"McNeil!" the onlookers called.
The stalwart young Irishman stepped forward and said:
"I don't mind measuring my length on the grass."
This he did in less than half a moment. As the young man rose from the grass he said:
"I call in Samson Traylot."
At last the thing which had long been a subject of talk and argument in the stores and houses of New Salem was about to come to pass—a trial of strength and agility between the two great lions of Sangamon County. Either of them would have given a month's work to avoid it.
"I reckon we better begin our story-tellin'," said Abe.
"I think so too," Samson declared. "It's purty dusk now."
"A rassle—a rassle," their neighbors shouted.
"I'd rather give ten bushel o' wheat than miss seein' you fellers take hold o' each other," said Alexander Ferguson.