Two weeks of weary tramping over forest roads and muddy prairie, and the dangerous fording of streams swollen by the February thaws, brought the party to John Hanks's place near Decatur. He met them with a frank and energetic welcome. He had already selected a piece of ground for them a few miles from his own, and had the logs ready for their house. They numbered men enough to build without calling in their neighbors, and immediately put up a cabin on the north fork of the Sangamon River. The family thus housed and sheltered, one more bit of filial work remained for Abraham before assuming his virile independence. With the assistance of John Hanks he plowed fifteen acres, and split, from the tall walnut-trees of the primeval forest, enough rails to surround them with a fence. Little did either dream, while engaged in this work, that the day would come when the appearance of John Hanks in a public meeting, with two of these rails on his shoulder, would electrify a State convention, and kindle throughout the country a contagious and passionate enthusiasm, whose results would reach to endless generations. CHAPTER III ILLINOIS IN 1830 [Sidenote: Roy. J. M. Sturtevant, "Address to Old Settlers of Morgan County."] [Sidenote: Thomas Buckles, of McLean County.] [Sidenote: J.C. Power, "Early Settlers of Sangamon County," p. 62.] [Sidenote: "Old Times in McLean County," p. 414.] [Illustration: GOOSE-NEST PRAIRIE, NEAR FARMINGTON ILLINOIS, WHERE THOMAS LINCOLN LIVED AND DIED.]