ty of time; for during the long
summer days, when the farmers were busy with their crops, my customers
were few and far between. The more I read the more intensely interested
I became. Never in my whole life was my mind so thoroughly absorbed. I
read until I devoured them."

With one partner drinking whisky and the other devouring "Blackstone,"
it was not surprising that the business "winked out," as Lincoln
whimsically expressed it, leaving the conscientious junior partner
saddled with the obligations of the former owners of two country stores,
and owing an amount so large that Lincoln often referred to it as "the
national debt." William Berry, the senior partner, who was equally
responsible, "drank himself to death," leaving Lincoln alone to pay all
the debts.

According to the custom and conscience of the time, the insolvent young
merchant was under no obligation whatever to pay liabilities contracted
by the other men, but Lincoln could never be induced even to compromise
any of the accounts the others had gone off and left him to settle.
"Honest Abe" paid the last cent of his "national debt" nearly twenty
years later, after much toil, self-denial and hardship.

POSTMASTER LINCOLN AND JACK ARMSTRONG'S FAMILY

Again out of employment, Abe was forced to accept the hospitality of his
friends of whom he now had a large number. While in business with Berry
he received the appointment as postmaster. The pay of the New Salem post
office was not large, but Lincoln, always longing for news and
knowledge, had the privilege of reading the newspapers which passed
through his hands. He took so much pains in delivering the letters and
papers that came into his charge as postmaster that he anticipated the
"special delivery" and "rural free delivery" features of the postal
service of the present day.

"A. LINCOLN, DEPUTY SURVEYOR"

Later John Calhoun, the county surveyor, sent word to Lincoln that he
would appoint him deputy surveyor of the county if he would accept the
position. The young man, greatly astonished, went to Springfield to call
on Calhoun and see if the story could be true. Calhoun knew that Lincoln
was utterly ignorant of surveying, but told him he might take time to
study up. As soon as Lincoln was assured that the appointment did not
involve any political obligation--for Calhoun was a Jackson Democrat,
and Lincoln was already a staunch Whig--he procured a copy of Flint and
Gibson's "Surveying" and went to