oor now. We're
goin' to move away--we and some other families. We're all off to
Illinois. You've traveled over that kentry, preacher?"

"Yes, I've been there."

"Well, what do you think of the kentry?"

"It is a wonderful country, Mr. Lincoln. It can produce grain enough to
feed the world. The earth grows gold. It will some day uplift cities--it
will be rich and happy. I like the prairie country well."

"There! let me tell my wife.--Mother, here's the preacher. What do you
think he says about the prairie kentry? Says the earth grows gold."

Poor Mrs. Lincoln looked sad and doubtful. She had heard such things
before. But she welcomed Jasper heartily, and the three, with Waubeno,
sat down to a meal of plain Indian pudding and milk, and talked of the
sorrowful winter that had passed and the prospects of a better life
amid the flowery prairies of Illinois.

A little dog played around them while they were thus eating and talking.

"It is not our dog," said Mrs. Lincoln, "but he has taken a great liking
to Abraham. The boy is away now, but he will be back by sundown. The dog
belongs to one of the family, and is always restless when Abraham has
gone away. Abraham wants to take him along with us, but it seems to me
that we've got enough mouths to feed without him. We are all so poor!
and I don't see what good he would do. But if Abraham says so, he will
have to go."

"How is Abraham?" asked Jasper.

"Oh, he is well, and as good to me as ever, and he studies hard, just as
he used to do."

"And is as lazy as ever," said Thomas Lincoln. "At the lazy folks' fair
he'd take the premium."

"You shouldn't say that," said Mrs. Lincoln. "Just think how good he was
to everybody during the sickness! He never thought of himself, but just
worked night and day. His own mother died of the same sickness years
ago, and he's had a feelin' heart for the sufferers in this calamity. I
tell you, elder, that he's good to everybody, and if he does not take
hold to work in the way that father does, his head and heart are never
idle. I am sorry that he and father do not see more alike. The boy is
goin' to do well in the world. He begins right."

When Abraham returned, there was one heart that was indeed glad to see
him. It was the little dog. The animal bounded heels over head as soon
as he heard the boy's step, and almost leaped upon his tall shoulder as
he met him.

"Humph!" said Mr. Lincoln.

"Animals know who are good to them," said