The boyhood of Lincoln

Instnactor Oterature Seriea — ^No, 204C

Digitized by tine Internet Arclnive

in 2010 with funding from

Tine Institute of Museum and Library Services through an Indiana State Library LSTA Grant

http://www.archive.org/details/boyhoodoflincoln5128reit

INSTRUCTOR LITERATURE SERIES

THE BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

By Harriet G. %citer

F. A. 0\^/EN PUBLISHING COMPANY,
DANSVILLE, N. Y.

Copyright, 1912, by
F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING CO.

The Boyhood of Lincoln

A great man}^ years ago a brave man found
his way through a gap in the mountains. He
stood on the hills and looked over the lovely
land of Kentucky. There were deep forests
and open grassy places. Bears and wild turkeys
and all kinds of game were in the woods. Great
herds of buffalo roamed over the hills. It all
looked so peaceful and beautiful that it seemed
to be prepared by the hand of God for the use
of man.

But Indians went on the warpath through
those beautiful forests. They lay in wait along
the streams with tomahawks ready for any
white men who might come to their favorite
hunting ground. The scalps of many brave
hunters hung from their belts. One never knew
what bush or tree might hide a painted savage.

The man that stood on the hill and looked
over this country was Daniel Boone. He well

4 . BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

knew all the danf>'er that was hidden in the for-
est. But he loved the blue-^Tass fields, the for-
ests full of game, and the hills. He said the
Indians should not keep him ovit, for he was
going to make his home in Kentucky, in spite
of them.

And so he climbed down the hill and went
into Kentucky. He staid there some time and
went from place to place. He had always to
hide from the Indians. He had to walk so as
to leave no trail. He had to be careful of his
campfire so it would not smoke while burning,
and when it was out, to scatter the ashes so as
to leave no trace. He tried in every way to
keep the Indians from knowing there was a
white man near.

Many times he was in great danger, but at last
when he was ready to leave the country, he loved
it more than ever. He felt that nothing would
keep him from coming back to live there.
Daniel Boone carried news of this rich country
back to his friends and neighbors and many de-
cided to return with him. There were no roads
across the mountains, and there were but two
ways to get to this land of Kentucky. They
could float down the Ohio River, or they could

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 5

come through a gap in the mountains, and down
a trail called the Wilderness Road. The Ohio
Eiver was so dangerous from Indians that few
chose that way.

Most of the new settlers came by the Wilder-
ness Road. Several would come together, as
that was safer. They carried their goods in
packs on horses, but it was little that they could
carry with them. A camp kettle maybe, some
corn for meal, powder and bullets for their
rifles, and a little clothing was usually what
they carried into the new country. Sometimes
in fording streams, or in Indian attacks, even
these few things were lost.

Now there was a man in Virginia named
Abraham Lincoln who lived near the road where
these pioneers passed in going to their new
homes. They often stopped at his house and
talked with him, until at last he wanted to go to
Kentucky, too. He sold his land and made a
journey there. He stayed several months and
then came back for his family. We do not know
how Mr. Lincoln got his wife and four children
through the gap and down the Wilderness Road,
but it must have been a very hard trip, for the
road was rough and dangerous.

6 BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

The Youn^ Lincoln children saw the buffalo
roaming over the blue-grass fields. These ani-
mals were not yet afraid of men, for they did
not know of the white man's gun. Bands of
Indians still lurked in the forests, and the set-
tlers had always to be on guard for their lives.
The pioneers wore shirts and trousers of buck-
skin, and coonskin caps made so the tails hung
down their backs. When the Indians were on
the warpath they could outrun and outfight
them,

Abraham Lincoln settled on some land near
the Ohio Eiver. He built his log cabin and
started to clear his land by cutting down the
trees. One n^orning he took his three boys,
Mordecai, Josiah, and Thomas to work in the
clearing. They had hardly gotten there when
a shot rang out fired by an Indian hid in the
edge of the woods, and Mr. Lincoln fell dead.

Josiah ran as fast as he could go to the near-
est fort for help. Mordecai ran to the cabin for
a gun. Little Thomas was left by his dead fa-
ther's side. Mordecai seized a gun and stuck
it through a crack in the logs. The Indian was
just ready to carry off little Thomas. The big
brother had to aim carefully so as not to kill

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 7

the little fellow. He aimed at a white ornament
on the Indian's breast and fired. His aim was
true and the savage fell dead by Mr. Lincoln.
Thomas Lincoln's life was saved and he became
the father of our loved President, Abraham
Lincoln.

