ent. Let's stick
to the job till four o'clock. Then we'll knock off for refreshments."

The young revelers gathered in a group and began to whisper together.
Samson writes that it became evident then they were going to make
trouble and says:

"We had left the children at Rutledge's in the
care of Ann. I went to Sarah and told her she had
better go on and see if they were all right.

"'Don't you get in any fight,' she said, which
shows that the women knew what was in the air.

"Sarah led the way and the others followed her."

Those big, brawny fellows from the grove when they got merry were
looking always for a chance to get mad at some man and turn him into a
plaything. A victim had been a necessary part of their sprees. Many a
poor fellow had been fastened in a barrel and rolled down hill or nearly
drowned in a ducking for their amusement. A chance had come to get mad
and they were going to make the most of it. They began to growl with
resentment. Some were wigging their leader Jack Armstrong to fight Abe.
One of them ran to his horse and brought a bottle from his saddlebag. It
began passing from mouth to mouth. Jack Armstrong got the bottle before
it was half emptied, drained it and flung it high in the air. Another
called him a hog and grappled him around the waist and there was a
desperate struggle which ended quickly. Armstrong got a hold on the neck
of his assailant and choked him until he let go. This was not enough for
the sturdy bully of Clary's Grove. He seized his follower and flung him
so roughly on the ground that the latter lay for a moment stunned.
Armstrong had got his blood warm and was now ready for action. With a
wild whoop he threw off his coat, unbuttoned his right shirtsleeve and
rolled it to the shoulder and declared in a loud voice, as he swung his
arm in the air, that he could "outjump, outhop, outrun, throw down, drag
out an' lick any man in New Salem."

In a letter to his father Samson writes:

"Abe was working at my elbow. I saw him drop his
hammer and get up and make for the ladder. I knew
something was going to happen and I followed him.
In a minute every one was off the roof and out of
the building. I guess they knew what was coming.
The big lad stood there swinging his arm and
yelling like an Injun. It was a big arm and
muscled and corded up