. When
he returned, he carried an open book in his hands. He was studying
grammar as he walked.

Meanwhile he worked as a clerk in Denton Offut's store. Customers could
buy all sorts of things there--tools and nails, needles and thread,
mittens and calico, and tallow for making candles. One day a woman
bought several yards of calico. After she left, Abe discovered that he
had charged her six cents too much. That evening he walked six miles to
give her the money. He was always doing things like that, and people
began to call him "Honest Abe."

Denton was so proud of his clerk that he could not help boasting. "Abe
is the smartest man in the United States," he said. "Yes, and he can
beat any man in the country running, jumping, or wrastling."

A bunch of young roughnecks lived a few miles away in another settlement
called Clary Grove. "That Denton Offut talks too much with his mouth,"
they said angrily. They did not mind Abe being called smart. But they
declared that no one could "out-wrastle" their leader, Jack Armstrong.
One day they rushed into the store and dared Abe to fight with Jack.

Abe laid down the book that he had been reading. "I don't hold with
wooling and pulling," he said. "But if you want to fight, come on
outside."

The Clary Grove boys soon realized that Denton's clerk was a good
wrestler. Jack, afraid that he was going to lose the fight, stepped on
Abe's foot with the sharp heel of his boot. The sudden pain made Abe
angry. The next thing that Jack knew he was being shaken back and forth
until his teeth rattled. Then he was lying flat on his back in the dust.

Jack's friends let out a howl of rage. Several of them rushed at Abe,
all trying to fight him at the same time. He stood with his back against
the store, his fists doubled up. He dared them to come closer. Jack
picked himself up.

"Stop it, fellows," he said. "I was beaten in a fair fight. If you ask
me, this Abe Lincoln is the cleverest fellow that ever broke into the
settlement."

From then on Jack was one of Abe's best friends.

A short time later Abe enlisted as a soldier in the Black Hawk War to
help drive the Indians out of Illinois. The Clary Grove boys were in his
company, and Abe was elected captain. Before his company had a chance to
do any fighting, Blackhawk was captured in another part of Illinois and
the war was over.

When Abe came back to New Salem, he found himself out of a job. Denton
Offut had left. The store had "wi