Mr. Lincoln earned his first dollar by taking two men and
their trunks to a Mississippi steamer which waited for them in
midstream.
“I was about eighteen years of age,” he said, “and belonged, as
you know, to what they call down South the ‘scrubs.’ I was very
glad to have the chance of earning something, and supposed each
of the men would give me a couple of bits. I sculled them out to
the steamer. They got on board, and I lifted the trunks and put
them on the deck. The steamer was about to put on steam again,
when I called out, ‘You have forgotten to pay me.’ Each of them
took from his pocket a silver half-dollar and threw it on the
bottom of my boat.
“You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it
seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident
in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had
earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work I had
earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from
that time.”--JAMES MORGAN, “Abraham Lincoln, The Boy
and the Man.”
(2085)
=Money-getting, a Game=---See GAME OF GREED.