As soon as he was free, the little boy ran to
the house and to his mother's arms. Men soon
came from the fort with Josiah and they took
up the bodies of Mr. Lincoln and the Indian.
It was sad, indeed, for the family in this new
country to lose their father. But it was worse
for little Tom than for anv of the rest.

They had as much as their neighbors, but no
one at that time owned much but land. Mrs.
Lincoln soon moved away to another county,
and Mordecai, the boy who killed the Indian,
got his father's land. He always hated the In-
dians bitterly, and it is said, killed many; he
was well known also as a great story teller.

But little Thomas grew up very poor. He
had to go out as a poor working boy before he
had even learned to read. Indeed he never did
learn to read, and could only write his name.
But he was honest, sober, good-natured, and
loved by every one, though if the truth must

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 9

be told, he never cared to work very hard.

After a while he learned to be a carpenter
and worked about from place to place. He was
a good carpenter for those days and had a fine
set of tools. The cabins were built almost all
with an ax. No nails were used. The logs were
hewn, the doors and rude wooden shutters were
hung on leather hinges and fastened with
wooden pins. There was no glass in the win-
dows but sometimes there was greased paper.

Mr. Lincoln did not care much for work.
When some one came and offered him a job he
would take it and do the work well, but he did
not go about looking for something to do.

One of the men he worked for was Mr. Berry.
Now, Mrs. Berry had a niece, Nancy Hanks,
who lived with her, and who was a sweet and
lovely girl. The Hanks family had come from
Virginia about the same time the Lincolns did.
Then Nancy's father and mother died and a
family of eight children were left. The children
were scattered, and Nancy went to live with her
aunt.

There, Tom Lincoln fell in love with her and
they were married. Would you like to know
about the wedding? You may be sure it was

10 BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

not much like the weddings now-a-days. In pio-
neer times weddings were rude and boisterous.
After the Lincoln wedding there was an infare.
All the neighbors were invited, and even
strangers who happened to be near. They had
a great feast of bear meat, venison, wild turkey,
and ducks. Maple sugar hung from a string
and when any one wanted a piece for his coffee
he bit it off. There were great gourds full of
wild honey, maple syrup, and peaches. The
families had roasted a sheep, whole, over a pit
of coals covered with green boughs to keep the
juice in.

The Lincolns went to housekeeping in a log
cabin in Elizabethtown. The whole house was
only as large as a small room, but it was as good
as the most of their neighbors. Very few people
at that time in Kentucky had any other than
log houses. Even the churches and school
houses were built of logs.

But cari^enters could not earn much money
for there were no sawmills to get the lumber
ready, so Mr. Lincoln decided the next year to
move his wife and baby girl to a farm. There
he could kill game for the meat and raise corn
for the bread.

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 11

The neighbors came and helped roll the logs
for the new house. It had one room, one door,
and one Avindow. A huge chimney of sticks
was built outside. The family had a cow and
calf, a good feather-bed, pots, and kettles. Mrs.
Lincoln had a loom and wheel which she used
in making the cloth for their clothing. For you
know at that time every thing had to be made
at home. People could not go to the store and
buy cloth as they do now.

Near the cabin was a spring of clear water
flowing out of a cleft in the rocks.- Forest trees
shaded the spring, and wild flowers and ferns
grew about it. In the woods about the cabin
were deer and flocks of wild turkeys.

It was in this log cabin in the woods that a
little son was born to Thomas and Nancy Lin-
coln, February 12, 1809. The child was named
Abraham, after his grandfather who had been
killed by the Indians.

A happy family lived in that one room. What
softer cradle could a baby have than his
mother's arms ? And what did the little Lincoln
children care that they were poor ? They had
no toys for they had no money to buy them,
but the country has many jjleasures for children

12 BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

which are unknown to those of lar^'e places.

Little Abe and Sarah played with other chil-
dren in the shavings of iheir father's carpenter
shop. ThoA^ picked wild berries and hunted
coons and squirrels and then they liked to fish.

