courage, and capability of discerning two sides to a dispute, were
remarkable even then, and won him the admiration of those to whom such
qualities were unknown. But perhaps, after all, the thing which gained
and fixed his mastery over his fellows was to a great degree his
gigantic stature and strength. He attained his full growth, six feet
and four inches, two years before he came of age. He rarely met with a
man he could not easily handle. His strength is still a tradition in
Spencer County. One aged man says that he has seen him pick up and
carry away a chicken-house weighing six hundred pounds. At another
time, seeing some men preparing a contrivance for lifting some large
posts, Abe quickly shouldered the posts and took them where they were
needed. One of his employers says, "He could sink an axe deeper into
wood than any man I ever saw." With strength like this and a brain to
direct it, a man was a born leader in that country and at that time.
There are, of course, foolish stories extant that Abraham used to
boast, and that others used to predict, that he would be President
some day. The same thing is daily said of thousands of boys who will
never be constables. But there is evidence that he felt too large for
the life of a farmhand on Pigeon Creek, and his thoughts naturally
turned, after the manner of restless boys in the West, to the river,
as the avenue of escape from the narrow life of the woods. He once
asked an old friend to give him a recommendation to some steamboat on
the Ohio, but desisted from his purpose on being reminded that his
father had the right to dispose of his time for a year or so more. But
in 1828 an opportunity offered for a little glimpse of the world
outside, and the boy gladly embraced it. He was hired by Mr. Gentry,
the proprietor of the neighboring village of Gentryville, to accompany
his son with a flat-boat of produce to New Orleans and intermediate
landings. The voyage was made successfully, and Abraham gained great
credit for his management and sale of the cargo. The only important