s as follows:

Know all men by these presents, we, William F. Berry, Abraham
Lincoln and John Bowling Green, are held and firmly bound unto
the County Commissioners of Sangamon County in the full sum
of three hundred dollars to which payment well and truly to
be made we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and
administrators firmly by these presents, sealed with our seal
and dated this 6th day of March A.D. 1833. Now the condition
of this obligation is such that Whereas the said Berry &
Lincoln has obtained a license from the County Commissioners
Court to keep a tavern in the Town of New Salem to continue
one year. Now if the said Berry & Lincoln shall be of good
behavior and observe all the laws of this State relative to
tavern keepers--then this obligation to be void or otherwise
remain in full force.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN [Seal]
WM. F. BERRY [Seal]
BOWLING GREEN [Seal]

This bond appears to have been written by the clerk of the
Commissioners' Court; and Lincoln's name was signed by some one other
than himself, very likely by his partner Berry.

[Illustration: A WAYSIDE WELL NEAR NEW SALEM, KNOWN AS "ANN RUTLEDGE'S
WELL."]

THE FIRM HIRES A CLERK.

The license seems to have stimulated the business, for the firm
concluded to hire a clerk. The young man who secured this position was
Daniel Green Burner, son of Isaac Burner, at whose house Lincoln for
a time boarded. He is still living on a farm near Galesburg, Illinois,
and is in the eighty-second year of his age. "The store building of
Berry and Lincoln," says Mr. Burner, "was a frame building, not very
large, one story in height, and contained two rooms. In the little
back room Lincoln had a fireplace and a bed. There is where we slept.
I clerked in the store through the winter of 1834, up to the 1st of
March. While I was there they had nothing for sale but liquors. They
may have had some groceries before that, but I am certain they had
none then. I used to sell whiskey over their counter at six cents a
glass--and charged it, too. N.A. Garland started a store, and Lincoln
wanted Berry to ask his father for a loan, so they could buy out
Garland; but Berry refused, saying this was one of the last things he
would think of doing."

Among the other persons yet living who were residents with Lincoln of
New Salem or its near neighborhood are Mrs. Parthenia W. Hill, aged
seventy-nine years, widow of