, 1906-03-28
(Continued)
Cra,oHc4l Beginnings.

Ale had Il very retentiVp memory.
lie Frequently amused his young COM
panions by repeating to them long pas
sages from books he had been reading.
On Monday MORNINGS he would mount
a stump and deliver, with a wonderful
approach to exactness, the sermon he
had heard the day before. His taste for
public speaking appeared to be natural
and irresistible
His stepsister, Matilda Johnston, says
he was an interchangeable preacher.
"When father and mother would go to
church, Abe would take down the BIZ
BILE, read a verse, give out n hymn, and
we would sing. Abe was about fifteen
years of G He preached. Il we
would do the crying. Sometimes he
would join in the chorus of tears. One
day my brother, John Johnston, caught
a land terrapin, brought it to the place
where Abe was preaching, threw it
against the tree and crushed the shell.
1t suffered much-quivered all over.
Abe then preached against cruelty to
animals, c%ontending that an ants life
was as sweet to 1t as ours to u.s."
LUZ LILO PlotllIO VI litdIIlhS alo
political speaking into which Abe had
fallen at length became a great nui-
sance to his father. 1t distracted every
body, and sadly interfered with the
work. If Abe had confined his dis
courses to Sunday preaching, while the
old folks were away, it would not have
been so Objectionable. But he knew his
ntxpha IIva1 20 DIAaCn .HyAyrhn1ry ntod
would be sure to set up as an orator
wherever he found the greatest nun
Der of people together.
When it was announced that Abe had
taken the stump" in the harvest field
there was an end of work The hands
iocked around him and listened to his
curiou speeches with infinite delight.
The sight of such a thing amused ALL"
says Mrs. Lincoln, though she admits
that her husband was compelled to
break it up with the strong hand, and
poor Abe was many times dragged
from the platform and hustled off to
his work in no gentle II
Abe worked occasionally with his ia
ther in the shop, but he did it reluctant
~. The rough work turned out at that
shop was far beneath his ambition, and
he had made up his mind to lead Il life
as wholly unlike his fathers as he
could possibly make it. He therefore
refused to be Il carpenter. But he could
not afford to be idle, and as soon as he
was able to earn wages lie was hired
out among the neighbors. He worked
for many of them a few months at a
time and seemed perfectly willing to
transfer his services wherever they
were wanted, so that his father had no
excuse for prosecuting him with en-
treaties about learning to make tables
Inc cupboards.
ABE Linken's" Wit.
Abe was now becoming a man and
was in fact already taller than any
mar in the neighborhood. He was a
universal favorite, and his wit and III
NOR made him heartily welcome at ev-
cry cabin between the two Pigeon
creeks. Any family was glad when
ABE Linkern' was hired to work with
them, for he did his work well and
made them all merry while he was
about it. The women were especially
pleased, for Abe was not above doing
any kind of chores for them. He was
always ready to make a fire, carry wa
ter or nurse a baby. But what manner
of people were these among whom he
passed the most critical part of his
life? We must know them if we de-
sire to know him.
There lived in the neighborhood of
Gentryville a Mrs. Elizabeth Craw-
ford, wife to the Josiah with the soul
temper and the blue nose. Abe was
very fond of her and inclined to let
himself out in her company. We have
from her a great mass of valuable and
sometimes extremely amusing infor-
nation Among it is the following
graphic, although rude, account of the
Pigeon Greek people in general:
I'VE thought it nothing to go eight
or ten miles to meeting. The old ladies
did not stop for the want of Il shawl or
cloak or riding dress or two horses in
the winter time, but they would put on
their husbands old overcoats, wrap up
their little ones, take one or two of
them up on their beasts, and their hus-