but little, if anything, on the land, and may have been compelled to seek another location. At any rate, he sold his interest in the land for ten barrels of whiskey and twenty dollars. Having built a rickety flat-boat and laden it with the whiskey, he set sail alone upon the Ohio for the purpose of seeking a new home for himself and family.

After a short voyage, his boat went to pieces, and the cargo sank to the bottom of the river. He fished it up with much labor, and leaving it at a house on the Indiana shore, he pushed into the wilderness to select a suitable spot to settle. He soon found one, and immediately moved his family and furniture from the old location to the new. The comforts of a home this poor, wandering family hardly knew. His household possessions were scanty and of little value, consisting of a little bedding, a few coarse dishes and two or three wooden stools, with his kit of carpenter's tools. His neighbors assisted him in the task of moving, ferrying the family with their goods across the river, and the remainder of the journey was made with the help of a yoke of oxen and a cart, both borrowed.

CHAPTER II.

MR. LINCOLN was no doubt influenced in his determination to leave his Kentucky home by the fact that his relations with his neighbors were becoming more and more unpleasant. His poverty and shiftlessness, together with his tendency to become implicated in disreputable affairs, all combined to make him a social outcast. Hence in leaving the State of his nativity he had but few ties to break and few friends to bewail his departure.

In Indiana, the Mecca of their pilgrimage, this forlorn family could look forward to no friendly welcome, nor even to a comfortable home. When they arrived, they were compelled to camp out until a miserable hut, commonly called a "lean-to," could be built for a temporary shelter. It was made of poles and was open on one side to the wind and weather. Here they lived for nearly a year, suffering great privations, and hardly protected at all from the storms and cold. In the mean time, Mr. Lincoln broke up a small piece of ground and planted it with corn, work ing in the intervals upon a rude log-hut, in which, when completed, they lived for three years, without either door or windows.

Furniture was almost wholly lacking. A few threelegged stools and a rough board for a table with a bed made of a large bag of leaves placed upon slats fas

tened to the walls and held up by poles resting on a crotched stick, completed the list. The children. slept on the ground, for there was no floor, except on the coldest nights, when they crawled into the primitive bed with their father and mother.

The house was located upon an eminence about sixteen miles from the Ohio River, in what was then known as Perry County, near the present village of Gentryville. It was in the midst of a thickly wooded country, where were found great oaks, maples, walnuts and many other native trees, with little or no undergrowth. The location was charming and picturesque and lacked nothing but water, which had to be brought from a considerable distance. The country abounded in deer and other inoffensive wild animals, which furnished an abundance of meat together with the materials of which the pioneers were accustomed to make their clothes.

Abraham was about eight years old when the family removed to Indiana; yet he was possessed of considerable strength, and assisted materially in the arduous labors of the journey. He afterwards said in regard to this period of his life: "We reached our new home about the time that the State came into the Union. It was a wild region with many bears and other animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so-called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond 'readin', ritin' and cipherin' to the rule of three.' If a straggler, supposed to understand Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for an education. Of course, when I came

of age, I did not know much; still, somehow, I could read and write and cipher to the rule of three, and that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I have now made upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time, under the pressure of necessity. I was raised to farm work at which I continued until twenty-two."

Life in Southern Indiana was like that in other back-woods regions, the story of which is familiar to all. Neighbors were few and distant. A sister of Mrs. Lincoln with her husband soon after settled near by, and this family furnished about the only society accessible to them for several years.

Educational advantages were few and primitive. In all, young Lincoln attended school less than a year, yet he made the most of that time and obtained a working knowledge of the rudiments, which he afterwards increased materially by home reading and study.

A man by the name of Hazel Dorsey was Lincoln's first teacher in Indiana. The school-house, which was built of logs, was distant nearly two miles from the Lincoln homestead. At school young Abraham gained the reputation of being a good scholar and soon won the affection of his teacher and playmates.

He was compelled to lose much time in school, in order to help his father split rails; yet upon his return he quickly regained his position in the class. During his short attendance upon this school he gained a knowledge of the rudiments which enabled him to continue his studies by himself and make rapid progress in them.

Farm work was never a congenial occupation, for

he seemed to feel, even then, that he was fitted for a higher sphere and was eager to make preparation for it.

He was compelled to labor hard and incessantly, sometimes at home, and frequently for some neighbor who happened to be short of help. It is said that he was inclined to slight his work, and that he had inherited something of his father's shirking propensities. It was his great delight to stop in the midst of his labors and, mounting a stump, to make a speech to his fellow laborers, who were always ready to hear "Abe" speak, much to the disgust of their employer. He would select a subject, sometimes a text from the Bible, and embellish his harangue with stories and jokes, which, with the contortions of his awkward figure, would keep his hearers in a roar of laughter. When he went to the country store or to the mill, he was generally surrounded with loafers and often forgot his errand in his attempt to amuse his rude audience.

This propensity was a source of considerable annoyance to his father, who strove in vain to conquer it. One of his old neighbors' declared that "Abe was awful lazy." He says, "He worked for me frequently, a few days only at a time. He once told me that his father had taught him to work, but never learned him to love it. He would laugh and talk and crack jokes and tell stories all the time; didn't love to work, but did dearly love his pay." The following description is given of his personal appearance at the age of fifteen." "He was growing

1 John Romine.

2 Lamon.