Denton was so proud of his clerk that he could not help boasting.  “Abe is the smartest man in the United States,” he said.  “Yes, and he can beat any man in the country running, jumping, or wrastling.”

A bunch of young roughnecks lived a few miles away in another settlement called Clary Grove.  “That Denton Offut talks too much with his mouth,” they said angrily.  They did not mind Abe being called smart.  But they declared that no one could “out-wrastle” their leader, Jack Armstrong.  One day they rushed into the store and dared Abe to fight with Jack.

Abe laid down the book that he had been reading.  “I don’t hold with wooling and pulling,” he said.  “But if you want to fight, come on outside.”

The Clary Grove boys soon realized that Denton’s clerk was a good wrestler.  Jack, afraid that he was going to lose the fight, stepped on Abe’s foot with the sharp heel of his boot.  The sudden pain made Abe angry.  The next thing that Jack knew he was being shaken back and forth until his teeth rattled.  Then he was lying flat on his back in the dust.

Jack’s friends let out a howl of rage.  Several of them rushed at Abe, all trying to fight him at the same time.  He stood with his back against the store, his fists doubled up.  He dared them to come closer.  Jack picked himself up.

“Stop it, fellows,” he said.  “I was beaten in a fair fight.  If you ask me, this Abe Lincoln is the cleverest fellow that ever broke into the settlement.”

From then on Jack was one of Abe’s best friends.

A short time later Abe enlisted as a soldier in the Black Hawk War to help drive the Indians out of Illinois.  The Clary Grove boys were in his company, and Abe was elected captain.  Before his company had a chance to do any fighting, Blackhawk was captured in another part of Illinois and the war was over.

When Abe came back to New Salem, he found himself out of a job.  Denton Offut had left.  The store had “winked out.”  Later, Abe and another young man, William Berry, decided to become partners.  They borrowed money and started a store of their own.

One day a wagon piled high with furniture stopped out in front.  A man jumped down and explained that he and his family were moving West.  The wagon was too crowded, and he had a barrel of odds and ends that he wanted to sell.  Abe, always glad to oblige, agreed to pay fifty cents for it.  Later, when he opened it, he had a wonderful surprise.

The barrel contained a set of famous law books.  He had seen those same books in Mr. Pitcher’s law office in Rockport.  Now that he owned a set of his own, he could read it any time he wished.  Customers coming into the store usually found Abe lying on the counter, his nose buried in one of the new books.  The more he read, the more interested he became.

Perhaps he spent too much time reading, instead of attending to business.  William Berry was lazy, and not a very satisfactory partner.  The store of Lincoln and Berry did so little business that it had to close.  The partners were left with many debts to pay.  Then Berry died, and “Honest Abe” announced that he would pay all of the debts himself, no matter how long it took.