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"Well, I stump you to whip me," Needham cried, thinking that Lincoln was unwilling to undertake it. 'Throwing a man is one thing and thrashing him is another."

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"You are right, my friend; and I've no special desire to do either," answered Abraham.

Needham continued to press him, whereupon Lincoln said,

“Needham, are you satisfied that I can throw you? If you are not, and must be convinced through a thrashing, I will do that, too, for your sake."

This was putting the matter practically enough to open the bully's eyes, which was all Abraham hoped to accomplish. He was willing to show his strength by wrestling to please his companions and get a little sport out of it; but he despised a bully like Needham, and considered such encounters for any purpose but sport as beneath his notice. Needham put the proper interpretation upon Abraham's words, and, considering "discretion the better part of valour," he withdrew as gracefully as possible.

We shall turn next to Abraham's success as a country merchant.

AB

XVI.

IN A PIONEER STORE.

BOUT the 1st of August, 1831, Abraham met Offutt at New Salem as previously arranged. His employer had collected a quantity of goods at Beardstown, awaiting transportation. Until the goods arrived Abraham had nothing to do, but loitered about the town, then numbering only from twelve to fifteen habitations. Some of the people recognized him as the ingenious (fellow who engineered the boat over Rutledge's dam a few months before; and they scraped acquaintance with him at once.

On the day of the election he was loitering about the polling place, when one of the judges remarked to Minter Graham, the schoolmaster, "We are short of a clerk; what shall we do?"

The schoolmaster replied, "Perhaps the tall stranger yonder can write; and maybe he will serve in that capacity."

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Possibly," responded the judge, as he advanced. towards Abraham, and said,

"Can you write?" It must be remembered that at that time, in that region, many people could neither read nor write, so that getting a clerk was not an easy matter. "Yes, a little," answered Abraham.

"Will you act as clerk of the election to-day?"

"Yes, I'll try," was Abraham's modest reply. "I will do the best I can, if you so request."

"Well, it will accommodate us very much if you will," continued the judge, conducting the stranger to the polls. As yet Abraham had not announced to any one that he was soon to preside over the store of New Salem.

That he discharged the duties of the office acceptably on that day we have positive evidence; for Minter Graham, the schoolmaster, who was clerk also, says,—

"He performed the duties with great facility, much fairness, and honesty and impartiality. This was the first official act of his life. I clerked with him on the same day, and at the same polls. The election-books are now in the city of Springfield, Illinois, where they can be seen and inspected any day."

Dr. Nelson of New Salem was about to remove to Texas, and had built a flat-boat on which to convey his goods and family thither. He was ready to start when Abraham was waiting for the arrival of Offutt's merchandise. The Sangamon river was at best a turbulent stream, and was then swollen to overflowing, so that the doctor required a pilot to Beardstown. Someone suggested to him the young fellow who took the boat over Rutledge's dam; and Abraham was accordingly engaged. He piloted the flat-boat successfully to Beardstown, although he said the river overflowed its banks so unprecedentedly for that season of the year, that he sometimes floated over the prairie, three miles from the channel. At Beardstown he received his pay, and left the doctor to run down the Illinois, while he returned on foot to New Salem.

On the arrival of Offutt's merchandise, the inhabitants of the village understood what the tall stranger's business was in the town; for Abraham proceeded at once to unpack the goods, and arrange them for exhibition in the store. There were groceries, dry goods, hard

wares, stonewares, earthenwares, cups and saucers, plates, knives and forks, boots and shoes, coffee, tea, sugar, molasses, butter, gunpowder, tobacco, with other articles too numerous to mention, including the inevitable whiskey, which nearly everybody except Abraham considered indispensable.

Within a few days Abraham was well under way with Offutt's commercial enterprise. The new goods drew customers, and the new clerk attracted attention. He was "joky," agreeable, and social, "worth a dozen such fellers as Offutt's other man," as one of the citizens put it.

Offutt's business elsewhere did not allow him to remain at New Salem, though he was there long enough to risk another venture. He leased the mill of Cameron and Rutledge at the foot of the hill, and put it in charge of Abraham along with the store. At the same time he hired William G. Green for assistant clerk in the store, that Abraham might divide his time between the two enterprises.

Offutt was a great talker, and some people said he was "rattle-brained" and "harum-scarum." But no one claimed that Abraham was like him, not even Offutt himself, for the latter was wont to magnify the abilities and fidelity of his clerk extravagantly. His confidence in him was well-nigh boundless, and he drew largely upon the dictionary for words to express his admiration of the new storekeeper. He did not hesitate to say, "Abe knows more than any man in the United States." If confronted by any one who dared to dispute his assertion, he would supplement his statement by another: "Abe will be President of the United States some time. Now remember what I say." Between engineering the boat over Rutledge's dam and the eulogiums of Offutt, Abraham was quite grandly intro

duced to the inhabitants of New Salem. It is not strange that he entered upon his labours there with flying colours, causing the store to become the centre of attraction in that township. New customers were multiplied, and old ones became even more reliable patrons.

Then, in Illinois, the merchant of the town was second to no citizen in importance. Abraham stepped at once into this position of notoriety; and then, in addition, his knowledge, affability, and uprightness contributed to make him a still more important personage.

"The best feller we've had in the store yet," remarked Jason Duncan to a companion named Carman; "and he knows a thing or two."

"Not so much as Offutt thinks he does," replied Carman; "but it's fun to hear him talk."

"And he is so accommodating and honest," continued Duncan. "Mother says she'd trust him with anything because he's so honest. She paid him a few cents too much, and he brought it back to her."

"Not many on 'em who'd do that," replied Carman. "Everybody says that he gives Scriptur' weight and measure."

"And he is none of your high-fly gentry," added Duncan, "if he does keep store. He knows more in half-an-hour than Offutt's other man did in a week."

"Yes, and he's drawing customers that haven't traded there before, just because he does the thing that is right. Everybody knows that he won't lie nor cheat; and they believe just what he says, and they like to trade with him on that account."

"Offutt was a fortunate man to get him to keep his store," continued Duncan. "It will be money in his pocket."

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