. No one in the neighborhood could strike an axe
as deep into a tree as he could, and few, if any, were equal to him
in strength. It takes a powerful man to put a barrel of flour into
a wagon without help, and there is not one in a hundred who can lift
a barrel of cider off the ground; but it is said that young Lincoln
could stoop down, lift a barrel on to his knees, and drink from the
bung-hole.

249. Young Lincoln makes a voyage to New Orleans; how he handled the
robbers.--At this time a neighbor hired Abraham to go with his son
to New Orleans. The two young men were to take a flat-boat loaded
with corn and other produce down the Ohio and the Mississippi. It
was called a voyage of about eighteen hundred miles, and it would
take between three and four weeks.

[Illustration: LINCOLN ON THE FLAT-BOAT GOING DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI
RIVER.]

Young Lincoln was greatly pleased with the thought of making such
a trip. He had never been away any distance from home, and, as he
told his father, he felt that he wanted to see something more of the
world. His father made no objection, but, as he bade his son good
by, he said, Take care that in trying to see the world you don't see
the bottom of the Mississippi.

The two young men managed to get the boat through safely. But one
night a gang of negroes came on board, intending to rob them of part
of their cargo. Lincoln soon showed the robbers he could handle a
club as vigorously as he could an axe, and the rascals, bruised and
bleeding, were glad to get off with their lives.

250. The Lincolns move to Illinois; what Abraham did; hunting
frolics; how Abraham chopped; how he bought his clothes.--Not long
after young Lincoln's return, his father moved to Illinois.[5] It
was a two weeks' journey through the woods with ox-teams. Abraham
helped his father build a comfortable log cabin; then he and a man
named John Hanks split walnut rails, and fenced in fifteen acres of
land for a cornfield.

[Illustration: THE LOG CABIN IN ILLINOIS WHICH LINCOLN HELPED HIS
FATHER BUILD.]

That part of the country had but few settlers, and it was still full
of wild beasts. When the men got tired of work and wanted a frolic,
they had a grand wolf-hunt. First, a tall pole was set up in a
clearing;[6] next, the hunters in the woods formed a great circle
of perhaps ten miles in extent. Then they began to move nearer and
nearer together, beating the bushes and yelling with all their might.
The fright