"What can I do about it?" Abe asked. "I've been hopin' an' wishin' some kind of a decent handle could be put on to his name," said Mrs. Lukins, with her eye upon a knot hole in the counter. "Something with a good sound to it. You said that anything you could do for the New Salem folks you was goin' to do an' I thought maybe you could fix it." Abe smiled and asked: "Do you want a title?" "If it ain't plum owdacious I wisht he could be made a Colonel." "That's a title for fighting men," said Abe. "An' that man has fit for his life ever since he was born," said Mrs. Lukins. "He's fit the measles an' the smallpox an' the fever an' ager an' conquered 'em." "I reckon he deserves the title," Abe remarked. "I ain't sayin' but what there is purtier men," she said, reflectively, as she stuck her finger into the knot hole and felt its edges. "I ain't sayin' but what there is smarter men but I do say that the name o' Bony ain't hardly fit to be heard in company." "A little whitewash wouldn't hurt it any," said Abe. "I'd gladly give him my title of Captain if I could unhitch it someway." "Colonel is a more grander name," she insisted. "I call it plum coralapus." She had thus expressed her notion of the limit of human grandeur. "Do you like it better than Judge?" "Wall, Judge has a good sound to it but I'm plum sot on Colonel. If you kin give that name to a horse, which Samson Traylor has done it, I don't see why a man shouldn't be treated just as well." "I'll see what can be done but if he gets that title he'll have to live up to it." "I'll make him walk a chalk line--you see," the good woman promised as she left the store. That evening Abe wrote a playful commission as Colonel for Peter Lukins which was signed in due time by all his friends and neighbors and presented to Lukins by a committee of which Abe was chairman. Coleman Smoot--a man of some means who had a farm on the road to Springfield--was in the village that evening. Abe showed him the commission and asked him to sign it. "I'll sign it on one condition," said Smoot. "What is that?" Abe asked. "That you'll give me a commission." "A man like you can't expect too much. Would you care to be a General?" "I wouldn't give the snap of my finger for that. What I want to be is your friend." "You are that now, aren't you?" Abe asked. "Yes, but I haven't earned my commission. You haven't given me a chance yet. What can I do to help you along?" Abe was much impressed by these kindly words. "My friends do not often ask what they can do for me," he said. "I suppose they haven't thought of it. I'll think it over and let you know." Three days later he walked out to Coleman Smoot's after supper. As they sat together by the fireside Abe said: