up, becoming famous for his great strength and
agility; he was six foot four inches in his stockings and was noted as
the most skillful wrestler in the country. When he was about twenty
years old the Lincoln family moved to Illinois, settling ten miles from
Decatur, where they cleared about fifteen acres and built a log cabin.
Here is where Lincoln gained his great reputation as a rail-splitter. He
had kept up his original system of reading and sketching, and from this
period in his life he became a marked man--he was noted for his
information. It makes little difference whether knowledge is gained in
college or by the side of a pile of rails, as Lincoln was wont to study
after his day's work was done.

In 1830 he took a trip on a flat-boat to New Orleans. It was on this
trip that he first saw slaves chained together and whipped. Ever after,
he detested the institution of slavery. Upon his return he received a
challenge from a famous wrestler; he accepted and threw his antagonist.
About this time he became a clerk in a country store, where his honesty
and square dealing made him a universal favorite, and earned for him the
sobriquet of 'Honest Abe.' He next entered the Black Hawk war, and was
chosen captain of his company. Jefferson Davis also served as an
officer in this war. In the fall of 1832 he was a candidate for the
legislature, but was defeated. He then opened a store with a partner
named Berry. Lincoln was made postmaster, but Berry proved a drunkard
and spendthrift, bringing the concern to bankruptcy, and soon after
died, to fill a drunkard's grave, leaving Lincoln to pay all the debts.
But during all this time Lincoln had been improving his spare moments
learning surveying, and for the next few years he earned good wages
surveying.

He now decided to become a lawyer, and devoted his attention, so far as
possible, to the accumulation of a thorough knowledge. At one period
during his studies he walked, every Saturday, to Springfield, some eight
miles away, to borrow and return books pertaining to his studies. These
books he studied nights, and early in the morning, out of working hours.
In 1834 he was once more a candidate for the legislature, and was
triumphantly elected, being re-elected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. In 1837,
when he had arrived at the age of twenty-eight, he was admitted to the
bar, where he soon became noted as a very successful pleader before a
jury. He was a Whig of the Henry Clay school, a s