“No one can stand still in this country especially if he’s got a wife like mine,” Samson answered.  “Even Mr. and Mrs. Peter Lukins want to be movin’ on, an’ a city is likely to come an’ sit down beside ye when ye ain’t lookin’.”

“Your wife is a wonderful woman,” said Abe.

“She’s been a great help to me,” Samson declared.  “We read together and talk the matter over.  She’s got better sense than I have.”

“And yet they say women ought not to vote,” said Lincoln.  “That’s another relic of feudalism.  I think that the women you and I know are as well qualified to vote as the men.”

“On the whole better.  They are more industrious, thrifty and dependable.  Have you ever seen a ‘Colonel’ Lukins or a Bap McNoll in woman’s dress?”

“Never.  Democracy has much ground to win.  For my part I believe that the Declaration of Independence is a practical document.  My ambition is to see its truth accepted everywhere.  As a contribution to human welfare its principles are second only to the law of Moses.  It should be our work to keep the structure of America true to the plan of its architects.”

After a moment of silence Lincoln added:  “What is your ambition?”

“It is very modest,” said Samson.  “I’ve been thinking that I’d like to go into some kind of business and help develop the West.”

“Well some one has got to provide our growing population with food and clothing and tools and transportation.”

“And see that they don’t get El Doradoed,” said Harry.

At early candlelight they reached the sycamore woods very hungry.  It was a beautiful grove-like forest on the shore of a stream.  The crossing was a rough bridge of corduroy.  A crude log tavern and a cruder store stood on the farther shore of the creek.  The tavern was a dirty place with a drunken proprietor.  Three ragged, shiftless farmers and a half-breed Indian sat in its main room in varying stages of inebriacy.  A well dressed, handsome, young man with a diamond in his shirt-front was leading a horse back and forth in the stable yard.  The diamond led Samson to suspect that he was the man Davis of whom Mrs. Brimstead had spoken.  Our travelers, not liking the look of the place, got some oats and rode on, camping near the farther edge of the woods, where they built a fire, fed and tethered their horses and sat down and ate from the store in their saddle-bags.

“I was hankering for a hot supper,” said Abe as they began eating.  “Washington Irving wrote in his journal that if he couldn’t get a dinner to suit his taste he endeavored to get a taste to suit his dinner.  That is what we must do.”

They made out very well in the undertaking and then with their knives Abe and Samson cut big armfuls of grass from the near prairie for the horses and a bed upon which the three men lay down for the night.  Harry had dried out their saddle-blankets by the fire and these were their bed clothing.