“They were friendly and good-natured; they could trench a pond, dig a bog, build a house; they could pray and fight, make a village or create a state.  They would do almost anything for sport or fun, love or necessity.  Though rude and rough, though life’s forces ran over the edge of the bowl, foaming and sparkling in pure deviltry for deviltry’s sake, yet place before them a poor man who needed their aid, a lame or sick man, a defenceless woman, a widow, or an orphaned child, they melted into sympathy and charity at once.  They gave all they had, and willingly toiled or played cards for more.  Though there never was under the sun a more generous parcel of rowdies, a stranger’s introduction was likely to be the most unpleasant part of his acquaintance with them.”

[Illustration:  A Clary’s grove log cabin,—­now first published.

From a water-color by Miss Etta Ackermann, Springfield, Illinois.  “Clary’s Grove” was the name of a settlement five miles southwest of New Salem, deriving its name from a grove on the land of the Clarys.  It was the headquarters of a daring and reckless set of young men living in the neighborhood and known as the “Clary’s Grove Boys.”  This cabin was the residence of George Davis, one of the “Clary’s Grove Boys,” and grandfather of Miss Ackermann.  It was built seventy-one years ago—­in 1824—­and is the only one left of the cluster of cabins which constituted the little community.]

Denton Offutt, Lincoln’s employer, was just the man to love to boast before such a crowd.  He seemed to feel that Lincoln’s physical prowess shed glory on himself, and he declared the country over that his clerk could lift more, throw farther, run faster, jump higher, and wrestle better than any man in Sangamon County.  The Clary’s Grove Boys, of course, felt in honor bound to prove this false, and they appointed their best man, one Jack Armstrong, to “throw Abe.”  Jack Armstrong was, according to the testimony of all who remember him, a “powerful twister,” “square built and strong as an ox,” “the best-made man that ever lived;” and everybody knew the contest would be close.  Lincoln did not like to “tussle and scuffle,” he objected to “woolling and pulling;” but Offutt had gone so far that it became necessary to yield.  The match was held on the ground near the grocery.  Clary’s Grove and New Salem turned out generally to witness the bout, and betting on the result ran high, the community as a whole staking their jack-knives, tobacco plugs, and “treats” on Armstrong.  The two men had scarcely taken hold of each other before it was evident that the Clary’s Grove champion had met a match.  The two men wrestled long and hard, but both kept their feet.  Neither could throw the other, and Armstrong, convinced of this, tried a “foul.”  Lincoln no sooner realized the game of his antagonist than, furious with indignation, he caught him by the throat, and holding him out at arm’s length, he “shook him