“I know I’ve changed,” said Abe.  “I’ve grown older since Ann died—­years older—­but I don’t want you fellows to throw me over.  I’m on the same level that you are and I intend to stay there.  It’s a fool notion that men go up some heavenly stairway to another plane when they begin to do things worth while.  That’s a kind of feudalistic twaddle.  The wise man keeps his feet on the ground and lifts his mind as high as possible.  The higher he lifts it, the more respect he will have for the common folk.  Have either of you seen McNamar since he got back?”

“I saw him the day he drove into the village,” Harry answered.  “He was expecting to find Ann and make good his promise to marry her.”

“Poor fool!  It’s a sad story all around,” said Abe Lincoln.  “He’s not a bad fellow, I reckon, but he broke Ann’s heart.  Didn’t realize what a tender thing it was.  I can’t forgive him.”

In the middle of the afternoon they came in sight of the home of Henry Brimstead.

“Here’s where we stop and feed, and listen to Henry’s secrets,” said Samson.

The level fields were cut into squares outlined by wooden stakes.

Brimstead was mowing the grass in his dooryard.  He dropped his scythe and came to welcome the travelers.

“Say, don’t you know that you are standing in the center of a large and promising city?” he said to Samson.  “You fellers ought to dress up a little when ye come to town.”

“Boys, we’ve stumbled on to a dream city, paved with gold and arched with rainbows,” said Samson.

“You are standing at the corner of Grand Avenue and Empire Street, in the growing city of El Dorado, near the great water highway of Illinois,” Brimstead declaimed.

“Where’s the growin’?” Samson demanded.

Brimstead came closer and said in a confidential tone:  “If you stand right where you are an’ listen, you’ll hear it growin’.”

“It sounds a good deal like a turnip growin’ in a garden,” Samson remarked, thoughtfully.

“Give it a fair chance,” Brimstead went on.  “Two cellars have been dug over there in the pasture.  One is for the Town Hall and the other for the University which the Methodists are going to build.  A railroad has been surveyed and is expected this summer.”

“That same railroad has been expected in a thousand places since ’32,” said Samson.

“I know, it’s the most expected thing in the United States but that won’t scare it away,” Brimstead went on.  “Everybody is yellin’ for it.”

“You can’t call a railroad as you would a dog by whistling,” Abe warned him.

“But it’s got beyond Buffalo on its way,” said Brimstead.

“A team of healthy snails would get here soouer,” Samson insisted.

“El Dorado can make out with a canal to Lake Michigan, carrying its manufactures and the product of the surrounding country straight to the big cities of the East,” said Brimstead.  “Every corner lot in my city has been sold and paid for, half cash and half notes.”