with nature in the still imperfectly reclaimed wilds, for a plain subsistence. Here the boy spent the first years of his childhood. Before the date of his earliest distinct recollections, however, he removed with his father to a place six miles distant from Hodgenville, which was ere long surrendered, as we shall presently see, for a home in the far-off wilderness, and for frontier life, in its fullest and most significant meaning.

Abraham Lincoln's Kentucky life, then, extended only through a period of about seven years, terminating with the autumn of 1816. And if, as has been asserted by some philosophic minds, the experiences and instructions of the first seven years of every person's existence, do more to mould and determine his subsequent general character, then we must regard Mr. Lincoln as a Kentuckian (of the generation next succeeding that of Clay), by his early impressions and discipline, no less than by birth.

These were the days, it must be remembered, when common schools were unknown. Yet education was not undervalued or neglected among these rude foresters; nor did young Lincoln, limited as were his opportunities, grow up an illiterate boy. Itinerant, but competent teachers were accustomed to offer their services, and opened private schools in the new settlements, being supported by tuition fees, or a subscription.

During his boyhood in Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln attended at different times at least two schools of this description, of which he had clear recollections. One of these was kept by Zachariah Riney, who although himself an ardent Roman Catholic, made no proselyting efforts in his school, and when any little religious cere

monies, perhaps mere catechising and the like, were to be gone through with, all the Protestant children, of whom, it is needless to say that young "Abe" was one, were allowed to retire. Riney was probably in some way connected with the movements of the "Trappists," who came to Kentucky in the autumn of 1805, and founded an establishment (afterward abandoned) on Pottinger's creek. They were active in promoting education, especially among the poorer classes, and had a school for boys under their immediate supervision. This, however, had been abandoned before the date of Lincoln's first school-days, and it is not improbable that the private schools under Catholic teachers were an offshoot of the original system adopted by the Trappists, who subsequently removed to Illinois.

Another teacher, on whose instruction the boy afterward attended, while living in Kentucky, was named Caleb Hazel. His was also a neighborhood school, sustained by private patronage.

With the aid of these two schools, and such assistance as he received from his parents at home, he had become able to read well, though without having made any great literary progress, at the age of seven. That he was neither a dull or inapt scholar, is manifest from his subsequent attainments. With the allurements of the rifle and the wild game which abounded in the country, however, and with his meagre advantages in regard to books, it is probable that his perceptive faculties and muscular powers were more fully developed than his scholastic talents.

It is worthy of remark, also, that while he lived in Kentucky, he never saw even the exterior of what was

properly a church edifice; and the few religious services which he had an opportunity to attend, were held either in humble private dwellings, or in some log school-house.

Another change of home, however, awaited our young hero. His father, perhaps from the old restless spirit of adventure, but more probably because he found life in a slave State a most unsatisfactory one for himself, and presenting only the prospect of a hopeless struggle in the future for his children, determined upon removal to the wilds of Indiana, where free labor would have no competition with slave labor, and the poor white man might reasonably hope that, in time, his children could take an honorable position, won by industry and careful economy.

So, having sold his Kentucky farm, as the story goes, for ten barrels of whiskey (forty gallons each) valued at two hundred and eighty dollars, besides twenty dollars in money,* and having made a trial trip to Indiana to select a location to his liking, which he found in what is now Spencer county, he made his preparations to remove his family to their new home.

Although this story has been discredited by some, yet as such transactions in the disposal of real estate were not uncommon at that period, we see no reason to doubt it, nor to consider it as prejudicial to Thomas Lincoln's character; for it must be remembered that those days were not the days of temperance and "Total Abstinence."

CHAPTER II.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S THIRTEEN YEARS IN INDIANA.

Removal of the Lincoln Family to Spencer county, Indiana.-Abraham as a Farm Boy.-As a Marksman.-The Death of his Mother.—The second Marriage of his Father.- Abraham's Education.-His own Account, when President, of his Education.-His Love of Books.The Story of the Damaged Book.-His Voyage to New Orleans as a Flatboatman.-Description of Early Times and Scenes in Indiana.

EARLY in the autumn of 1816, the Lincoln family, bidding adieu to their old Kentucky home, commenced a long and wearisome journey toward the forests of southern Indiana. The plain wagon, with its simple covering, contained the "household goods," and sheltered the wife and daughter, while the father and his son, who was now in his ninth year, walked beside the horse which steadily drew the family conveyance, or took care that the indispensable cow kept pace to the music of the jolting wheels. Arriving at the proper landing on the banks of the Ohio, the little caravan was embarked upon a flatboat, and floated across the stream, now swelled to fair proportions by the autumn rains. Finally reaching the Indiana side, the adventurers landed at or near the mouth of Anderson's creek, now the boundary between the counties of Perry and Spencer, about one hundred and forty miles below Louisville, by the river, and sixty above Evansville. In a direct line across the country from their former residence, the