e fire could
scorch a feather, I cried out in stentorian voice: 'Take him off!'"

"Clary's Grove Boys"--A Wrestling Match.

There lived at the time young Lincoln resided at New Salem, Illinois, in
and around the village, a band of rollicking fellows, or more properly,
roystering rowdies, known as the "Clary's Grove Boys." The special tie
that united them was physical courage and prowess. These fellows, although
they embraced in their number many men who have since become respectable
and influential, were wild and rough beyond toleration in any community
not made up like that which produced them. They pretended to be
"regulators," and were the terror of all who did not acknowledge their
role; and their mode of securing allegiance was by flogging every man who
failed to acknowledge it.

They took it upon themselves to try the mettle of every newcomer, and to
learn the sort of stuff he was made of.

Some of their number was appointed to fight, wrestle, or run a foot-race
with each incoming stranger. Of course Abraham Lincoln was obliged to pass
the ordeal.

Perceiving that he was a man who would not easily be floored; they
selected their champion, Jack Armstrong, and imposed upon him the task of
laying Lincoln upon his back.

There is no evidence that Lincoln was an unwilling party to the sport, for
it was what he had always been accustomed to. The bout was entered upon,
but Armstrong soon discovered that he had met more than his match.

The boys were looking on, and seeing that their champion was likely to get
the worst of it, did after the manner of such irresponsible bands. They
gathered around Lincoln, struck and disabled him, and then Armstrong, by
"legging" him, got him down.

Most men would have been indignant, not to say furiously angry, under such
foul treatment as this; but if Lincoln was either, he did not show it.
Getting up in perfect good humor, he fell to laughing over his
discomfiture, and joking about it. They had all calculated upon making him
angry, and they intended, with the amiable spirit which characterized the
"Clary's Grove Boys," to give him a terrible drubbing. They were
disappointed, and, in their admiration of him, immediately invited him to
become one of the company.

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Motor Boat Boys Series

By Louis Arundel

1. The Motor Club's Cruise Down the Mississippi; or The Dash for Dixie.