawless deeds. The boasts of Mr. Offutt came to their ears, and they determined to "take the impudence" out of the young clerk. One day they went to New Salem with this intent, and finally succeeded in provoking Lincoln to enter into a wrestling match with Jack Armstrong, their leader, who was as strong as an ox and the champion wrestler of the neighborhood. After struggling a few moments, Lincoln seized him with both hands, and, holding him at arm's-length, shook him like a child. Upon this the Clary's Grove boys rushed forward to the assistance of their leader, when Lincoln backed up against the side of the store and coolly awaited their onset. Armstrong, however, was thoroughly subdued and shouted to his followers to stop, saying: "Boys, Abe Lincoln is the best man that ever broke into this settlement. He shall be one of us." After this Lincoln had no stauncher friends than these rough men, who never lost an opportunity to praise or to vote for him.

Although he was now recognized as the champion of the whole region, he seldom exhibited his great strength except in the rôle of peacemaker. At one time, while he was waiting upon some ladies in the store, a drunken rowdy came in and began to indulge

in abusive language. Lincoln politely requested him not to use such lauguage in the presence of ladies, but he became very angry and dared Lincoln to come out and fight, declaring that he had been waiting for a good opportunity to whip him. After the ladies. had gone, Lincoln went out with him into the street, where he easily threw him to the ground, and picking up a handful of smartweed, he rubbed it vigorously into the face and eyes of the discomfited rowdy until he fairly howled for mercy. Then Lincoln assisted him to rise and brought him some water with which to wash his face. He never received a challenge to fight from the same source again.

It was here at New Salem that he acquired the sobriquet of "Honest Abe," which clung to him through life. The honesty of his dealings is well illustrated by a single event. "One night, in counting the receipts of the day, he found his cash on hand to be seven cents in excess of his sales. He concluded that he had made an error of that amount in returning change to one of his customers, a poor woman, who lived six or seven miles away. He immediately closed the store and walked the whole distance to restore the money to her.

He seized every opportunity to increase his store of knowledge, and spent hours daily in study, often to the detriment of his work. When there was too much noise in the store he would go out into the woods and stretch his ungainly limbs in the shadow of a tree upon the ground, and become so absorbed in his book as to be lost to all around.

He once heard some one speak of the science of grammar, and immediately determined to penetrate