Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-05-14
ABE LINC0LN'S BOYH0oD.


To ad1riug love Of the Hand divine.
IBE LINCOLN'S BOYHOOD.
Something Better than "a story for siIrIs
and Boys.
Sixty years ago boy of 10 and girl Of -
were living alone with their father in a rough
log-cabin in Indiana. The cabin had no
floor, and only holes in the side for door
and "A window. Instead of chairs there were
reo-legged stools and for a bedstead there
was a row of poles with one end stuck in a
crack of the logs, and the oiher end laid in a
forkod stick, driven into the ground, with
some boards laid across the poles, and upon
these IL heap of leaves covered with skins and
old petticoats. The boy and girl were dirty,
half.d;essed and neglected. Their mother
was dead, and their father was rough, hard
man. Once he left them for some time, and
when he came back he brought with him a
splendid bureau Il table, set of chairs, II
clothes-chest, bedding and other furniture
and new mother for the children She,
poor woman, had supposed she was marry
ing respectable, wel-to-do man aud had
cJme with him all the way from Kentucky,
expecting to find good home awaiting her
self and her three children and instead Of it
she found this forlorn place. But like
brave woman she made the best Of it. With
her furniture and her care she soon made the
cabin homelike. The two children, Abe and
Nancy. were soon cleaner and better dressed
than they had ever been before. Both of
them were good children and she loved them
both. 10 the boy her coming was the be-
ginning of a new life. She sent him to
school whenever there was a chance, which
was not often; She encouraged him and sym
puthizcd with him. and was a true mother to
l.. J.
years afterward he said to n friend, with tears
in his eyes, An that | am or hope to be |
owe to my angel mother And she said of
him, after lie was dead ABE never gave me
n cross word or look, aud never refused, in
fact or appearance, to do anything | request
ed him. | never gave him cross word in
all my life. His mind and Inine-what little
| had seemed to run together. He vas du-
tiful to me always. | think he loved me trI-
ly. had a sou, John, who was raised with
Abe. Both were good boys: but must say,
both now being dead, that Abe WAS the best
boy ever saw, or expect to see
Abe spent most Of his time working on his
fathers farm, or. when he grew older, work
ing for the neighbors. Any family was glad
when he came to stay with them. for he was
not only good worker in the field, but was
full of merriment and fun. His Jokes and
stories and rhymes kept every one laughing.
He was very good-natured, too, and always
ready to do any kind of chores for the wo-
men-to make fire or carry water or nurse
a baby After a meal he loved to hang about
the house. laughing aud telling stories
with the women, Till at last he would say,
''Well, this won't buy the child "a coat, and
off he would hurry with long strides to the
field and soon be working with the foremost
of the men. When he was seventeen years
old he was six feet four inches high He
was wiry and strong, with small body and
small head, long arms and legs, and big
hands and feet. His complexion was dark
and his skin shriveled and yellow. He wore
a possum or coon-skin cap, "A linsey-woolsey
shirt, tight buck-skin breeches too short to
meet his low shoes. and showing - inches of
his sharp blue shius. This queer, homely
fellow, ith face very sober when he was
quiet and full Of fun when he talked, was a
fayorite wherever he went. He was shame
faced and gawky, yet be liked the girls and
they liked him. At all the rough country
frocs he was a welcome guest. He had II
knack at stringing together funny rhymes,
which gave great entertainment on these oc-
casions And it must be said that if any one
slighted him or failed to invite him he was
apt to revenge himself by making rhymes at
their expense, which We're sometimes bitter
and coarse.
Abe had few chances TO 20 to school. His
school-days altogether made hardly II year.
But he was an eager reader, and not only
read every book he could get his hands on
but as those books were very few, he read
them over and over again. One of his COM
panions says that when they returned to the
house from work. Abe would 60 to the cup
board, snatch piece of corn-bread, take
down book, sit down on "A chair, cock his
legs up as nigh as his head, and read He
GaII
at plowing or moving or gathering and
shucBing corn. But he did not really love
work. He loved to talk and to listen, and to
read. He loved to lie under a shade-tree, or
up in the loft of the cabin, and read and ci-
pher and scribble. The family were too
poor to burn candles, so Mt night he would
read by the light of the fire. or cipher on the
wooden tire-shOvel When the shovel was
fairly covered he would shave it off with his
fathers drawing knife and begin again.
When in his reading he came across a pas
sage that struck him he would copy it out,
If he had no paper he would write it on
boards. After time he got a scrap-book in
which he wrote out the things he liked, be-
cause most of the books were borrowed aud
had to be returned. Among the books he
read many times, aud copied from, were
"Esop's Fables" Pilgrims Progress"
History of the United States" and Weems
Life of Washington" This last book was
borrowed from a neighbor, and Abe kept it
on a shelf and one night the rain drove in
and soaked the book. The neighbor was a
surly fellow, and would not take back the
book, but said Abe must pay for it. The
boy had no money so he worked it out by
pulling fodder three days But he cherished
the purpose to repay this hard treatment, and
after time found his chance. This neigh
Dor was q very homely man, and had a curl
ously ugly nose-long, crooked and pimpled.
About this nose Abe made rhymes and songs
which were repeated and laughed at till the
nose was made famous from the Wabash to
the Ohio.
You see the boy had a revehgeful streak in
him | cannot find that it ever took any
worse form than making bitter fun of those
he disliked. But Abe's wit was a sharp weap-
on, and he was himself sensitive to ridicule
and knew well how sharply it cut. 1t is a
curious thing that when he became man and
was subject to such abuse and evil-speaking
as very few men have borne, We can find in
him no trace of revenge or bitterness. He
was one of the most patient and forgiving of
men. 81 shall do nothing maliciously," he
once said in the midst of his burdens and
provocations "what deal with is too vast
for malicious dealing" When he was the
foremost man in a fierce and terrible war that
had been raging for four years, he could say;
'Let us strive on, with malice toward none,
with charity for all !" and every one knew
that the words came from his heart. What