CHAPTER III.

Backwoodsmen and their Ways-Abraham Lincoln's Boyhood-Fireside Studies-Work and Fun-Books -Early Essays-Hiring Out-Beginning the Study of Law-A Very Tall Boy.

THE childhood of Abraham Lincoln was cramped, narrow, and dark, but his boy days began with something better. When his stepmother arrived he was in his eleventh year, and was already tall for his age. He grew rapidly after that, and was more than six feet in height before he reached his eighteenth birthday. He was slender and was anything but good-looking, but his strength was more than in proportion to his size, and was enough of itself to make him a marked boy in such a community. The Lincoln family was apparently as well off as were others around them, and it was not yet time for social distinctions to make their appearance in the backwoods. There was no wealth to speak of, and personal character was everything. Thomas Lincoln himself was a man of more than ordinary muscle, and this, with the fact that he was the only man in the settlement who owned a kit of tools and knew how to use them, made him of some importance. As for the extreme simplicity of log-cabin life, what might seem its privations were hardly felt at all by people who had been born and brought up

to it. As for the children, younger and older, they were dimly aware that there were elsewhere larger settlements, where the people lived in houses made of boards and even of brick or stone. Envy and covetousness were not prevalent vices, however, and it was a severe reproach to be called proud or extravagant. Cloth was so scarce that it was by no means easy to be particular in matters of dress. A boy like Abe Lincoln, for instance, could not expect enough of even homespun for a full suit of clothing. There was no need of a coat or vest over his jean shirt, except in pretty cold weather. Deerskin was the regulation material for trousers, not only because the deer could be had for the killing and the leather dressed at home, but because such garments were extremely durable. They were altogether too much so, since the most careful tanning could not prevent them from shrinking, while Abraham Lincoln was all the while expanding. Buckskins which hung loosely at his instep when first put on clung tightly half way to his knees long before he had a right to expect another pair.

Each family manufactured its own shoes or traded for them with some more skilful neighbor. They were strictly a Winter luxury, except on special occasions. When worn at other seasons, to meeting or to a merry making, they could be carried by hand. through the woodland paths and put on, with or without stockings, on getting near to the destination. They were often accounted too costly, if not too trying to unaccustomed feet, for young pioneers to dance in them. Everybody was supposed to be

honest, and no door required a lock. There were no taverns, but hospitality was universal, and the humblest wayfarer was sure of a welcome under any roof near which mealtime or night might find him. Payment was not often expected, except in the form of every item of news and information concerning himself, or anything else in creation, which the random guest might be able to supply. Now and then a newspaper found its way in among the trees, and passed from hand to hand until worn out, the older people who could not read calling to their aid some more learned neighbor or some youngster like Abe Lincoln, who was receiving the educational advantages which had not been so liberally provided for the previous generation. There was much respect for religion in its ruder forms, and the children of Mrs. Lincoln at least were brought up to read the Bible. The whole community teemed with queer, old-fashioned superstitions, as well as with endless tales of the doings of frontier heroes, red and white. A really good yarn spinner was sure of popularity around the blazing fireplaces of homes which knew little about candlelight or of evening reading.

As Abraham Lincoln went on into his teens, he became more and more a welcome guest in every cabin and at all gatherings of the young people. He was full of rude, mischievous fun, and there was no end to the stories he could tell. In one point his mischief differed from that of many other of the young semi-barbarians around him, for he could not be cruel and call it fun. He came out strongly, for instance, against the stupid experiment of putting

hot coals upon the backs of terrapins to make them put out their heads and walk.

There was a family Bible in the Lincoln cabin. now, but there were other books scattered up and down the Big and Little Pigeon. Some families had as many as two, or even three, and wherever he heard of any such thing Abe was sure to be a visitor at an early day. He read everything that he could. lay his hands upon, but there were some wonderful volumes which he read and read again until they gave up to him all the mental training they had in them. His favorites included a "History of the United States," Weems's "Life of Washington," "Robinson Crusoe," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and Æsop's "Fables."

Love of literature sometimes interfered with work, and oftener still it took him away from the boy-andgirl society of his own and other homes. He was fond of lying under a tree with his book in pleasant weather, or by the fireside at other times. As the successive volumes were nearly all borrowed, he formed a habit of copying into a scrap-book the passages which struck his fancy. The first copy was often made upon a board or shingle, and afterward. transferred more carefully with pen and paper. Arithmetic received a due share of his attention, and so more and more as time went on did original composition. The extreme scarcity of stationery compelled close economy in its use, but a bit of charcoal and a board, smoothly shaven with his father's drawing-knife, served excellently well. The great wooden fire-shovel was filled up and shaven

clean many a time. There was one important work which it was impossible for him to borrow, and he was obliged to make frequent visits to the house of David Turnham, acting town constable, in order to devour the Revised Statutes of Indiana. The fact that he could and did take a deep interest in such a book, reading it through and through, was a remarkable indication of the kind and quality of mind which was waiting within him for further development.

Increasing bodily size and strength brought with them early demands for their employment. The boy who could chop more wood and pitch more hay and do more of any heavy work than could any other boy in the neighborhood was hired out by his father as a matter of course. He worked from house to house, remaining through days or weeks or even months, as need might be, everywhere liked and trusted and treated as altogether the equal of his employers. The work was often hard, but there was no loss of social position in doing it. The settlers were of many kinds, from several of the older States, and there were a few from foreign lands. A young fellow who had an almost intuitive capacity for reading human character was sure to learn much in living around among them. Such printed books as they might possess were also sure of a careful perusal. He had a peculiarly retentive memory, and was able to recall with rare exactness whatever he had read or heard. He was fond of repeating favorite passages of prose or verse, in his own or any other home circle, and his reproductions now and then, on Mondays, included the sermon of Sun