zed world:

"Without the assistance of John Hanks he plowed fifteen acres, and
split, from the tall walnut trees of the primeval forest, enough rails
to surround them with a fence. Little did either dream, while engaged in
this work, that the day would come when the appearance of John Hanks in
a public meeting with two of these rails on his shoulder, would
electrify a State convention, and kindle throughout the country a
contagious and passionate enthusiasm whose results would reach to
endless generations."

CHAPTER IX

STARTING OUT FOR HIMSELF

HIS FATHER AND HIS "FREEDOM SUIT"

According to his own account, Abe had made about thirty dollars as a
peddler, besides bearing the brunt of the labor of the journey, though
there were four grown men in the combined family. As he had passed his
twenty-first birthday on the road, he really had the right to claim
these profits as his own. His father, who had, for ten years, exacted
Abraham's meager, hard-earned wages, should at least have given the boy
a part of that thirty dollars for a "freedom suit" of clothes, as was
the custom then.

But neither Thomas Lincoln nor his son seems to have thought of such a
thing. Instead of entertaining resentment, Abraham stayed by, doing all
he could to make his father and stepmother comfortable before he left
them altogether. Mrs. Lincoln had two daughters and sons-in-law, besides
John Johnston, so Abe might easily have excused himself from looking
after the welfare of his parents. Though his father had seemed to favor
his stepchildren in preference to his own son, Mrs. Lincoln had been
"like an own mother to him," and he never ceased to show his gratitude
by being "like an own son to her."

The first work Abe did in that neighborhood was to split a thousand
rails for a pair of trousers, at the rate of four hundred rails per yard
of "brown jeans dyed with walnut bark." The young man's breeches cost
him about four hundred rails more than they would if he had been a man
of ordinary height.

But Abraham hovered about, helping clear a little farm, and making the
cabin comfortable while he was earning his own "freedom suit." He saw
the spring planting done and that a garden was made for his stepmother
before he went out of ready reach of the old people.

One special reason Thomas Lincoln had for leaving Indiana was to get
away from "the milksick." But the fall of 1830 was a very bad season in
Illinois for chills and fever. The