One da}^ when Abe was coming home with a
string of fish he met a soldier. His mother
had told him he must alwa^^s be kind to soldiers
so he gave him his fish and went home without
any.

One of his i:)laymates was named Austin Gol-
laher and one day Austin saved Abe's life. This
is the way Mr. Gollaher told the story when he
was an old man:

*''One Sunday my mother visited the Lin-
colns, and I was taken along. Abe and I pla^^ed
around all day. Finally we concluded to cross
the creek to hunt for some partridges 3^oung
Lincoln had seen the day before. The creek
was swollen by recent rains, and, in crossing
the narrow footlog, Abe fell in. Neither of us
could swim. I got a long pole and held it out
to Abe, who grabbed it. Then I pulled him
ashore. He was almost dead, and I Avas badly
scared. I rolled and pounded him in good

*Ivife of Abraham Liucoln. — TarbeLL,

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN L^

earnest. Then I got him by the arms and
shook him, the water pouring out of his mouth.
By this means I succeeded in bringing him to,
and he was soon all right.

"Then a new difficulty confronted us. If our
mothers discovered our wet clothes they would
whip us. This we dreaded from experience and
determined to avoid. It was June, the sun
was very warm, and we soon dried our clothing
by spreading it on the rocks about us. AVe
promised never to tell the story, and I never
did until after Lincoln's death."

When little Abe was about four years old his
father moved the family to another farm and
he was started to school. His first teacher was
named Zachariah Einey. The school houses
then were of logs, and often had no floor but
the ground. Pegs were driven in the walls and
boards laid across them for desks. Short logs
were split in two for benches to sit on. A big
fireplace kept the room warm.

Nothing was taught in the schools but read-
ing, writing and "ciphering." Einey could not
teach his pupils much for he had only one book
and that was a spelling book. It had easy read-
ing lessons in it also.

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN IS

It is said that Lincoln studied harder and
learned faster than any one else in school.
He got spicewood bushes and hacked them
upon a log and burned two or three at a time to
make a light to see to study by.

Though there were not any books to be had,
Mrs. Lincoln knew lots of Bible stories, fairy
stories, and Indian stories. She used to take
the children on her knee in the evening, when a
big fire in the fireplace sent bright flames danc-
ing up the chimney, and tell them stories.

In those pioneer times preachers rode about
from place to place on horseback. They held
meetings wherever they could, sometimes out
of doors, and sometimes in log churches. One
of these preachers was David Elkins, and Abe
loved him dearly. One of the things that the
little boy liked to do best was to play at preach-
ing. He would gather his playmates about him
and preach and pound until he had them all
half scared to death.

The boy had to help his father about the farm
as soon as he was old enough. When the men
were working in the fields he carried them
water. He picked wild berries in the woods.
One time when they were planting corn, Abe

16 BOYHOOD OP LINCOLN

had to drop pumpkin seed in every other hill.
The next day came a big rain. The water ran
down the hillside in such torrents that it washed
corn, and pumpkin seed, and even the dirt itself
off of the field.

Years after, when this boy had become a great
man, and was President of the United States,
a visitor at the White House, which was then
his home, asked: "Mr. President, how wovild
you like when the war is over to visit your old
home in Kentucky?"

' 'I would like it very much, ' ' Mr. Lincoln said.
"I remember that old home very well. Our
farm was composed of three fields. It lay in
the valley surrounded by high hills and deep
gorges. Sometimes when there came a big rain
in the hills the water would come down through
the gorges and spread all over the farm."

Then he told of the time when after they had
planted the corn in the "bigfield" — seven acres
— there came a big rain in the hills though it did
not rain a drop in the valley, and washed away
the seed and soil, too.

When Abraham was seven years old a most
exciting thing happened. His father moved
from Kentucky to Indiana. Mr. Lincoln built

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 17

a raft and loaded his tools and some other
things on it and floated down the river. But
alas the raft upset and there were his goods and
tools in the bottom of the river. However, he
managed to straighten the raft and get some of
his things and again start on his journey.
When he got across the river he hired an ox
team to take them to the new j)lace. Then he
went back for his wife and children.

