n in mastering Kirkham's grammar, and later gave him valuable
assistance when Lincoln was learning the theory of surveying. He
taught in a little log school-house on a hill south of the village,
just across Green's Rocky Branch. Among his pupils was Ann Rutledge,
and the school was often visited by Lincoln. In 1845, Mentor Graham
was defendant in a lawsuit in which Lincoln and Herndon were attorneys
for the plaintiff, Nancy Green. It appears from the declaration,
written by Lincoln's own hand, that on October 28, 1844, Mentor Graham
gave his note to Nancy Green for one hundred dollars, with John Owens
and Andrew Beerup as sureties, payable twelve months after date. The
note not being paid when due, suit was brought. That Lincoln, even as
an attorney, should sue Mentor Graham may seem strange; but it is no
surprise when it is explained that the plaintiff was the widow of
Bowling Green--the woman who, with her husband, had comforted Lincoln
in an hour of grief. Justice, too, in this case, was clearly on her
side. The lawsuit seems never to have disturbed the friendly relations
between Lincoln and Mentor Graham. The latter's admiration for the
former was unbounded to the day of his death. Mentor Graham lived on
his farm near the ruins of New Salem until 1860, when he removed to
Petersburg. There he lived until 1885, when he removed to Greenview,
Illinois. Later he went to South Dakota, where he died about 1892, at
the ripe old age of ninety-odd years.]

LINCOLN SETTLES IN NEW SALEM.

The month in New Orleans passed swiftly, and in June, 1831, Lincoln
and his companions took passage up the river. He did not return,
however, in the usual way of the river boatman "out of a job."
According to his own way of putting it, "during this boat-enterprise
acquaintance with Offutt, who was previously an entire stranger, he
conceived a liking for Abraham, and believing he could turn him to
account, he contracted with him to act as a clerk for him on his
return from New Orleans, in charge of a store and mill at New
Salem."[A] The store and mill were, however, so far only in Offutt's
imagination, and Lincoln had to drift about until his employer was
ready for him. He made a short visit to his father and mother, now in
Coles County, near Charleston (fever and ague had driven the Lincolns
from their first home in Macon County), and then, in July, 1831, he
drifted over to New Salem, where, as he says, he "stopped indefinitely
and for the