and split rails enough to fence ten acres of land. Corn was planted and "tended" and the crop harvested during the first season.

When the summer of 1830 came around Lincoln was past twenty-one. He had, up to this time, turned his money over to his father. Now he meant to work for himself. The first work he must do was to get himself a pair of trousers, for his old ones were about worn out. He engaged to split four hundred rails for every yard of cloth, colored a butternut brown, which it took to make him a pair of trousers. It took fourteen hundred rails to pay for the trousers!

The Second Trip to New Orleans

Lincoln had become acquainted with a trader named Offutt, who talked a great deal of the things he expected to do. Lincoln, John Hanks, and John Johnston hired out to Offutt to take a flatboat laden with provisions to New Orleans.

They got a large canoe and floated

down the Sangamon River to the place where Jamestown now stands, then walked to Springfield, where they were to meet

Model of Lincoln's device for lifting vessels over shoals

Offutt. He had bad news: he could get no flatboat at Beardstown, the place from which they expected to begin their journey. Lincoln promptly said: "Let us make one." He could use tools and had studied the plan of a flatboat when he had taken a trip to New Orleans before. The bargain was struck. A "shanty" was built on the river bank, in which the men slept and cooked and ate their meals. Lincoln took the lead as head carpenter.

In April the boat was loaded and the boatmen bade good-by to the rustic crowd that gathered to see them off. They "poled" their way down the Sangamon until New Salem was reached. Here a

milldam had been built, and on this dam the flatboat stuck fast. They could neither push it over nor draw it back. A crowd gathered and watched the men trying to move the boat. Some of them laughed at one of the crew, tall, gaunt, and ugly, with ragged coat and battered hat. His trousers were torn and patched. He made rather a forlorn picture. A few of the crowd were bold enough to offer their advice, but no attention was paid to it. Lincoln thought the matter over and finally decided what should be done. The men agreed, and went to work at the boat. It finally moved over the dam in safety, and the crew "poled" on their way and left the crowd wondering about the awkward and overgrown fellow.

On they went, down the Illinois to the Mississippi and down that river until New Orleans was reached. Lincoln must have tied the boat up where lay many other such boats, and where there were hundreds of flatboatmen from the "up country." New Orleans was growing

rapidly, and had many interesting sights for young Lincoln's eyes.

One day he came upon a negro auction. It was indeed a new and a sad sight for

The house Lincoln helped his father build in Coles County

Lincoln. It is told that after looking at this scene for a time, he said: "Boys, let's get away from this. If ever I get a chance to hit that thing, I'll hit it hard!"

From New Orleans, Lincoln and his companions took passage on a noisy, puffing steamboat for St. Louis. From St. Louis, Lincoln walked all the way to Coles County, Illinois, where his father's family had already gone. He helped his father in building the best house he had

ever lived in. It was made of "hewn"

logs and contained two rooms.

This was

the last time Lincoln saw his father.

Clerk in a Country Store

From Coles County, Lincoln went to New Salem, where he had agreed to become a clerk in a store owned by Offutt.

But,

Copyright by Francis D. Tandy Company, New York

Interior of the Lincoln cabin at Goose Neck Prairie, Illinois

as usual, Offutt had done more bragging than work, and neither Offutt nor the "store things" had come.