n handwriting. I doubt whether it
would be easy to find among scholars of our common or high schools, or
any school of boys of the age of seventeen, a better written specimen of
this sort of work, or a better knowledge of figures than is indicated by
this book of Lincoln's, written at the age of seventeen."

In March, 1828, Lincoln went to work for old Mr. Gentry, the founder of
Gentryville. "Early the next month the old gentleman furnished his son
Allen with a boat and a cargo of bacon and other produce with which he
was to go to New Orleans unless the stock should be sooner disposed of.
Abe, having been found faithful and efficient, was employed to accompany
the young man. He was paid eight dollars per month, and ate and slept on
board." The entire business of the trip was placed in Abraham's hands.
The fact tells its own story touching the young man's reputation for
capacity and integrity. He had never made the trip, knew nothing of the
journey, was unaccustomed to business transactions, had never been much
upon the river, but his tact and ability and honesty were so far trusted
that the trader was willing to risk the cargo in his care. The delight
with which the youth swung loose from the shore upon his clumsy craft,
with the prospect of a ride of eighteen hundred miles before him, and a
vision of the great world of which he had read and thought so much, may
be imagined. At this time he had become a very tall and powerful young
man. He had reached the height of six feet and four inches, a length of
trunk and limb remarkable even among the tall race of pioneers to which
he belonged.

Just before the river expedition, Lincoln had walked with a young girl
down to the river to show her his flatboat. She relates a circumstance
of the evening which is full of significance. "We were sitting on the
banks of the Ohio, or rather on the boat he had made. I said to Abe that
the sun was going down. He said to me, 'That's not so; it don't really
go down; it seems so. The earth turns from west to east and the
revolution of the earth carries us under; we do the sinking, as you call
it. The sun, as to us, is comparatively still; the sun's sinking is only
an appearance.' I replied, 'Abe, what a fool you are!' I know now that I
was the fool, not Lincoln. I am now thoroughly satisfied that he knew
the general laws of astronomy and the movements of the heavenly bodies.
He was better read then than the world knows or is likely to know
e