When Abe went to Mr. Hazel's school in Kentucky he took with him a copy of Dillworth's Spelling-book, one of the three books which composed the whole of the family library. The Bible and Catechism were the other two. Diligently conned, and even well-studied, his scanty early library did much to form the character of the child and the man. The spelling-book was the key to unlock for him all the treasures of knowledge he afterward made his own. From Esop's lesson-fraught fables, soon after presented to him, he gained the aptness of illustration which has made "the President's last anecdote" a byword; and from the best of books and Catechism he gathered those ripe sheaves of wisdom which fitted him for his place in life and in history. His mother-noble and blessed woman was his inspiration. She was determined that her son should at least learn to read his Bible; and, before God called her to dwell with the angels, she had the satisfaction of seeing him read the volume which he never afterward neglected. Abraham's mother might have said, as did Mary the mother of Jesus, "From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed;" and while this nation shall revere the name and memory of the mother of George Washington, side by side with hers will it write the name of the mother of Abraham Lincoln. The parallel between Washington and Lincoln did not linger here. It paused not till the bells tolled a requiem, and a nation once more wept over its beloved dead. True, there were apparent points of difference, but only such as, under Providence, were needed to fit each for their separate duties and destinies as leaders of the American people in their two great wars, one for national independence, the other for national unity. Washington was of a family renowned in English heraldry. Lincoln could trace an honorable descent from Quaker stock in Pennslyvania. "Washington was the natural representative of national independence. He might also have represented national unity, had this principle been challenged to bloody battle during his life; for nothing was nearer his heart than the consolidation of our Union, which, in his letter to Congress transmitting the Constitution, he declared to be the greatest interest of every true American. . . . But another person was needed, of different birth and simpler life, to represent the ideas which were now assailed.”* There were not a few contrasts-in origin, in early life, in condition and opportunities-between Washington and Lincoln, but the parallels are more numerous; and Washington himself had a mighty influence on the boy Lincoln through the record of his life, which Abraham read while yet a dweller in the rude log-cabin on the outskirts of civilization. One biographer + of Lincoln Bays, "The hatchet story of Washington, which has done more to make boys truthful than a hundred solemn exhortations, made a strong impression upon Abraham, and was one of those unseen, gentle influences which helped to form his character for integrity and honesty. Its effect may be traced in the following story, which bids fair to become as never-failing an accompaniment to a Life of Lincoln as the hatchet case to that of Washington: Mr. Crawford had lent him a copy of Ramsay's 'Life of Washington.' During a severe storm, Abraham improved his leisure by reading this book. One night he aid it down carefully, as he thought, and the next morn * “Eulogy on Abraham Lincoln,” by Hon. Charles Sumner. ing he found it soaked through. The wind had changed, the storm had beaten in through a crack in the logs, and the appearance of the book was ruined. How could he face the owner under such circumstances? He had no money to offer as a return; but he took the book, went directly to Mr. Crawford, showed him the irreparable injury, and frankly and honestly offered to work for him until he should be satisfied. Mr. Crawford accepted the offer, and gave Abraham the book for his own in return for three days' steady labor in 'pulling fodder.' His manliness and straight-forwardness won the esteem of the Crawfords, and indeed of all the neighborhood." Rev. William M. Thayer states, probably on the authority of those who knew Abraham Lincoln in early life, that, "during the long winter evenings of that first winter in Indiana, he read by the light of the fire only; for they could not afford the luxury of any other light in their cabin. This was true, very generally, of the pioneer families: they had no more than was absolutely necessary to supply their wants. They could exist without lamp-oil or candles, and so most of them did without either. They could afford the largest fire possible, since wood was so plenty that they studied to get rid of it. Hence the light of the fire was almost equal to a good chandelier. Large logs and branches of wood were piled together in the fireplace, and its mammoth blaze lighted up every nook and corner of the dwelling. Hence lamps were scarcely needed." Not long after the removal of the family to Indiana, the mother of Lincoln died. This was a sad loss to the whole of the little circle, especially to the children. Abraham had one sister who lived to womanhood, was married, and died shortly after, leaving no children. His only brother died in infancy. Mrs. Lincoln, as has been intimated, was one of the most devoted of mothers, sparing no pains to insure the welfare of her beloved children. Abraham was always a dutiful son, and her counsel and example were not lost on him, but, as good seed Bown on good ground, her instructions sprang forth intc a life of good order and usefulness. The bereaved boy was almost inconsolable at her loss. No minister was near to pray with the survivors as they laid down the dear head of the wife and mother for the last, long sleep amid the shadows of the forest. Sympathizing neighbors gathered around; but the want of a minister to conduct the usual solemn rites of Christian burial was deeply felt. Some months afterward, Abraham had an opportunity of learning to write, which with characteristic energy and industry he faithfully improved. "Af ter a few weeks of practice under the eye of his instructor, and also out of doors with a piece of chalk or charred stick, he was able to write his name, and in less than twelve months could and did write a letter." One of the first letters he wrote was to an old friend of his mother, a travelling preacher, whom he desired to come and preach her funeral sermon. Parson Elkins did not receive the letter for some three months; but then he hastened to Indiana, and the neighbors again assembled a year after her death-to pay a last tribute of respect to one universally beloved. Abraham's services as a letter-writer were thus known, and he soon found himself busied in writing letters for his neighbors. President Lincoln never forgot his mother. It was very long before the loneliness and desolation of that sad bereavement passed away. Her lessons of divinest wisdom he kept stored in his heart, and all her hallowed influence was eternally sealed upon his soul by her departure from earth. Who shall say that it was not deepened and intensified by that very change which gave her henceforth more intimate communion with spirits, and possibly with the spirit of her son? Her grave, to which hallowed spot the bereaved son was wont frequently to repair, and muse upon his great loss and her eternal gain, is still embowered amid the majestic foresttrees of that region. No tombstone yet denotes the sacred spot; and the place where the remains lie buried is an unfrequented locality, or nearly so. President Lincoln wrote a letter, shortly before his death, expressing his intention to visit the grave during the approaching summer, and cause a suitable monument to be erected; and in that letter, which was to an old friend, he expressed regret that care and business had so long hindered him from performing this duty. He will never perform it. Instead of going to her grave, he has gone to her; and blissful beyond human computation must have been, ere this, the meeting of such a mother with such a son. Yet that humble grave should not be neglected. A nation owes it to the memory of a President martyred in its holy cause that his mother's tomb should be honorably distinguished. During the next year after Mrs. Lincoln's death, Abraham's father married again, and secured in Mrs. Sally Johnston of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, a worthy stepmother for his children. She had three children, and seemed to have been one who could say with Mrs. Howe, "Then spoke the angel of mothers To me in gentle tone, 'Be kind to the children of others, And thus deserve thine own.'" Between her and the son to whom she became a true |