Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

"Perhaps it would, and perhaps it wouldn't," replied David. "Nobody is any better for his living, and some folks are worse. He's a good-for-nothing feller any way."

"That's no reason why we should let him die here like a dog or hog," retorted Abraham, with some spirit. "Come, Dave, let that go, and we'll take him over to Dennis' cabin." At this time Dennis Hanks was mar

ried and lived in a cabin half a mile away.

"I think I see myself tugging the miserable wretch a half mile at this time of night," retorted David. "You may make a fool of yourself over him if you want to, but I am going home." And David started. for home, hearing, as he hurried away, Abraham saying, -"Go, then, you hard-hearted fellow."

Abraham was not more than a minute in determining what to do. He put his long strong arms around the drunken man, raised him up, flung him over his shoulder as he would a bag of corn, and started for Dennis Hanks' cabin, where he safely deposited him.

"Look here, Dennis, I've brought you company," said Abraham, as he laid down his burden. "More of a job to carry him than a log."

"Where did you find that feller, Abe?" inquired Dennis, getting out of bed.

"In the road, where he would have died before morning if I'd left him there.”

"I know him of old, not much account any way," added Dennis.

"Account enough to fix up a little," retorted Abraham. "We ought to be human beings so long as we pretend to be."

"Go ahead, then," said Dennis, acquiescing; "see how you come out." And he proceeded to assist Abraham in his merciful work. They built a fire,

warmed him, and Abraham rubbed him until consciousness was restored. In fact, he remained all night with the intemperate man, and left him in the morning, well satisfied with the part he had played as "Good Samaritan." Afterwards the wretched man said to John Hanks, "It was mighty clever in Abe to take me to a warm fire that cold night. Abe's strength and kindness saved my life."

THE

XI.

UPWARD AND ONWARD.

HE brief remarks made about Abraham at this time show his standing.

"He is always ready to do everything for everybody," remarked his mother.

"He is good-natured as the days are long," said Dennis Hanks.

"Allers readin' when he is not workin'," said Josiah Crawford.

"More fun in him than there is in all the rest of us put together," remarked David Turnham.

Such remarks as these were common concerning Abraham Lincoln from the time he was fourteen years of age. John Hanks, who went to live with the Lincolns, as we have said, when Abraham was fourteen, says,

"When Abe and I returned to the house from work, he would go to the cupboard, snatch a piece of cornbread, take down a book, sit down on a chair, cross his legs as high as his head, and read. He and I worked bare-footed, grubbed it, ploughed, mowed, and cradled together; ploughed corn, gathered it, and shucked corn. Abraham read constantly when he had

an opportunity."

Mr. Lamon says: "Abe loved to lie under a shadetree, 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 Tom Lincoln's drawing-knife, and begin again. In the day time, he used boards for the same purpose, out of doors, and went through the shaving process everlastingly."

His mother says: "Abe 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 re-write it, look at it, and repeat it. He had a copy-book, a kind of scrap-book, in which he put down all things, and thus preserved them."

There is no record of how and where he obtained the scrap-book. The idea was entirely original with him, since he had never heard of any such device in his part of the country. There is no question that he possessed a scrap-book, and that it became an important agent in making him a scholar and statesman. He copied into it chiefly from the books he borrowed, thinking he would not have the opportunity to see them again. Books that he owned, as well as those belonging to his parents, he marked, that he might refer to striking passages at his leisure. Also, he frequently wrote brief compositions in that scrap-book, improving his talent for the art thereby. As an invention, at that time, the scrap-book was worthy of his genius, and as a source of mental improvement its value was never over-estimated.

One of the finest and most touching tributes ever paid to his memory was spoken by his mother to Mr. Herndon, and we quote it here because it had reference to his early life. She said,

"Abe was a poor boy, and I can say what scarcely one woman-a mother-can say in a thousand,

refused, in fact quested him. I my life.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Abe never gave me a cross word or look, and never or appearance, to do anything I renever gave him a cross word in all His mind and my mind-what little I had seemed to run together. He was here after he was elected President.' Here she stopped, unable to proceed any further, and after her grateful emotions had spent themselves in tears, she proceeded: "He was dutiful to me always. I think he loved me truly. I had a son, John, who was raised with Abe. Both were good boys; but I must say, both being now dead, that Abe was the best boy I ever saw, or ever expect to see. I wish I had died when my husband died. I did not want Abe to run for President; did not want him elected; was afraid somehow,-felt it in my heart; and when he came down to see me, after he was elected President, I felt that something would befall him, and that I should see him no more."

Mr. Lamon relates that, when this interview closed, and Mr. Herndon was about to retire, Mrs. Lincoln took one of his hands in both of hers, and wringing it, with the tears streaming down her cheeks, as if loth to separate from one who knew her "Abe" intimately, said: "Good-bye, my good son's friend. Farewell."

so

Abraham tried his father often by his persistent efforts to gain time to read and study, and by his disposition to turn night into day, that he might pore over some engrossing book, or compose a "poem" or "chronicle" upon some passing event, pleasant or otherwise. He was more tried, however, by Abraham's preaching about" and making "political speeches" on stumps than anything; for this interfered with business. His step-sister, Matilda Johnson, says he

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »