roadside, he wrote out; and one of the men used to relate that it
contained a misspelled word, which he corrected.


IN CHARGE OF DENTON OFFUTT'S STORE.

The precise date of the opening of Denton Offutt's store is not known.
We only know that on July 8, 1831, the County Commissioners' Court of
Sangamon County granted Offutt a license to retail merchandise at New
Salem; for which he paid five dollars, a fee which supposed him to
have one thousand dollars' worth of goods in stock. When the oxen
and their drivers returned with the goods, the store was opened in a
little log house on the brink of the hill, almost over the river.

[Illustration: THE KIRKHAM'S GRAMMAR USED BY LINCOLN AT NEW
SALEM.--NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.]

The copy of Kirkham's Grammar studied by Lincoln belonged to a man
named Vaner. Some of the biographers say Lincoln borrowed [it,] but
it appears that he became the owner of the book, either by purchase
or through the generosity of Vaner, for it was never returned to the
latter. It is said that Lincoln learned this grammar practically by
heart. "Sometimes," says Herndon, "he would stretch out at full length
on the counter, his head propped up on a stack of calico prints,
studying it; or he would steal away to the shade of some inviting
tree, and there spend hours at a time in a determined effort to fix
in his mind the arbitrary rule that 'adverbs qualify verbs, adjectives
and other adverbs.'" He presented the book to Ann Rutledge [the story
of Ann Rutledge will appear in a future number of the Magazine], and
it has since been one of the treasures of the Rutledge family. After