Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-04-27

and a smile on his face. / instantly
took the hint that I must change the
letter into an i: hence I spelled the
word; the class let out. I felt grateful
to Lincoln for this simple thing"
A Humane Boy.
Nat Grigsby tells us, with unnecessa-
ry particularly, that ESSAYS and poet
ry We're not taught In this school"
"Abe took it them up on his own ac-
count He first wrote short sentences
against cruelty to animals and at
last came forward with regular COM
position on the subject. He was very
much annoyed and panied by the con-
duct of the boys, who were in the habit
of catching terrapins and putting Goals
of fire on their backs. .He would chide
u.s." says Nat, "tell US it was wrong
and would write against it,
The third and last school to which
Abe went was taught by a Mr.. Swaney
in 1926. To get there he had to travel
four and a half miles, and this going
back and forth so great a distance oc-
cupied entirely too much of his time.
His attendance was therefore only at
odd times and was speedily broken off
altogether. The schoo1house was much
like the other one near the Pigeon Creek
meeting house, except that it had two
chimneys instead of one. The course
Of instruction was precisely the same
as under Dorsey and Crawford, save
| that Swaney, like Dorsey, omitted
the great department Of manners"
Here" says John Hoskins, the son of
| the settler who had "blazed OUT the
| trail for Thomas Lincoln, 1--WE would
| choose up and spell as in old times
every Friday night
Abe never went to school again in In
diana or elsewhere. Mr.. Turnham tells
us that he had excelled all his masters,
| and it was no use for him to attempt
to learn anything from them. But he
continued his studies at home or wher-
ever he was hired out to work with a
| perseverance which showed that he
| could scarcely live without some spe-
cies Of mental excitement. He was by
no means fond of the hard manual la
| Dor to which his own necessities and
| those of his family compelled him.
| Many of his acquaintances state this
I Ae1SG WALL oIAOlSo CAlphdSlc, dLuOuS taCll
| Dennis Hanks and Mrs. Lincoln.
| His neighbor, John Romine, declares
that Abe was ''awful lazy. He worked
for me; was always reading and think
ing; used to get mad at him. He work
ed for me in 1929, pulling fodder. say
Abe was awful lazy. He would laugh
and talk and crack jokes and tell sto-
ries all the time; didn't love work, but
did dearly love his pay. He worked for
me frequently, a few days only at a
time. Lincoln said to me one day that
his father taught him to work, but
never learned him to love it,
| Wiring on a Shovel.
| Abe loved to lie under shade tree
or up in the loft Of the cabin and read,
| cipher and scribble. At night he sat by
the chimney "jamb" and ciphered by
the light of the fire on the wooden fire
shovel When the shovel was fairly
covered he would shave it off with his
fathers drawing knife and begin again.
In the daytime he used boards for the
same purpose out of doors and went
through the shaving process everlast-
ingly.
| His stepmother says: "Abe read dill
gently. He read every book he could
| lay his hands on, and 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 copy
book, kind Of scrapbook, in which he
| Y,y1 oil fhiy, nd fhr,c
| them.''
John Hanks came out from Kentucky
when Abe was fourteen years Of age
and lived four years with the Lincolns.
We cannot describe some of Abe's hab-
its better than John has described
them for us: ''When Lincoln-Abe and
lI-returned to the house from work, he
would go to the cupboard, snatch q
piece Of corn bread, take down book,
sit down on chair, cock his legs up
high as his head and read. He and I
worked barefooted, grubbed it, plowed,
moved and Graded together; plowed
corn, gathered it and shucked corn.
Abraham read constantly when he had
an opportunity"
Among the. books upon which Abe
| laid his hands were "Hsop's Fables -
Robinson Crusoe," Bunyan's "Pil-
grim's Progress" "History of the
! United States" and Weems' Life of
Washington" All these he read many
times and transferred extracts from
them to the boards and the scrapbook.
He had procured the scrapbook because
most of his literature was borrowed,
and he thought it profitable to take CO.
pious notes from the books before he
returned them. David Turnham had
bought volume of ''The Revised
Statutes Of Indiana but. as he was
acting constable at the time, he could
not lend it to Abe. But Abe was not
to be baff1ed in his purpose of going
through and through every book in the
neighborhood, and so, says Mr.. Turn
ham, che used to come to my house and
cif anH road II