your two friends, and get them to go, I'll see that they'll make a good thing of it."

"How much pay will you give?"

"I'll give you-all three of you-fifty cents a day; and, at the end of the trip, I will divide sixty dollars, in addition, equally between you."

"That's good pay, and no mistake,” replied John, who was rather surprised at the generosity of the offer: "I think we'll be able to arrange it."

Offutt was a man of considerable property for that region, and he was generous, too-some said "too generous for his own good."

John Hanks lost no time in laying the subject before Abraham and Johnston.

"I should like the job," Abraham replied at once. “That is larger pay than I ever had, and I rather like the business."

"I can't say that I like the bisniss," said Hanks; "but I think I'll accept this offer. Offutt is a capital feller, and I would go on such a trip for him a leetle quicker than I would for anybody else."

"Agreed," was John Johnston's laconic way of saying that he would go. The fact was, Offutt had made them a very generous offer-larger pay than any one of them. had ever received.

It was February 1831 when Offutt made the offer; and early in March the fortunate trio left home to meet Offutt at Springfield, according to arrangement. They proceeded down the Sangamon in a canoe to Jamestown (then known as Judy's Ferry), five miles east of Springfield. Thence they walked to Springfield, where they met Offutt at Elliott's Tavern." Offutt met Abraham with a look of surprise. He was not expecting to see a giant, although Hanks told him that his relative was the tallest man in Illinois; nor was he expecting to see a

man as green as he was tall. However, they were soon on the best of terms, and Offutt said,

"I've been badly disappointed; expected a boat built by this time, at the mouth of Spring Creek, but I learned yesterday that it wan't touched; and now what's to be done?"

"Build a boat at once," answered Abraham, with a promptness that won Offutt's heart.

"Can you build a boat?" asked Offutt.

"Of course I can," replied Abraham. "We three can put the job through in three weeks."

"We'll have the boat, then, in short order," responded Offutt. Plenty of timber at Spring Creek, and we can raft it down to Sangamontown, and build the boat there."

They repaired to Spring Creek, and spent about two weeks there cutting timber "on Congress land,” boarding a full mile from their work. While there, Abraham walked back to Judy's Ferry, ten miles distant, and brought down the canoe which they had left there. The timber was rafted down to Sangamontown, where Abraham and his two companions erected a shanty for temporary shelter. Here they boarded themselves, Abraham playing the part of "cook," to the entire satisfaction of the two Johns. The lumber was sawed at Kilpatrick's mill, one mile and a half distant. With all these inconveniences, the boat was ready for the trip within four weeks, and a very substantial boat it

was.

Offutt joined the party at Sangamontown, and was present during the construction of the boat. He soon learned that the long, tall, and green Abraham was a young man of rare talents. Offutt was a Whig, and so was Abraham now, although the latter was not willing to hear the former abuse Jackson. Offutt indulged his

pique in this line, and Abraham met him squarely, and hot discussions followed, enlivening the camp and making merry times. Offutt was quite a politician, but Abraham was more than a match for him. His familiarity with the lives of a few of the great men of the country, and the habits, customs, and principles of their times, gave him a decided advantage over Offutt. Abraham often contributed to the merriment of the camp by reciting "prose-like orations" and quoting poetry. He also extracted a large amount of fun out of his new occupation-that of "cook." On the whole, the two weeks at boat-building were merry ones, and they quickly sped. While the little company were employed at Sangamontown, a juggler gave an exhibition in the upper room of John Carman's house. Another says: "Abe went to it dressed in a suit of rough bluejeans. He had on shoes, but the trousers did not reach them by about twelve inches; and the naked shin, which had excited John Romine's laughter years ago in Indiana, was still exposed. Between the roundabout and the waist of the trousers there was another wide space uncovered; and, considering these defects, his attire was thought to be somewhat inelegant, even in those times. His hat, however, was a great improvement on coon skins and opossum. It was woollen, broad-brimmed

and low-crowned. In his hat 'the showman cooked eggs.' Whilst Abe was handing it up to him, after the man had long sought for a similar favour from the rest of the audience, he remarked, 'Mister, the reason I didn't give you my hat before was out of respect to your eggs, not care for my hat.'"

As soon as the boat was completed, a partial cargo of barrel-pork, hogs, and corn was taken on board, and the craft started down the river. Offutt went in the capacity of merchant, to make purchases along the way.

Just below New Salem, of which we shall hear and see much hereafter, the boat stuck fast on Rutledge's dam through one night and part of a day-" one end of it hanging over the dam and the other sunk deep in the water behind."

"A pretty fix now," cried out Offutt; "it will take longer to get out of this scrape than it did to build the boat,"

"Guess not,” replied Abraham, who took in the situation at a glance. "We must unload, though."

"Into the river, I s'pose," responded Offutt. "Borrow a boat, and transfer the cargo to it, and let us see what can be done," continued Abraham.

This was in the morning, after the boat had "stuck" through the night. Nearly all the people of New Salem had assembled on shore watching the movements.

"Your boat will sink or break in two pieces, if you are not in a hurry," cried out a looker-on. And such a result seemed inevitable. For the cargo was sliding backwards, and the peril increased with every passing minute. But, under Abraham's direction, the cargo was soon shifted to a borrowed boat, when he immediately bored a large hole in the bottom of that part of the boat extending over the dam. Then he erected " queer machinery" for tilting the part of the boat under water, and holding it in position until the water was emptied through the hole bored. Stopping up the hole after the water had run out was the work of only a few minutes, when the relieved craft was pushed over the dam, and glided into the deep pool below, amidst the hurrahs of the many beholders. Offutt was particularly elated.

"That's real skill, Abe," he cried; "one in a thousand couldn't do that. Three cheers for Abe Lincoln," he shouted, swinging his hat, and leading the cheers vociferously.

It was a hearty tribute to Abraham's ingenuity, in which the observers joined without reserve.

"When I get back from New Orleans," shouted Offutt, turning to the beholders on shore, "I'll build a steamboat to navigate the Sangamon River, and make Abe captain. I'll build it with runners for ice and rollers for shoals and dams, and, by thunder, it will have to go, with Abe for captain!"

This funny way of putting it awoke another burst of applause from the spectators, while the tall, awkward Abraham shook his sides with laughter.

This mishap to their craft set Abraham to thinking of ways to overcome the difficulties of navigating Western rivers. It was several years, however, before his thoughts and studies thereupon took tangible shape in the form of an invention. After he was elected President, the Washington correspondent of the Boston Advertiser wrote as follows concerning it :

"Occupying an ordinary and common-place position in one of the show cases in the large hall of the Patent Office is one little model which, in ages to come, will be prized as at once one of the most curious and one of the most sacred relics in that vast museum of unique and priceless things. This is a plain and simple model of a steamboat, roughly fashioned in wood, by the hand of Abraham Lincoln. It bears date in 1849, when the inventor was known simply as a successful lawyer and rising politician of Central Illinois. Neither his practice nor his politics took up so much of his time as to prevent him from giving much attention to contrivances which he hoped might be of benefit to the world and of profit to himself.

"The design of this invention is suggestive of one phase of Abraham Lincoln's early life, when he went up and down the Mississippi as a flat boatman, and became familiar with some of the dangers and inconveniences attending the navigation of