himself, than that he was chosen to navigate the flatboat a
thousand miles to the "sugar-coast" of the Mississippi River,
sell its load, and bring back the money. Allen Gentry was
supposed to be in command, but from the record of his after life
we may be sure that Abraham did his full share both of work and
management. The elder Gentry paid Lincoln eight dollars a month
and his passage home on a steamboat for this service. The voyage
was made successfully, although not without adventure; for one
night, after the boat was tied up to the shore, the boys were
attacked by seven negroes, who came aboard intending to kill and
rob them. There was a lively scrimmage, in which, though slightly
hurt, they managed to beat off their assailants, and then,
hastily cutting their boat adrift, swung out on the stream. The
marauding band little dreamed that they were attacking the man
who in after years was to give their race its freedom; and though
the future was equally hidden from Abraham, it is hard to
estimate the vistas of hope and ambition that this long journey
opened to him. It was his first look into the wide, wide world.



II. CAPTAIN LINCOLN.

By this time the Lincoln homestead was no longer on the frontier.
During the years that passed while Abraham was growing from a
child, scarcely able to wield the ax placed in his hands, into a
tall, capable youth, the line of frontier settlements had been
gradually but steadily pushing on beyond Gentryville toward the
Mississippi River. Every summer canvas-covered moving wagons
wound their slow way over new roads into still newer country;