possessed any glimmering notion of, a fixed and inflexible will to
succeed. He did not love work, probably, any better than John
Johnston; but he had an innate self-respect, and a consciousness that
his self was worthy of respect, that kept him from idleness as it kept
him from all other vices, and made him a better man every year that he
lived.

We have anticipated a score of years in speaking of Mr. Lincoln's
relations to his family. It was in August of the year 1831 that he
finally left his father's roof, and swung out for himself into the
current of the world to make his fortune in his own way. He went down
to New Salem again to assist Offutt in the business that lively
speculator thought of establishing there. He was more punctual than
either his employer or the merchandise, and met with the usual reward
of punctuality in being forced to waste his time in waiting for the
tardy ones. He seemed to the New Salem people to be "loafing"; several
of them have given that description of him. He did one day's work
acting as clerk of a local election, a lettered loafer being pretty
sure of employment on such an occasion. [Footnote: Mrs. Lizzie H. Bell
writes of this incident: "My father, Menton Graham, was on that day,
as usual, appointed to be a clerk, and Mr. McNamee, who was to be the
other, was sick and failed to come. They were looking around for a man
to fill his place when my father noticed Mr. Lincoln and asked if he
could write. He answered that 'he could make a few rabbit tracks.'"]
He also piloted a boat down the Sangamon for one Dr. Nelson, who had
had enough of New Salem and wanted to go to Texas. This was probably a
task not requiring much pilot-craft, as the river was much swollen,
and navigators had in most places two or three miles of channel to
count upon. But Offutt and his goods arrived at last, and Lincoln and
he got them immediately into position, and opened their doors to what