Page:Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, v1.djvu/91

Rh were warned to hang on, the load pitched forward, steadied, careened to one side, righted up, and jolted along to the dolorous creakings of a home-made vehicle. And thus the Tribe of Lincoln set out on its journey for the Promised Land, and thus also Abraham Lincoln, having been three days a conventional man, commenced to bear the burden of responsible life as an ox driver.

Can the imagination of these days of mechanical marvels reconstruct in fancy the rude vehicle which carried the fortunes of Abraham Lincoln from Gentryville, Ind., to Decatur, Ill.? Will the occupant of the modern railway coach or of an automobile credit the assertion that not a particle of iron or other metal entered into its composition except the narrow iron bands which bound the periphery of the wheels; that those wheels were solid blocks of wood made approximately circular by the broad-axe and drawknife, and that in lieu of bolts, straps, or other fastenings, hickory withes were used? So rude a vehicle does not exist to-day in any part of the world, not even in Tasmania or Zululand. The cargo consisted of a bureau, a chest of drawers, a table, two chairs bottomed with rawhide, some bundles of bedding, some bundles of clothing, a carpenter's chest of tools, and some very rude cooking utensils. The most unpropitious season of the year seems to have been selected for such a journey, inasmuch as the road froze at night and thawed by day, causing the heavy wagon to be mired daily.

So, too, the hardships of the journey were greatly increased by the not infrequent crossing of creeks upon whose surface a thin film of ice