V.

THE SALE.

T was about the first of October, 1816. Abra

ham had not been to school for some weeks; and yet he could read quite well for a boy not yet eight years old. He could read some when he left school; and he persevered so well at home that he was now able to read the Scriptures in the family. This was doing much better than many boys do at this day, even in highly favored New England; and the fact becomes a key to his character.

It was the time for Colby to pay them a visit, and negotiate for the place. They had not seen him since he made them a call; but there was something in his appearance that caused them to think he would come. They had not much doubt of it. And their expectations were realized. Scarcely a week of October had passed before he made his appearance.

"You're good as your word," said Mr. Lincoln. "That's what I meant to be," replied Colby. "We've been expectin' you, and rather making arrangements to sell the place. Have you found any place you like better?"

"No; I have n't looked much.

with this, if we can agree upon the can find out a way to pay you."

I'm satisfied

price, and I

"It won't take you long to find out the price of it, for I have settled it in my own mind; and I s'pose it won't take me much longer to find out whether you will buy.”

"I expect it is about so," answered Colby. "As matters appear to stand, it will not be a long job that is before us. What's your price?"

"I will sell out for three hundred dollars."

The reader will not be startled by this amount. Think of a place worth three hundred dollars! You could hardly call it a homestead; and yet it was all that Abraham's father possessed in the wilds of Kentucky. A farm for three hundred dollars! House, land, and all for that! After years of hard toil and harder privations, this was all he had. Scarcely enough to supply a small family with furniture to commence housekeeping in Massachusetts! But that was his price, and it was all the place was worth.

"How in regard to the pay?" asked Colby.

"That's important to me, of course. What do you propose?"

"I have n't much money, I can tell you to begin with, though I have what is good as money in the market."

"What is it?"

"You see I've been specilatin' a little since I gave you a call in the summer. I used up my grain for whiskey, and I bought some too, thinkin' that I should make a spec out of it; but I hain't sold but a trifle on 't yet. Now, if I could pay you mostly in whiskey, I would strike the bargain at once; and may be that over in Indiana you'll find a ready market for it.”

"I hadn't thought of takin' pay in such an article," answered Mr. Lincoln; "and I don't know as I could ever sell it. I'm going to strike right into the wilderness."

"That may be; but you'll have neighbors within a few miles; and over. there they hain't got the knack of manifacturin' it, I s'pose, and this would make it easier to sell it."

"It's awkward stuff to carry on such a trip, though I expect to move on a flat-boat.”

"Just the easiest thing in the world to carry this; you can carry it as well as not on a boat. You won't have half a load of other stuff. And it will bring you double there what it will here, I'm thinkin'."

"That's all guess-work."

"But don't it stand to reason that whiskey would bring more where they can't make it, as they can here?"

"Yes, I admit that it may probably bring more there, and it ought to bring more to pay for the

E

trouble of takin' it there. But can't you turn it into money in some way?"

"I don't see how I can; I've done the best I could about it. The fact is that folks around here have laid in for whiskey largely. I can sell it in time, I have no doubt, at a stiff price, but that won't help me just now."

"It seems so; but this is unexpected, though I'm determined to sell out at some rate. I must see my wife about it, however, and get her judgmenť on the matter."

Mr. Lincoln consulted his wife in regard to the article with which Colby proposed to pay for the place. She was somewhat disappointed on hearing of this turn of affairs, as she had rather anticipated that he would pay money for it, though it would have been rather unusual, then and there, for a man to pay money for the whole of a place. Traffic was carried on largely by exchanging one thing for another. But there was something about Colby's appearance, when he first came to see the place, that caused Mrs. Lincoln to expect that he would. pay cash for the farm. For this reason, the idea of selling their place for whiskey struck her as altogether novel and queer at first.

"But I must sell at some rate," said her husband; "and this may be my last chance this season."

"That is true, and the matter must be looked at.

It may be that the whiskey could be sold in Indiana more readily than we expect. I scarcely know what to say. You must do as you think best."

"Well, I think it is best to sell out at some rate, and if I thought that this was my last chance to sell this fall, I should take the whiskey, and run the risk."

"As to that, I think it likely that you won't have another chance this fall. It is n't often that you can sell a place in this part of the country."

"I'm inclined to think, then," continued Mr. Lincoln, musing, with his eyes fastened upon the earth-floor of their cabin, as if scarcely knowing what to do," that I shall take the whiskey if I can't do any better with him.'

"Just as you think best," answered his wife. "You can judge better than I can whether it will do or not."

After going to the man, and satifying himself that he must take the whiskey, or fail to sell, Mr. Lincoln introduced the subject of the price of it, about which nothing had been said.

“How much a gallon?" he inquired. "You'll of course sell it at a discount, seein' I take such a quantity."

"Certainly; I shall sell it to you for five cents a gallon less than the wholesale price of a barrel; and you can't ask anything better than that.”

"That 's fair, I think; and now let me see, how