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34•LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNscience were awakened to a realization of what he hadoften heard and read. No doubt, as one of his companionshas said, "Slavery ran <strong>the</strong> iron into him <strong>the</strong>n and <strong>the</strong>re."One morning in <strong>the</strong>ir rambles over <strong>the</strong> city <strong>the</strong> trio passeda slave auction. A vigorous and comely mulatto girl wasbeing sold. She underwent a thorough examination at <strong>the</strong>hands of <strong>the</strong> bidders; <strong>the</strong>y pinched her flesh and made hertrot up and down <strong>the</strong> room like a horse, to show how shemoved, and in order, as <strong>the</strong> auctioneer said, that "biddersmight satisfy <strong>the</strong>mselves" whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> article <strong>the</strong>y wereoffering to buy was sound or not. The whole thing was sorevolting that <strong>Lincoln</strong> moved away from <strong>the</strong> scene with adeep feeling of "unconquerable hate." Bidding his companionsfollow him he said, "By God, boys, let's get awayfrom this. If ever I get a chance to hit that thing [meaningslavery 1, I'll hit it hard."<strong>Lincoln</strong> became very popular with Denton Offut, <strong>the</strong> manwho hired him to go to New Orleans. Offut liked his jokes andstories and honesty. He employed <strong>the</strong> young man to go backto Illinois, fell trees, and build a log-cabin grocery store inNew Salem, a tiny village composed of fifteen or twenty cabinsperched on a bluff high above <strong>the</strong> winding Sangamon. Here <strong>Lincoln</strong>clerked in <strong>the</strong> store and also ran a grist and sawmill, andhere he lived for six years— years that had a tremendous influenceon his future.The village had a wild, pugnacious, hell-raising gang of ruffianscalled <strong>the</strong> Clary's Grove Boys, a crowd who boasted that<strong>the</strong>y could drink more whisky, swear more profanely, wrestlebetter, and hit harder than any o<strong>the</strong>r group in all Illinois.At heart <strong>the</strong>y weren't a bad lot. They were loyal, frank, generous,and sympa<strong>the</strong>tic, but <strong>the</strong>y loved to show off. So when <strong>the</strong>loud-mou<strong>the</strong>d Denton Offut came to town and proclaimed <strong>the</strong>physical prowess of his grocery clerk, Abe <strong>Lincoln</strong>, <strong>the</strong> Clary'sGrove Boys were delighted. They would show this upstart athing or two.But <strong>the</strong> showing was all <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r way, for this young giantwon <strong>the</strong>ir foot-races and jumping contests; and with his extraordinarilylong arms he could throw a maul or toss a cannon-ballfar<strong>the</strong>r than any of <strong>the</strong>m. Besides, he could tell <strong>the</strong> kind offunny stories <strong>the</strong>y could understand; and he kept <strong>the</strong>m laughingfor hours at his back-woods tales.