Page:Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, v1.djvu/82

52 and another, a flatboat trip, under the management of but two persons, was a constant succession of hardships and novelties. Mr. Lincoln has himself described his flatboat experiences to me. In fact, as I, too, once made a flatboat trip, we compared experiences. On Gentry's and Lincoln's trip they commenced to barter away their load after they had fairly embarked on the Mississippi, receiving cotton, tobacco, and sugar in exchange for potatoes, bacon, apples, and jeans. This sort of river commerce was very common from the year 1820 to the period of the war, and thrives to some extent even now.

Lincoln returned home from this, his first trip, in June, 1828, and fell into the same weary round of existence which he had pursued before, but with an evident longing for pursuits of a more ambitious and dignified character than those to which his existence had theretofore been consecrated.

In two years more he would arrive at the age of conventional manhood. Thomas Lincoln, even with the wages of Abraham and Sarah, had not greatly bettered his condition. The farm (so-called) had been purchased entirely on credit, and was then only partially paid for. The father had no title or muniment of title to his farm; only to a right thereafter to acquire it, provided he paid for it. From a few lean acres some corn was gleaned, as the product of the least culture possible. Thomas Lincoln had no vices, nor yet any economic virtues, and he was a poor calculator, and being in the economical "slough of despond," saw no means by which he might emerge therefrom.

The community of which he formed part was