Buck was the first to arrive. Not even the moonlight could cast any redeeming qualities on the beast that hobbled after him. The crowd looked it over and laughed uproariously. Buck grinned with satisfaction at the sight-unseen trade he was about to make and questioned half fearfully if the greenhorn would stand by his agreement. The appearance in the distance of a tall and shadowy figure approaching with long, easy strides was not reassuring. Certainly he was neither leading nor driving a horse. The company looked. As he came nearer they saw he carried something. Its shadow blended with that of his body. "He's got his hoss under his arm or on his back," one observed. Buck was looking anxiously. "Bet two to one it's a goat," Jo Kelsy said. This sounded good to Buck. "Goat!" he said with evident pleasure. Then they looked again. The next minute he cleared the last lap of shadow and came into the light in the open space. There was a moment of impressive silence. "My hoss is this kind--one of the most useful animals in this neck of the woods," and he placed a saw-horse before them. There was a moment of impressive silence, then the angry voice of Buck Thompson. "You're a liar," he cried, greatly angered by the roar of laughter that had greeted the speech. A dead hush fell on the company. A fight seemed the next excitement. Every eye was on Lincoln. "Don't get riled up," he said good naturedly, "especially after I told you I was tellin' the truth. Didn't I tell you her legs was stiff?" "Yeh," roared 'Buck--"and you told me she had two good eyes--eh, boys?" and he turned to the crowd standing close about. "Easy now," Abe Lincoln remonstrated. "I didn't say she had two good eyes. You asked if she was blind in one eye, and I said 'No, she ain't blind in no eye.'" "You said she had all her teeth," Buck challenged. "Naw, what I said was, 'she hasn't never lost no teeth, far as I know.' Can you see any place where they have come out?" Clearly the new clerk had the best of the trade. Buck Thompson stood to his bargain. The horse was passed to Lincoln. He looked it over. Something in the ungainly figure and the big-headed horse brought a smile. Yet they waited. What would he do next--or say? "Partner," he said to Buck after the examination, "I wouldn't know what use to make of this here critter. I can't make no sight-unseen proposition, but I'd give you two bits for my own hoss back." CHAPTER VI "FIXIN FER THE ANGELS" Offutt's new store under the management of Abe Lincoln came to be, almost immediately, the chief point of interest in the village. Business was never so rushing that the genial, long-legged new-comer could not find time for a friendly greeting or a new story. Jo Kelsy, famed as the best Shakespeare scholar New Salem boasted, soon discovered a kindred spirit in Abe Lincoln, and was delighted to find in him a pupil so hungry to get acquainted with Bill Shakespeare.