, chiefly by my labor, sufficient produce, as I thought, to
justify me in taking it down the river to sell. After much persuasion I
had got the consent of my mother to go, and had constructed a flatboat
large enough to take the few barrels of things we had gathered to New
Orleans. A steamer was going down the river. We have, you know, no
wharves on the western streams, and the custom was, if passengers were
at any of the landings, they were to go out in a boat, the steamer
stopping and taking them on board. I was contemplating my new boat, and
wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any part,
when two men with trunks came down to the shore in carriages, and
looking at the different boats singled out mine, and asked, 'Who owns
this?' I answered modestly, 'I do.' 'Will you,' said one of them, 'take
us and our trunks to the steamer?' 'Certainly,' said I. I was very glad
to have the chance of earning something, and supposed that each of them
would give me a couple of bits. The trunks were put in my boat, the
passengers 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 the
deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out,
'You have forgotten to pay me.' Each of them took from his pocket a
silver half-dollar and threw it on the bottom of my boat. I could
scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the money. You may think it was
a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle,
but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely
credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day;
that by honest work I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and
thoughtful boy from that time."

In March, 1828, Lincoln was employed by one of the leading men of
Gentryville to take a load of produce down the Mississippi River to New
Orleans. For this service he was paid eight dollars a month and his
rations.

This visit to New Orleans was a great event in his life. It showed him
the life of a busy cosmopolitan city, which was a perfect wonderland to
him. Everything he saw aroused his astonishment and interest, and
served to educate him for the larger life on which he was to enter
later.

The next important event in the history of the Lincoln family was their
removal from Indiana to Illinois in 1830. The farm in Indiana had not
prospered as they hoped it would,--hence the removal to n