The family had had to live the best they could
while the father was gone. They slept on a
bedticking stuffed with leaves and husks. Abe
snared game for the dinnerpot and chopped
wood for the Are. Between times the children
went to school to Caleb Hazel, who also taught
school with only one book.

When Mr. Lincoln got back, they loaded two
horses with the rest of their goods and set out
through the forest for the new home. It took
them seven days to make the journey and each
day was full of delightful adventures to the
children.

At night they slept on a pile of pine boughs,
in the daytime they had often to cut their way
with an ax through thickets. Sometimes they
had to ford streams. They saw many strange

18 BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

birds and animals. It was fortunate that no
rain fell all the week they were on the way, and
the nights were cool and pleasant.

When they came to their new place, they
chose a grassy knoll in the heart of a big forest
for their home. It was late in the autumn, too
late to build a house. Mr. Lincoln gave Abe an
ax and set him to work clearing the ground.
Then they built a half-faced camp of posts and
poles. It was open on one side with only a
curtain of skins. A stick fireplace was built in
one end, and in this poor place Abraham Lin-
coln spent his first winter in Indiana. This
new home was near Little Pigeon creek, about
fifteen miles from the Ohio river and one mile
and a half from a place known as Gentryville,
in Spencer county. -^

He was now nearly eight years old, and was
a very tall, long-legged little boy. His mother
made him linsey-woolsey shirts dyed with
colors she made herself out of barks and roots.
His trousers were made of deerskin, and also
his hunting shirt. His feet were covered with
moccasins, and his head with a coon skin cap.
The tail hanging down behind made a nice
handle by which to carry it.

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 19

Times were hard, the pioneers had very little
money, and even if they had had money there
was no place to buy thinos. They used thorns
for pins, and buttoned their clothes with pieces
of cork covered with cloth, or cut out bone but-
tons. Coffee was made of browned crusts of
bread, and tea of leaves of some kinds of herbs.

But there was a salt lick near the Lincoln's
home and when the deer came there Thomas
Lincoln could always ^^et plenty of meat. There
were also wild turkeys, squirrels, and even bears
thick in the woods. The streams were full of
fish. One time Abe saw a flock of wild turkeys
feeding near the cabin. He ran in and poked
his father's rifle out through a crack in the
walls, took aim and fired. A fine turkey fell
dead. He did not know whether to feel glad or
sorry. He was glad because he had not missed
his game, and sorry because he had taken a life.
He said himself that he never after pulled a
trigger on any larger game.

The next year Abe and his father set to work
to cut down trees and get the logs ready for
their new cabin. When all was ready the neigh-
bors for miles around gathered in to help put
up the cabin. It had one room and a loft above.

20 BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

There was no door, or window, or floor. Not
even a deer skin hung over the opening nor was
there any greased paj)er in the window.

Mr. Lincoln and Abe made the furniture. The
table and chairs were rough slabs of wood set
up on pegs. In one corner of the cabin was
built a bed. Only one leg was needed and that
at the outer corner. A stake was driven in the
ground and from this stout poles were fastened
over to the w^alls. This made the frame. Split
* 'shakes" were laid across this and the bed was
ready for the mattress. This was filled with
cornhusks or leaves. Abe slept in the loft and
he climbed nimbl}^ to his place by means of
pegs driven in the wall, and his poor bed was
only a heap of dried leaves in one corner. They
had no crockery dishes. What few they had
were pewter and they also used gourds for
dishes. The spoons were iron and the knives
and forks had horn handles.

Thomas Lincoln tried to raise enough corn for
cornpone on week days, and enough wheat for
wheat cakes on Sunday. But it was hard to get
the corn ground into meal, sometimes it had to
be grated in a piece of old tin punched full of
holes. There were not many vegetables raised

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 21

but potatoes, and sometimes they were the only
thing the Lincohis had to eat. It is no wonder
the children grew tired of them. One time
when there was nothing else on the table, and
the father asked a blessing on this poor fare,
little Abe remarked that "they were mighty
poor blessings." One of the neighbors said
that one time when they were spending the
evening at Lincoln's, potatoes were washed and
pared and handed around to eat raw as we eat
apples. Then potatoes had another use. Mrs.
Lincoln would give the children hot baked
potatoes to hold in their hands when they went
to school on bitter cold days.

