Indiana, where undoubtedly he examined many law-books. But from the
time he left Indiana in 1830 he had no legal reading until one day
soon after the grocery was started, when there happened one of those
trivial incidents which so often turn the current of a life. It
is best told in Mr. Lincoln's own words.[2] "One day a man who was
migrating to the West drove up in front of my store with a wagon which
contained his family and household plunder. He asked me if I would
buy an old barrel, for which he had no room in his wagon, and which
he said contained nothing of special value. I did not want it, but to
oblige him I bought it, and paid him, I think, half a dollar for it.
Without further examination, I put it away in the store, and forgot
all about it. Some time after, in overhauling things, I came upon the
barrel, and emptying it upon the floor to see what it contained, I
found at the bottom of the rubbish a complete edition of Blackstone's
Commentaries. I began to read those famous works, and I had plenty
of time; for, during the long summer days, when the farmers were busy
with their crops, my customers were few and far between. The more
I read"--this he said with unusual emphasis--"the more intensely
interested I became. Never in my whole life was my mind so thoroughly
absorbed. I read until I devoured them."

[Illustration: A MAP MADE BY LINCOLN OF A PIECE OF ROAD IN MENARD
COUNTY, ILLINOIS--HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED.

Photographed from the original for McCLURE'S MAGAZINE. This map,
which, as here reproduced, is about one-half the size of the original,
accompanied Lincoln's report of the survey of a part of the road
between Athens and Sangamon town. For making this map, Lincoln
received fifty cents. The road evidently was located "on good ground,"
and was "necessary and proper," as the report says, for it is still