nked out." Later, Abe and another young
man, William Berry, decided to become partners. They borrowed money and
started a store of their own.

One day a wagon piled high with furniture stopped out in front. A man
jumped down and explained that he and his family were moving West. The
wagon was too crowded, and he had a barrel of odds and ends that he
wanted to sell. Abe, always glad to oblige, agreed to pay fifty cents
for it. Later, when he opened it, he had a wonderful surprise.

The barrel contained a set of famous law books. He had seen those same
books in Mr. Pitcher's law office in Rockport. Now that he owned a set
of his own, he could read it any time he wished. Customers coming into
the store usually found Abe lying on the counter, his nose buried in one
of the new books. The more he read, the more interested he became.

Perhaps he spent too much time reading, instead of attending to
business. William Berry was lazy, and not a very satisfactory partner.
The store of Lincoln and Berry did so little business that it had to
close. The partners were left with many debts to pay. Then Berry died,
and "Honest Abe" announced that he would pay all of the debts himself,
no matter how long it took.

For a while he was postmaster. A man on horseback brought the mail twice
a week, and there were so few letters that Abe often carried them around
in his hat until he could deliver them. He liked the job because it gave
him a chance to read the newspapers to which the people in New Salem
subscribed. But the pay was small, and he had to do all sorts of odd
Jobs to earn enough to eat. On many days he would have gone hungry if
Jack Armstrong and his wife, Hannah, had not invited him to dinner. When
work was scarce he stayed with them two or three weeks at a time.

He knew that he had to find a way to earn more money, and he decided to
study surveying. It was a hard subject, but he borrowed some books and
read them carefully. He studied so hard that in six weeks' time he took
his first job as a surveyor.

Sometimes when he was measuring a farm or laying out a new road, he
would be gone for several weeks. People miles from New Salem knew who
Abe Lincoln was. They laughed at him because he was so tall and awkward.
They thought it funny that his trousers were always too short. But they
also laughed at his jokes, and they liked him. He made so many new
friends that he decided to be a candidate for the Illinois legislature.

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