“It will not take long to pull up stakes and locate in Indiana when we once get started,” responded Mr. Lincoln.

“Perhaps not; but it will be time enough to think of that after we sell,” suggested his wife, as if she had little faith that a purchaser of their farm could be found. “We must learn to labour and wait.”

“We’ve got that lesson pretty well learned now,” responded Mr. Lincoln. “About all I’ve ever done is to labour and wait; and if I wait much longer I may lose what title I have to my land now, as others have.”

“That is not impossible, as everybody about here knows,” added Mrs. Lincoln.

“The chances are that the title to this place may prove worthless, judging from the experience of others,” continued Mr. Lincoln. “A man don’t know whether he owns an acre of land or not about here.”

Great excitement prevailed in Kentucky relative to land-titles. Many settlers, after toiling for years for a livelihood, found their titles to their farms defective. The heirs of Daniel Boone were cheated out of every acre of land purchased by their illustrious ancestor. So many had experienced trouble and heavy losses in this way, that almost every landholder feared his title might prove invalid. Thomas Lincoln shared this fear in common with others. One of his biographers maintains that he removed to Indiana solely on this account;—that the curse of slavery in Kentucky, or the advantages of freedom in the new State of Indiana, had nothing to do with his decision. But we beg leave to dissent from this conclusion. There can be no doubt that the uncertainty of land-titles in Kentucky was one important reason for his removal, but it was by no means the only reason. Another reason, without doubt, was his love of change. His roving disposition was not entirely eradicated. But, more than all, the excitement over the making of another free State, with the rose-coloured views promulgated concerning the advantages of a free State to poor men like himself, influenced him to make the change. It is positive that he would not have removed to Indiana at all had it come into the Union as a Slave State. The general enthusiasm over its admission in the interest of freedom lured him thither, as it did hundreds of others. The very rapid immigration to that State, commencing immediately after its admission, is conclusive proof of this statement. The reason of his locating just where he did in Indiana was, probably, because a former acquaintance—Thomas Carter—had removed thither. But the next chapter will disclose the details of this affair.