The Boys Life of Abraham Lincoln | Page 7

were precious
steps to self-help. He pursued his studies with very unusual purpose
and determination not only to understand them at the moment, but to
fix them firmly in his mind. His early companions all agree that he
employed every spare moment in keeping on with some one of his
studies. His stepmother tells us that "When he came across a passage
that struck him, he would write it down on boards if he had no paper,
and keep it there until he did get paper. Then he would rewrite it, look
at it, repeat it. He had a copy-book, a kind of scrap-book, in which he
put down all things, and thus preserved them." He spent long evenings
doing sums on the fire-shovel. Iron fire-shovels were a rarity among
pioneers. Instead they used a broad, thin clapboard with one end

narrowed to a handle, arranging with this the piles of coals upon the
hearth, over which they set their "skillet" and "oven" to do their
cooking. It was on such a wooden shovel that Abraham worked his
sums by the flickering firelight, making his figures with a piece of
charcoal, and, when the shovel was all covered, taking a drawing-knife
and shaving it off clean again.
The hours that he was able to devote to his penmanship, his reading,
and his arithmetic were by no means many; for, save for the short time
that he was actually in school, he was, during all these years, laboring
hard on his father's farm, or hiring his youthful strength to neighbors
who had need of help in the work of field or forest. In pursuit of his
knowledge he was on an up-hill path; yet in spite of all obstacles he
worked his way to so much of an education as placed him far ahead of
his schoolmates and quickly abreast of his various teachers. He
borrowed every book in the neighborhood. The list is a short one:
"Robinson Crusoe," "Aesop's Fables," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress,"
Weems's "Life of Washington," and a "History of the United States."
When everything else had been read, he resolutely began on the
"Revised Statutes of Indiana," which Dave Turnham, the constable, had
in daily use, but permitted him to come to his house and read.
Though so fond of his books; it must not be supposed that he cared
only for work and serious study. He was a social, sunny-tempered lad,
as fond of jokes and fun as he was kindly and industrious. His
stepmother said of him: "I can say, what scarcely one mother in a
thousand can say, Abe never gave me a cross word or look, and never
refused . . . to do anything I asked him. . . . I must say . . that Abe was
the best boy I ever saw or expect to see."
He and John Johnston, his stepmother's son, and John Hanks, a relative
of his own mother's, worked barefoot together in the fields, grubbing,
plowing, hoeing, gathering and shucking corn, and taking part, when
occasion offered, in the practical jokes and athletic exercises that
enlivened the hard work of the pioneers. For both work and play
Abraham had one great advantage. He was not only a tall, strong
country boy: he soon grew to be a tall, strong, sinewy man. He early
reached the unusual height of six feet four inches, and his long arms
gave him a degree of power as an axman that few were able to rival. He
therefore usually led his fellows in efforts of muscle as well as of mind.

That he could outrun, outlift, outwrestle his boyish companions, that he
could chop faster, split more rails in a day, carry a heavier log at a
"raising," or excel the neighborhood champion in any feat of frontier
athletics, was doubtless a matter of pride with him; but stronger than all
else was his eager craving for knowledge. He felt instinctively that the
power of using the mind rather than the muscles was the key to success.
He wished not only to wrestle with the best of them, but to be able to
talk like the preacher, spell and cipher like the school-master, argue like
the lawyer, and write like the editor. Yet he was as far as possible from
being a prig. He was helpful, sympathetic, cheerful. In all the
neighborhood gatherings, when settlers of various ages came together
at corn-huskings or house-raisings, or when mere chance brought half a
dozen of them at the same time to the post-office or the country store,
he was able, according to his years, to add his full share to the gaiety of
the company. By reason of his reading and his excellent memory, he
soon became the best story-teller among his companions; and even the