Thomas Lincoln made a journey to Kentucky, and brought home with him a new wife, whom he had known and loved many years before as Sally Bush, a woman of "great energy and good sense, very neat and tidy in her person and manners, and who knew how to manage children." She brought with her from her Kentucky home a store of luxuries and comforts that the Indiana cabin had never known. It took a four-horse team to move her effects, and at once she demanded that the floorless, windowless and doorless cabin should be made habitable. Warm beds were for the first time provided for the children. She took off their rags and clothed them from her own stores; she washed them and treated them with motherly tenderness, and to use her own language, she made them look a little more human. Her heart went out at once to young Abe and all was changed for him. She discovered possibilities in him and set about his training, gratified, loved and directed him, and won his heart. She was the mother whom he describes as his "saintly mother, his angel of a mother who first made him feel like a human being"-and took him out of the rut of degradation and neglect and shiftlessness that, if long continued, might have controlled his destiny. She insisted that he should be sent to school as soon as there was a school to go to; he had already acquired a little reading and writing and was quick in the acquisition of knowledge. In the rude school house at Little Pigeon Creek where Hazel Dorsey presided, Abraham attended in the winter of 1819, and quickly became the best speller in the school. In the winter of 1822 and '23 he attended Andrew Crawford's school in the same place, where manners as well as spelling, were a part of the curriculum. He was now a lanky lad of fifteen, and rapidly rising to his full stature of six feet-four. He was not a beauty with his big feet and hands, his shrivelled and yellow skin, and his costume of low shoes, and buckskin breeches too short by several inches, his linsey-woolsey shirt and coonskin cap; but he was good-humored and gallant, popular with the boys and girls, and a leader. His last schooling was in 1826, at a school four and a half miles from his home, kept by Mr. Swaney. By this time he had acquired all the knowledge that the poor masters of that frontier region could impart, henceforth he must supervise his own education, as the family were too poor to spare him if opportunities for learning had presented themselves. He must work now in the shop or on the farm, or as a hired boy among the neighbors. One of his employers tells us that he used to get very angry with him, he was always reading or thinking when he got a chance, and would talk and crack jokes half the time. After the days work was over, by the light of the fire, he would sit and cipher on the wooden fire shovel. Any book that fell in his way was eagerly devoured, and its striking passages were written down and preserved. "Aesops Fables" improved his native art of pungent story telling, "Robinson Crusoe," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and the Bible were eagerly read by him, as were Weem's "Washington" and a history of the United States. These few books enriched his mind and laid the basis of his straight-forward, lucid literary style. The Revised Statutes of Indiana, that could not be loaned from the office of the constable, drew him thither like a magnet, and became the basis of his legal lore. At home, he was the soul of kindness, instantly ready for kindly service, full of his jokes and stories. His father and his cousin were storytellers and it was often a matter of friendly rivalry which could out-do the other. That talent, thus cultivated, was one of the sources of his mastery of men. He had a powerful memory and would often repeat to his comrades long passages from the books he had read, or regale them with parts of the Sunday sermon with such perfect mimicry that the tones and gestures of the rude preachers of that day were vividly reproduced. Even in the harvest field, he was wont to take the stump and sadly interfere with the labor of the day by discoursing to the harvest hands, and more than once his father had to break up this diversion with severity. He had the instincts of the politician and the orator. He could please and divert inen, and these rude early opportunities developed in him the consciousness of his power that should one day become so masterful. His fondness for the society of his fellows was very marked. He could withdraw himself utterly from men over a book, but his tastes were strong to be among men. All the popular gatherings where men assembled were eagerly sought out by him; corn shuckings, log rollings, shooting matches, weddings, had a strong fascination for him. He enjoyed the sport and was one of the foremost to make it. In all rustic sports he was at home. His strength was phenomenal, and as a wrestler he seldom found his match. From the time he left Crawford's school he was using all his faculties daily and learning all that the rude world about him had to teach him. Dennis Hanks tells us of the educational processes of the time, "We learned by sight, scent and hearing. We heard all that was said, and talked over and over the questions heard, wore them slick, greasy and threadbare, went to political and other speeches and gatherings as you do now. We would hear all sides and opinions, talk them over, discuss them, agreeing or disagreeing. He preached, made speeches, read for us, explained to us, etc. He attended trials, went to court always, read the Revised Statutes of Indiana, dated 1824, heard law speeches and listened to law trials. He was always reading, scribbling, writing poetry, and the like. To Gentryville, about one mile west of Thomas Lincoln's farm, Lincoln would go and tell his jokes and stories, and was so odd, original, humorous and witty, that all the people in town would gather round him and he would keep them there till mid-night. He was a good talker, a good reader, and a kind of news-boy." Thus he absorbed all the intellectual life that was astir, and used his powers as he had occasion, observing public business, watching the methods of the attorneys at the bar and kindling with their eloquence. Once the awkward boy attempted to compliment an attorney for his great effort, and years afterward he met him and recalled the circumstance, telling him that up to that time |