know exactly. Going to take up a claim somewhere."

"There's no better country than right here. This is the Canaan of
America. We need people like you. Unhitch your team and have some dinner
and we'll talk things over after you're rested. I'm the doctor here and I
ride all over this part o' the country. I reckon I know it pretty well."

A woman in a neat calico dress came out of the door--a strong built and
rather well favored woman with blonde hair and dark eyes.

"Mrs. Rutledge, these are travelers from the East," said the Doctor.
"Give 'em some dinner, and if they can't pay for it, I can. They've come
all the way from Vermont."

"Good land! Come right in an' rest yerselves. Abe, you show the gentleman
where to put his horses an' lend him a hand."

Abe extended his long arm toward Samson and said "Howdy" as they shook
hands.

"When his big hand got hold of mine, I kind of felt his timber," Samson
writes. "I says to myself, 'There's a man it would be hard to tip over in
a rassle.'"

"What's yer name? How long ye been travelin'? My conscience! Ain't ye
wore out?" the hospitable Mrs. Rutledge was asking as she went into the
house with Sarah and the children. "You go and mix up with the little
ones and let yer mother rest while I git dinner," she said to Joe and
Betsey, and added as she took Sarah's shawl and bonnet: "You lop down an'
rest yerself while I'm flyin' around the fire."

"Come all the way from Vermont?" Abe asked as he and Samson were
unhitching.

"Yes, sir."

"By jing!" the slim giant exclaimed. "I reckon you feel like throwin' off
yer harness an' takin' a roll in the grass."

CHAPTER III

WHEREIN THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO OFFUT'S STORE AND HIS CLERK ABE, AND
THE SCHOLAR JACK KELSO AND HIS CABIN AND HIS DAUGHTER BIM, AND GETS A
FIRST LOOK AT LINCOLN.

They had a dinner of prairie thickens and roast venison, flavored with
wild grape jelly, and creamed potatoes and cookies and doughnuts and
raisin pie. It was a well cooked dinner, served on white linen, in a
clean room, and while they were eating, the sympathetic landlady stood by
the table, eager to learn of their travels and to make them feel at home.
The good food and their kindly welcome and the beauty of the rolling,
wooded prairies softened the regret which had been growing in their
hearts, and which only the children had dared to express.

"Perhaps we haven't made a mistake after all," Sarah whispered when the
dinner was over