ash. If you keep it up, you're bound to lose standing in our
community."

"I know I've changed," said Abe. "I've grown older since Ann died--years
older--but I don't want you fellows to throw me over. I'm on the same
level that you are and I intend to stay there. It's a fool notion that
men go up some heavenly stairway to another plane when they begin to do
things worth while. That's a kind of feudalistic twaddle. The wise man
keeps his feet on the ground and lifts his mind as high as possible. The
higher he lifts it, the more respect he will have for the common folk.
Have either of you seen McNamar since he got back?"

"I saw him the day he drove into the village," Harry answered. "He was
expecting to find Ann and make good his promise to marry her."

"Poor fool! It's a sad story all around," said Abe Lincoln. "He's not a
bad fellow, I reckon, but he broke Ann's heart. Didn't realize what a
tender thing it was. I can't forgive him."

In the middle of the afternoon they came in sight of the home of Henry
Brimstead.

"Here's where we stop and feed, and listen to Henry's secrets," said
Samson.

The level fields were cut into squares outlined by wooden stakes.

Brimstead was mowing the grass in his dooryard. He dropped his scythe and
came to welcome the travelers.

"Say, don't you know that you are standing in the center of a large and
promising city?" he said to Samson. "You fellers ought to dress up a
little when ye come to town."

"Boys, we've stumbled on to a dream city, paved with gold and arched with
rainbows," said Samson.

"You are standing at the corner of Grand Avenue and Empire Street, in the
growing city of El Dorado, near the great water highway of Illinois,"
Brimstead declaimed.

"Where's the growin'?" Samson demanded.

Brimstead came closer and said in a confidential tone: "If you stand
right where you are an' listen, you'll hear it growin'."

"It sounds a good deal like a turnip growin' in a garden," Samson
remarked, thoughtfully.

"Give it a fair chance," Brimstead went on. "Two cellars have been dug
over there in the pasture. One is for the Town Hall and the other for the
University which the Methodists are going to build. A railroad has been
surveyed and is expected this summer."

"That same railroad has been expected in a thousand places since '32,"
said Samson.

"I know, it's the most expected thing in the United States but that won't
scare it away," Brimstead went on. "Everybody i