"Abe Lincoln," she repeated. "What makes you say that?"
"Abe Lincoln has not been keeping company with any of the girls, and it's not their fault. No more is it natural for a young fellow as full of life as Abe Lincoln is not to like the girls—except when they like one. I'm not blind. There's no other girl in New Salem like you; maybe no other one good enough for Abe Lincoln. He'll want something extra on account of his book-learning. Abe's a good fellow, but he's lazy as a dog, always lying around when he ought to be laying by some dollars."
"But he is studying and reading when he is lying around. When anybody's mind is at work they're not lazy."
"You always take up for Abe Lincoln I notice—ever since the day his ark got stuck on the dam. I suppose it's because he was born under a lucky star."
"What's lucky about Abraham Lincoln?"
"Everything. The way he got to bring the steamboat down the river; the way he got to be captain in the Black Hawk war. And now they says he is certain to go to the Legislature."
"But it's not luck. It's because he can do things. 'I will prepare myself,' he often says, 'and when my chance comes I will be ready.'"
"Yes, that's what he says, and that's exactly the reason he'll get you while I'm away."
"But I have promised you, John."
"Out of sight out of mind," he answered.