Lincoln, the unknown

38• LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNand family back to Illinois. But before leaving town he confessedsomething to Ann Rutledge that almost stunned her.However, she was young and she loved him, and she believedhisstory.A few days later, he set out from Salem, waving good-by toAnn and promising to write often.Lincoln was postmaster of the village then. The mail arrivedby stage-coach twice a week, and there was very little of it, forit cost from six and a quarter cents to twenty-five to send aletter, depending on the distance it must travel. Lincoln carriedthe letters about in his hat. When people met him they wouldask if he had any mail for them, and he would pull off his hatand look through his collection to see what he had.Twice each week Ann Rutledge inquired for a letter. Threemonths passed before the first one arrived. McNeil explainedthat he had not written sooner because he had been taken sickwith a fever while crossing Ohio, and had been in bed for threeweeks — part of the time unconscious.Three more months passed before the next letter came; andwhen it arrived it was almost worse than no letter at all. Itwas cold and vague. He said that his father was very ill, thathe was being harassed by his father's creditors, and that he didnot know when he would be back.After that Ann watched the mail for months, hoping for moreletters which never came. Had he ever really loved her at all?She had begun now to doubt it.Lincoln, seeing her distress, volunteered to try to find Mc-Neil."No," she said, "he knows where I am, and if he doesn't careenough to write to me I am sure I do not care enough to haveyou try to find him."Then she told her father of the extraordinary confessionthat McNeil had made before he left. He had admitted that hehad been living under an assumed name for years. His realname was not McNeil, as every one in New Salem believed, butMcNamar.Why had he practised this deception? His father, he explained,had failed in business, back in New York State, andhad become heavily involved in debts. He, being the eldestson, had, without disclosing his destination, come West tomake money. He feared that if he used his right name, his familymight learn of his whereabouts and follow him, and he