Lincoln's School Days

Littli' Abe was firstsentto school hen he was about sevcn years of age. His father had never received any "book learnin',' as educaiion was termed among suob peoj le, and it was with diffioulty that lie couU write his own name. One day. about four weeks atter Abe had boen sent 10 school, his father askcd tbe teacher: "llow's Ale getting along?" Tho teacher replied that he was doing well: be wouldn't ask to have a better boy. Be liad unly one lesson book, an old spelling-book. During the school hours he WM attontivo to his task, and at night lio would study over the lesson he bad boen engaged upon during the day; the highest ambition of his life at this time was to learn to read. He believed if he could only read as well as his inother, who read the Biblo aloud to the faimly every day, the whole world of knowledge would be opened to him, and in this conjecture ho was about rlght As the old liaptist minister told him one day: "When you can read, you've got something that nobody can get awuy frora you." In the Kentucky home there were but three books in the Pamily- tbe Bible, a catcuhisui and the speiling-book which Abe Lincoln ntudied. 11e had notbeen long ín Indiana beforo he had read the "I'ilgrim's l'rogress," his father borrowing it from a friend who liviid twenty miles aw .y Be was very fond of readiü p's Fables," a copy of which came in bis way. A young man taught him 10 writo. As wrltiag-paper of any kind was very scarce and expensive. Abe used to practice his wrilinu' exerclses with bits of ehalk or a burnt stick en slabs und trunks of trees. Somotimes he would trace out his name with :i Bharp stick on the bare RTound. Wben, inally, ho wit ablè : tters, he as called to do tbe corrí i of many of his neigbbors. for very few grown persons in that reglón could write even a sim-' plo letter. As Abe Ijiuculn gvev, older he became a greiit reader and read all the books he could borrow Once he borrowed of his lohool-teacher ;í Aío of Washington, llis mother happened to put it on a certain shelf. and, the rain coming through the roof. tbe book nu badly damaged. Abo took ii bai i to the school-master and axranged to i it of him, paying for it by three days' hard work in the corn-fleld; ind he waa cntirely satisfiod with the bargaln at tbat. At the age of elghteen hls library consisted of the Li fo of Franklin, l'lutarch'S Lives, the Bible, the spelli.-ig-book, Esop's Fables, Filgrim's l'rogress, and tho livos of Washington and Ilenry Clay. A boy might have a much larger private library than this, but he could scarcely flnd an equal nutnber of books better calculated to impart wholsomo lossons as to correct living and rigbt thinking. - Goorgo .J. Manson, in Harper's Young