e one of 'em."

"Shall you spend the summer in New Salem?"

"I don't know yet what I shall do. First I must tackle the delicate task
of getting disengaged from Mary."

"I shouldn't think it would take long," said Harry, with a smile.

"I can tell better after a preliminary survey."

"No doubt Mrs. Able would like to have you marry her sister. She knows
that you have a promising future ahead of you. But don't allow her to
look serious over that little joke."

Abe Lincoln laughed and said: "Mary would be like the man who traded
horses unsight and unseem and drew a saw horse."

Harry returned to New Salem. After the session, young Mr. Lincoln went to
Springfield and did not reach New Salem until the first week of May. When
he arrived there, Mrs. Able met the stage from which he alighted and
asked him to come to supper at her house that evening. Not a word was
said of Mary in the excitement, about all the folk of the village having
assembled to meet and cheer the triumphant Captain of Internal
Improvements. Abe Lincoln went to supper and met Mary, who had a cheerful
heart and good manners, and a schooled and active intellect, as well as
the defects which Harry had mentioned. She and the young statesman had a
pleasant visit together, recalling scenes and events which both
remembered from beyond the barrier of a dozen years. On the whole, he was
agreeably impressed. The neighbors came in after supper. Mrs. Able kept
the comedy moving along by a playful reference to the pseudo engagement
of the young people. Mr. Lincoln laughed with the others and said that it
reminded him a little of the boy who decided to be president and only
needed the consent of the United States.

CHAPTER XVIII

IN WHICH MR. LINCOLN, SAMSON AND HARRY TAKE A LONG RIDE TOGETHER AND THE
LATTER VISIT THE FLOURISHING LITTLE CITY OF CHICAGO.

Mr. Lincoln had brought the papers which Harry was to take to Bim, and
made haste to deliver them. The boy was eager to be off on his mission.
The fields were sown. The new buyer was coming to take possession in two
weeks. Samson and Harry had finished their work in New Salem.

"Wait till to-morrow and maybe I'll go with ye," said Samson. "I'm
anxious to see the country clear up to the lake and take a look at that
little mushroom city of Chicago."

"And buy a few corner lots?" Abe Lincoln asked, with a smile.

"No; I'll wait till next year. They'll be cheaper then. I believe in
Chicago. It's placed