same problem that has confronted millions of young Americans
before and since. In his case there was no question which he
would rather be--the only question was what success he might
reasonably hope for if he tried to study law.

Before his mind was fully made up, chance served to postpone, and
in the end greatly to increase his difficulty. Offut's successors
in business, two brothers named Herndon, had become discouraged,
and they offered to sell out to Lincoln and an acquaintance of
his named William F. Berry, on credit, taking their promissory
notes in payment. Lincoln and Berry could not foresee that the
town of New Salem had already lived through its best days, and
was destined to dwindle and grow smaller until it almost
disappeared from the face of the earth. Unduly hopeful, they
accepted the offer, and also bought out, on credit, two other
merchants who were anxious to sell. It is clear that the
flattering vote Lincoln had received at the recent election, and
the confidence New Salem felt in his personal character, alone
made these transactions possible, since not a dollar of actual
money changed hands during all this shifting of ownership. In the
long run the people's faith in him was fully justified; but
meantime he suffered years of worry and harassing debt. Berry
proved a worthless partner; the business a sorry failure. Seeing
this, Lincoln and Berry sold out, again on credit, to the Trent
brothers, who soon broke up the store and ran away. Berry also
departed and died; and in the end all the notes came back upon
Lincoln for payment. Of course he had not the money to meet these
obligations. He did the next best thing: he promised to pay as
soon as he could, and remaining where he was, worked hard at
whatever he found to do. Most of his creditors, knowing him to be