heart, content with doing his duty.

Another evening, as he was closing the store, a woman came in for a
half-pound of tea. He weighed it out for her and took the pay. But early
next morning, when he came to "open up," he found the four-ounce weight
instead of the eight-ounce on the scales, and inferred that he had given
that woman only half as much tea as he had taken the money for. Of
course, the woman would never know the difference, and it meant walking
several miles and back, but the honest clerk weighed out another quarter
pound of tea, locked the store and took that long walk before breakfast.
As a "constitutional" it must have been a benefit to his health, for it
satisfied his sensitive conscience and soothed his tender heart to "make
good" in that way.

Drink and misdirected enthusiasm interfered with Denton Offutt's
success. After about a year in New Salem he "busted up," as the
neighbors expressed it, and left his creditors in the lurch. Among them
was the clerk he had boasted so much about. For a short time Abe Lincoln
needed a home, and found a hearty welcome with Jack Armstrong, the best
fighter of Clary's Grove!

J. G. Holland wrote, in his "Life of Abraham Lincoln," of the young
man's progress during his first year in New Salem:

"The year that Lincoln was in Denton Offutt's store was one of great
advance. He had made new and valuable acquaintances, read many books,
won multitudes of friends, and become ready for a step further in
advance. Those who could appreciate brains respected him, and those
whose ideas of a man related to his muscles were devoted to him. It was
while he was performing the work of the store that he acquired the
nickname, 'Honest Abe'--a characterization that he never dishonored, an
abbreviation that he never outgrew. He was everybody's friend, the
best-natured, the most sensible, the best-informed, the most modest and
unassuming, the kindest, gentlest, roughest, strongest, best fellow in
all New Salem and the region round about."

CHAPTER XI

POLITICS, WAR, STOREKEEPING AND STUDYING LAW

STUDYING GRAMMAR FIRST

By "a step still further in advance" Dr. Holland must have meant the
young clerk's going into politics. He had made many friends in New
Salem, and they reflected back his good-will by urging him to run for
the State Legislature. Before doing this he consulted Mentor Graham, the
village schoolmaster, with whom he had worked as election clerk when he
first ca