were at any of the landings, for them to go out in a boat, the steamer stopping and taking them on board.  I was contemplating my new flatboat, and wondering whether I could make it stronger or improve it in any way, when two men came down to the shore in carriages with trunks.  Looking at the different boats, they singled out mine and asked, ‘Who owns this?’ I answered somewhat modestly, ‘I do.’  ’Will you take us and our trunks to the steamer?’ asked one of them.  ‘Certainly,’ said I. I was glad to have the chance of earning something.  I supposed that each of them would give me two or three bits.  The trunks were put on my flatboat, the passengers seated themselves on the trunks, and I sculled them out to the steamer.  They got on board, and I lifted up their heavy trunks and put them on the deck.  The steamer was about to put on steam again, when I called out to them that they had forgotten to pay me.  Each man took from his pocket a silver half-dollar and threw it into the bottom of my boat.  I could scarcely believe my eyes.  Gentlemen, you may think it a little thing, and in these days it seems to me a trifle; but it was a great event in my life.  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.  The world seemed wider and fairer to me.  I was a more hopeful and confident being from that time.”

Notwithstanding the limitations of every kind which hemmed in the life of young Lincoln, he had an instinctive feeling, born perhaps of his eager ambition, that he should one day attain an exalted position.  The first betrayal of this premonition is thus related by Mr. Arnold: 

“Lincoln attended court at Booneville, to witness a murder trial, at which one of the Breckenridges from Kentucky made a very eloquent speech for the defense.  The boy was carried away with admiration, and was so enthusiastic that, although a perfect stranger, he could not resist expressing his admiration to Breckenridge.  He wanted to be a lawyer.  He went home, dreamed of courts, and got up mock trials, at which he would defend imaginary prisoners.  Several of his companions at this period of his life, as well as those who knew him after he went to Illinois, declare that he was often heard to say, not in joke, but seriously, as if he were deeply impressed rather than elated with the idea:  ’I shall some day be President of the United States.’  It is stated by many of Lincoln’s old friends that he often said while still an obscure man, ‘Some day I shall be President.’  He undoubtedly had for years some presentiment of this.”