CHAPTER IV

Lincoln's great strength and how he earned his first dollar, as told by himself-He saves a man from freezing to deathAttacked by negroes on the Mississippi River.

WHEN Lincoln was seventeen years of age he had already attained his full growth, and was very tall. He hired out to a Mr. Gentry to help him with a ferry across the Ohio River, receiving thirty-seven cents a day for his labor. While

thus working he wrote an essay on the American Government which attracted much attention at that time, and an article on temperance which was published in an Ohio paper.

"Abe" was a very strong boy. It is said he could carry six hundred pounds at a time, and on one occasion he walked away with a pair of logs which three robust men could not handle. "He could strike with a maul a heavier blow, could sink the ax deeper into the wood, than any man I ever saw," said a gentleman who knew him at that time.

It was while employed at the ferry, or during the time when he worked there (1827), that the

following incident occurred, which Mr. Lincoln thought enough of to relate to the members of his Cabinet many years afterward, while he was the President of the United States.*

They were in the President's room at the White House, and talking over old times, when Lincoln said: "Seward, you never heard, did you, how I earned my first dollar?"

66

"No," said Mr. Seward. "I never heard anything about it."

"Well," he said, "I was about eighteen years of age, and belonged, as you know, to what they call down South the 'scrubs.' People who do not own slave or land are nobody there; but we had raised, chiefly by my own labor, enough produce [corn, wheat, turnips, pumpkins, eggs, and chickens], as I thought, to pay taking it down the river to sell it. After much persuasion I got the consent of my mother to go, and had built a flatboat large enough to take a few barrels of things we had gathered to New Orleans. A steamer was going down the river that morning. As we had no docks in those days along the river, passengers or freight for steamboats had to be taken out in little flatboats.

"That morning I went down to the river to

* Selected from Carpenter's Recollections, published by permission of The Independent.

look over my new boat, and wondering whether I could make it stronger or better, when two men with trunks came down to the shore in carriages, and looking at the different boats, picked out mine and asked, 'Who owns this boat?' I answered modestly, 'I do.' 'Will you,' said one of them, ‘take us and the trunks out to the steamer?'

"Certainly,' said I. I was glad to have the chance of earning something, and thought each of them might give me a couple of 'bits' [a "bit" was twelve and a half cents]. The trunks were put on my boat, the men seated themselves on them, and I sculled them out to the steamer.

"They got on board, and I lifted the trunks and put them on deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out, 'You have forgotten to pay me.' Each, then, took from his pocket a silver half-dollar and threw it in the bottom of my boat. I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. You may think it a very little thing in these days, and it seems to me now like a trifle, but it was an important incident in my life. I could hardly think that the poor boy had earned a dollar in less than a day-that by honest work I had earned a dollar. The world seemed wider and fairer before me. I was a hopeful boy from

that time."

A Poor Man saved from Death

In this same year (1827), one very cold night in the winter, Lincoln and a friend were going home from Gentryville, where they had been during the day, when they found an acquaintance lying on the ground. He appeared to be asleep; they could not awaken him, and he could not walk. He was as helpless as a babe, having been drinking so much that he was "dead drunk."

Lincoln said to his companion, "Let's carry him to Hank's cabin; he'll freeze to death if we leave him here."

But his friend refused to help him, and so Lincoln alone finally lifted him to his shoulder and carried him a long distance, nearly a mile, to the first house on the road. Here he warmed him and brought him back to consciousness.

The poor man often said, "Abe Lincoln's strength and kindness saved my life."

In March, 1828, Mr. Gentry, who had employed Lincoln at his ferry, fitted out a boat with grain and meat for New Orleans. His son Allen was in charge, and "Abe" was hired to go along as "bow" hand, his wages being eight dollars per month. This was a great event in his life He had a chance to see something

at that time.

of the world.

Attacked by Negroes on the Mississippi

On their way to New Orleans in their raft, Lincoln and his companion floated down the Ohio River, entering the Mississippi at Cairo. They guided their little craft during the day, keeping clear of sand-banks or sunken trees whose stumps and roots sometimes stood up menacingly above the rushing waters.

The days usually passed quietly, almost dreamily, as they glided swiftly down-stream, passing forests, villages, farmhouses, and "nodding sawyers," with now and then a steamer which would create little billows that rocked them gently up and down.

At night they would tie up at some landing or convenient tree. It was so warm they could sleep without coverings.

One exceedingly dark night, after they had passed Natchez, they tied up at an obscure landing-place, with no habitation in sight. It was just such a place as robbers might choose for waylaying their victims.

The clearing was covered with a growth of very tall grass, with a thick forest a little distance away, and any one approaching the bank was completely hidden from view until it was reached.

Lincoln and his young friend were lying down,