Dodge City times., 1890-10-24
ALWAYS .ReAplNc.


Parents and teachers should keep il
mind. says the NoatI-s Companion. no,
only that ''boys will be BOYS, " but thai
every boy with training will be his owr
sort of a boy. How did you do ite'' .
mother was asked whose thirteen
children. ten Of them BOYS, honored he,
and the community. Il don't know .
she answered, except that l brought
them up IN thirteen different ways."
Abraham Liacoln had marked dislike
to manual labor. and the Woodworking
neighbors called him lazy.
He worked for mel said one OF
these early neishbors, but was always
reading and thinking. l used to get
mad at him for it. say he was awful
lazy. He would laugh and talk. and
crack jokes. and tell stories, all the
time; he didn't love work half as much
as he loved his pay. He said to me
one day that his father taught him to
work, but he never taught him to love
it."
The neighbor. who thought more of
q mans horny hands than of his brains,
sOuld not discern that Lipcoln's read
hg and thinking proved him to be
mentally energetic. No boy could be
lazy who sought, as young Abe did, the
shade OF 4 tree by day that he might
read. and who at night would lie on his
stomach in front of the lighted fire.
place and cipher with piece of char.
coal on a broad wooden shovel.
When the shovel was covered with
igures on both sides he shaved it of
with drawing-knife, that it might be
flean for the next nights ciphering.
Every bare surface of the inside of his
fathers log cabin was covered with
letters and figures chalked down by the
most tireless brain-wOrker in the town.
When in Lis reading he came across
On paper,if he had any; if not. he wrote
With chalk on pieces of board.
I'VE grubbed, plowed, moved, and
worked together barefooted in the
eeld," SAYS John Hanks, LncOln's fel-
low rail-splitter. Whenever Abe had
. chance in the field while at work, or
n the house. he would stop and read"
In his public utterances Of later years
be used with happy effect biblical fig
ures of speech and humorous fables.
In his bOyhood two volumes were
always within reach, and were read
again and again-the bible an "1Esop's
Fables"
While he was clerk in a country
store he had frequent intervals of rest,
which he used in mastering the intrica-
cies of English grammar. He walked
several miles to borrow ..Kirkham's
Grammar, and at once applied HIM
self to It. Mr.. Herndon, from whose
Life of Lincoln" we have quoted, de-
scribes him as lying full-length on the
counter, his head propped up on stack
Of calico prints. fixing in his mind the
rule that ..'adverbs qualify verbs, adjec-
tives, and other adverbs."
Subsequently,. he prepared himself
for the law by borrowing law books
walking many miles to procure them
which he read. lying under the shade
OF tree, with his feet up the trunk. a
position not uncomfortable to one with
Bis long legs. People commented on
the long, lank youth. SO averse to man
Nal work, spending his time in reading
law books.
An old man who often hired Lincoln
10 do farm work for him found him one
day sitting barefoot on top of a wood
pile, reading book. This unusual
proceeding for a Farmland excited the
old mans curiosity.
What are you reading?" lie asked.
I'm not reading. I'm studying"
answered young Lincoln.
Studying what?"
..Law, sir.
1t was too much of a surprise for the
old farmer. Good heaveus!" he eI-
exclaimed. and passed on. thinking how
that long, lean youth was wasting his
time.