f
education about that time, he wrote in a letter to a friend
twenty-seven years later:

"I did not know much; still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher
to the rule of three, but that was all."

That, however, was up to the average education of the community; and
having been clerk in a country grocery he was considered an educated
man.

In the company Mr. Lincoln had joined, there was a dapper little chap
for whom Mr. Lincoln had labored as a farm hand a year before, and
whom he had left on account of ill treatment from him. This man was
eager for the captaincy. He put in his days and nights "log-rolling"
among his fellow volunteers; said he had already smelt gun-powder in a
brush with Indians, thus urging the value of experience; even thought
he had a "martial bearing"; and he was very industrious in getting
those men to join the company who would probably vote for him to be
captain.

Muster-day came, and the recruits met to organize. About them stood
several hundred relatives and other friends.

The little candidate was early on hand and busily bidding for votes.
He had felt so confident of the office in advance of muster-day, that
he had rummaged through several country tailor-shops and got a new
suit of the nearest approach to a captain's uniform that their scant
stock could furnish. So there he was, arrayed in jaunty cap, and a
swallow-tailed coat with brass buttons. He even wore fine boots, and
moreover had them blacked--which was almost a crime among a country
crowd of that day.

Young Lincoln took not one step to make himself captain; and not one
to prevent it. He simply put himself "in the hands of his friends," as
the politicians say. He stood and quietly watched the trouble others
were borrowing over the matter as if it were an election of officers
they had enlisted for, rather than for fighting Indians. But after
all, a good deal depends in war, on getting good officers.

As two o'clock drew near, the hour set for making captain, four or
five of young Lincoln's most zealous friends with a big stalwart
fellow at the head edged along pretty close to him, yet not in a way
to excite suspicion of a "conspiracy." Just a little bit before two,
without even letting "Abe" himself know exactly "what was up," the big
fellow stepped directly behind him, clapped his hands on the
shoulders before him, and shouted as only prairie giants can, "Hurrah
for Captain Abe Lincoln!" and plunged his really astonishe