Longshanks

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>On a night in April 1828 Tad Hopkins traveling on a river steamboat to join his father in New Orleans was robbed and thrown overboard by a famous outlaw. He managed to swim to a flatboat moored to the bank and spent the rest of the night there. When he woke in the morning the boat was moving and a lanky black-haired youth called Abe was cooking breakfast.</span></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Thus Tad was part of the first historic trip of Abraham Lincoln down the Mississippi. The attempts of the outlaws to kidnap the boy added extra peril to a voyage sure to be filled with dangers in those days of wild river life. Although Mr. Meader has not attempted to give a direct picture of Abraham Lincoln he is the dominating figure in the story.</span></p><p></p>