In helping to build their house the young
backwoods boy learned to use a maul, and
wedge, and axe. His father taught him how to
"rive" shingles from a slab of wood, and how to
split rails out of the lo^s. Doing this heavy
work hardened his muscles and made him very
strong. He lived in the woods so much that he
knew every tree and bush by its bark and leaves
as far as he could see them. He learned the
use of all the different kinds of timber. When
he had time he loved to wander through the
forest, and all his life he never forgot the beau-

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AFTER HE BECAME PRESIDENT

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 23

tiful thing's he saw there and the lessons Mother
Nature taught him.

When the Lincolns had been in Indiana two
years a great sorrow came to them. The chil-
dren's mother died. After she was taken
sick her husband and children nursed her the
best they could, but there was not a doctor to
be had, or comforts of any kind. When Nancy
Lincoln died she was buried under a beautiful
S3^camore tree on a grassy knoll. Her husband
cut down a tree and made the rough pine
box to lay her body in. There was no preacher
in that country and no one to say a prayer.
But many bitter tears wore shed by the little
faaiily when they laid their poor mother away.

Abe felt so sorry that there had been no
preacher at his mother's funeral that he with
much labor wrote his first letter to Daniel
Elkin, the Baptist preacher he had loved so
dearly in Kentuck3^ At that time a letter
would be weeks in getting to the person to
whom it was sent for it had to be carried on
horseback throvigh the woods.

When Mr. Elkin got the letter asking him to
come to Indiana and preach a sermon over
Nancy Lincoln's grave he sent back word that

24 BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

he would come as soon as he could. The next
summer when the trees were all out in leaf, the
forest green and beautiful, and birds singing in
the trees the good man kept his iDromise.

It was a forlorn little brood of children that
lived in the Lincoln cabin after Mrs. Lincoln's
death. Their cousin, Dennis Hanks, a little
younger than Abe, lived with them. Their little
housekeeper was twelve-year-old Sarah Lin-
coln. The family did not go hungry but the
children got very ragged.

Then the next year Thomas Lincoln made a
journey to Kentucky and brought back with
him a new mother for his children. This was
a very fortunate thing for she was a kind and
good woman and loved the little Lincoln chil-
dren as she did her own. She had been a
widow, Mrs. Sally Johnson, formerly Miss Sally
Bush. Her home had been at Elizabethtown,
where Thomas Lincoln had first married, and
she was not a stranger to the children to whom
she came as a new mother. She had three chil-
dren, two girls and a boy, and that made six
children living in the little cabin.

The new Mrs. Lincoln brought a great wagon-
load of furniture with her. You may be sure

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 25

little Abe's eyes grew big as he saw the fine
things unloaded. There was a fine bureau with
drawers of clothing, tables and chairs, and
dishes. There were blankets, and quilts, and
a big feather-bed.

The first thing the new mother did was to
have a washstand set up by the door, and then
she cleaned up the children and gave them
good clothing. Then she got Thomas Lincoln
to work, and with his carpenter tools he made
a door for the cabin and fixed a frame with
greased paper over it for a window. Skins were
spread over a puncheon floor and the cabin
looked quite cosy.

Abe was ten years old when his father married
the second time and he was a very tall, strong
boy for his age. He learned how to do all the
different things a boy has to know on a farm,
besides how to use his father's tools. When he
was not busy at home helping his father he
hired out to the neighbors. They paid his father
twenty-five cents a day for his work, but this
was when he grew older. He was so strong
that he did not lack for work. He plowed, did
carpenter work, and helped the women in the
house. He was always ready to bring buckets

26 BOYHOOD OP LINCOLN

of water, or make fires, and even take care of
the babies.

But better than anything else, he hked to go
to mill. The corn had to be carried on horse-
back a long distance and at the mill each had
to wait his turn. There, young Lincoln could
tell and listen to stories and play games while
waiting his turn.

But the boy's life was not all work. With
such a big family of jolly boys and girls there
was sure to be plenty of mischief and fun. The
boys went fishing in the evenings and at the
noon hour they wrestled, and jumped, and ran
races. It is said he never missed a horse race
or a fox hunt. In the winter evenings the chil-
dren sat about the fire and told all the stories
they knew, or they went to spelling matches or
husking bees. But he was such a good speller
that he was not allowed to take part in the
matches, for if he did his side always beat.

