Page:Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, v1.djvu/87

Rh moral world, the vacant mind of the other remained stranded on the bleak shores of mediocrity, and their intimacy was but of the most superficial character.

Nancy Hanks Lincoln, as has been stated, had an uncle who was a carpenter in Elizabethtown, and with whom Thomas Lincoln "larned" his trade of carpenter. He had a son John, as inflexibly honest and reliable as Abraham Lincoln himself. John had come to the Lincolns' settlement in Indiana, and lived in and about Gentryville for about two years, but during the fall of 1828 he had drifted into Macon County, Illinois, and was comfortably settled there. Thomas Lincoln, ever ready to change his uniformly indigent condition, inquired of John Hanks about the Illinois country, whether it offered sufficiently promising advantages to a poor immigrant such as himself. To these inquiries, Uncle John (as I always called him) returned very candid, and, on the whole satisfactory replies, with the result that, during the winter of 1829-30, it was determined in the family councils of the Lincolns to move to Macon County, Illinois, upon the first budding of spring.

The business arrangements were easily and quickly despatched. Gentry, who substantially had a title to the farm in a mortgage thereon, took over the equity. Turnham purchased the few hogs, and bought the small remnant of corn for ten cents a bushel. When the middle of February came, the season was deemed sufficiently advanced for the impatient family to start. There were really three families, to wit: Thomas Lincoln, his wife, Abraham, and John D. Johnston, his foster-brother; Levi and Sarah Johnston