Page:Abraham Lincoln, A Story and a Play.djvu/31

Rh While Abraham was working for Mr. Offut, he was sent on another flat-boat expedition down the Mississippi. He carried bacon, flour and other things raised on the farms near by, and traded them off to the plantations along the river, just as he had done before. This time, however, he travelled as far as New Orleans, where he saw something that seemed very terrible. It was an auction of slaves. Little children were taken from their mothers' arms and sold as so many pieces of furniture. Women were parted from their husbands. The young man was deeply troubled at the sad sight. He said to himself, "In this great and beautiful country of America, it is dreadful that there should be such a thing as slavery."

Two years after Abraham went to live in New Salem a war broke out. It was between the white men and their red neighbors. A great chief named Black Hawk entered Illinois with his braves and led them in several terrible massacres against the white people. The settlers fled from their homes in fright, and an army was raised to