As in all farming communities, where the only movement of currency is
when the crop comes in and the debts accumulating during the growth are
settled and the slight surplus spent, the Indiana pioneers little knew
"extra" cash. To obtain it, the men used their off hours in guiding
intending settlers, assisting surveyors and prospectors, felling and
hewing trees, and horse-trading. Another source of income out of bounds
was to send a stock of produce down the river to sell or barter for the
Southern plantation produce. As there was talk at home of furnishing
their house, Abraham bethought him of this resource. His father
consented readily to any notion that might result in gain, and his
mother, though believing nearly two thousand miles of water travel
onerous, allowed her "yes." Besides, the young man, by excessive work
on their place, had piled up a goodly stock of salable stuff. Abraham
had only to make a boat. It was small, merely to hold the "venture" and
his hand-bundle of "plunder" for the trip and land cruise at New
Orleans. Western country boys who had seen the Crescent City talked of
the exploit as the Easterners of seeing Europe.
Abe was maneuvering his boat on the Ohio River, at Rockport, when he
heard the whistle announcing the approach of a steamboat. These craft
were not enabled to make a landing anywhere, even with a run-out
gang-plank--but took passengers and parcels aboard by lighters.
Lincoln's small boat seemed admirably placed to serve as a transport to
a couple of gentlemen who came down to the shore to ship on the
steamboat. Their trunks were taken out of their carriages, and they
selected Lincoln's new boat among some others. In his homespun, the
gawky youth looked what he was--not the owner of the craft and about to
try a speculation on the river, but one of the "scrubs." The "scrubs,"
not from any relation with washing--quite otherwise--were those poor
families on the outskirts of towns who lived in the scrub or dwarfed
pines. Accordingly one of them asked, indicating the flatboat:
"Who owns this?"
The hero relates the story thus:
"'I answered, somewhat modestly: 'I do!'
"'Will you take us and our trunks out to the steamboat?'
"'Certainly,' glad of the chance of earning something. I supposed that
each of them would give two or three _bits_--practically the dime of
nowadays."
Lincoln carried the passengers aboard the vessel and handed up their
trunks. Each of the gentlemen drew out a piece of silver and threw it
on the little deck.
"Gentlemen, you may think it was a very little thing, and in these days
it seems to me a trifle; but it was a most important incident in my
life. I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the two silver
half-dollars. I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a
dollar in less than a day--that by honest work, I had earned a dollar!"
(Lincoln's flatboatman wage was $10 a month.)
(Related by Frank B. Carpenter, the portrait-painter, as given out by
President Lincoln to a party of friends in the White House executive
chamber, Secretary Seward, notably, being among them.)
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