When the three boys, Abraham Lincoln, John
Johnston, and Dennis Hanks came home from
the merry-making in the evenings, they climbed
the ladder to their loft in the cabin. They all
three slept together, and their bed was so nar-
row that when one turned over all three had to
turn.

Sajnt-Gaudens

STATUE OF LINCOLN IN LINCOLN PARK, CHICAGO

28 BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

Mrs. Lincoln sent the children to school
Avhenever there was one, which was seldom.
The school Avhich they now had a chance to
attend was a mile and a half away on Little
Pigeon Creek. New settlers were coming' in
and a new schoolmaster had come also and
given them this. All ol the children of the Lin-
coln cabin went to this school and we can ima-
gine the good times they had together.

The school house was built of logs, but so
were the houses from which all of them came.
Even the new meeting house, which was a grand
affair for these woods, was built of logs up to the
gables, and finished out with sawed boards,
nearly the first used to any extent in that region.

Abe, altogether, did not go more than a year.
But every spare moment he read and studied.
His first books were the Bible, ^sop's Fables,
Robinson Crusoe, and Pilgrim's Progress.
Some of these he borrowed from the neighbors.
One time he borrowed a book about Washing-
ton. He put the book in the loft in a crack
between the logs. In the night a storm came
up and the book got wet. He carried the book
back to the owner and made a bargain with him
to pull fodder for him three days to pay for the

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 29

spoiled book. Then the book became his and
he was glad it all happened.

Abraham read all the books in the neighbor-
hood and then was not satisfied. He went after
every book he heard of. He once told some one
that he read everything for fifty miles around.
He also was great at asking questions. When
he was a little fellow he would sit on the fence
by the side of the road and ask questions of all
that came by until they were out of hearing.

From the books he borrowed he wrote down
things he wanted to remember. If he had no
pajjer he wrote on a board and carried it in his
pocket until he had learned what he had writ-
ten. He had no slate or lead pencil so he did
his sums on a wooden fireshovel with a charred
stick. When he had the shovel covered he
shaved the wood off and began again.

Whenever he went to work he carried a book
in his pocket and at every chance out came
the book and Abe was reading. He had a fine
chance when he plowed, for at every round he
had to rest the horses and sometimes had a
half hour for study.

When he found the day too short for his school
studies and. the work about the farm, he sat up

30 BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

late into the nio'ht reading, the hght coming
from the blaze of the ^'lightwood" fire in the
fireplace.

When he was a grown man he made a speech
on Henry Clay, the great statesman of whom
in his youth he had thought so much. Among
other things he said: ''His example teaches us
that one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he
will, he can acquire sufficient education to get
through the world respectably." If this was
true of the life of Henry Clay, it was equally
true of Abraham Lincoln. And if it was true
then, with the few opportunities for school,
how much more now with schoolhouses and
teachers provded for every child.

The boy was always kind and helpful to every
one in trouble. Once he carried a w^orthless
drunkard on his back a long distance and took
care of him all night to keep him from freezing.
He was always talking to his playmates about
being kind to animals. He was so brave and
strong himself that the other children listened
to him and often did as he asked them.

When he was about seventeen years old, he
went one day to the court house in a nearby
county, and heard a great lawyer from Ken-

BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN 31

tucky make a speech in a trial for murder. It
was the first great speech he had heard and from
that time on he practiced making speeches.
He took up any topic in which the people about
him were interested in. His father had to stop
his speeches in work hours, for he said : ''When
Abe begins to speak all hands flock to hear
him."

One thing must be said of him, both as boy
and young man ; When he began to study any-
thing, he was not satisfied until he got to the
bottom of it. He wrote and rewrote all that he
wanted to commit to memory, and he would
never give up any hard problem.

After Lincoln was president and he had been
so cruelly killed, his stepmother said this about
him:

''Abe was a good boy, and I can say what
scarcely one woman — a mother — can say in a
thousand. Abe never gave me a cross word or
look, and never refused, in fact or appearance,
to do anything I requested him. I never gave
him a cross word in my life. * '^ ''-' '•' He was
a dutiful son 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

32 BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN

say that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or
expect to see."

~77 zoo 9. oS'i. oS/ZB

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