Part 2 (1/2)
A traveling preacher known as Parson Elkin had occasionally preached in the neighborhood of the Lincolns in Kentucky The young boy now put to use his knowledge of writing He wrote a letter to the parson inviting him to coet the letter to its destination we do not know, but it was done The kind-hearted preacher cheerfully consented, though it involved a long and hard journey He came at his earliest convenience, which was some time the next year
There was no church in which to hold the service Lincoln never saw a church building of any description until he was grown But the neighbors to the number of about two hundred assembled under the trees, where the parson delivered the memorial sermon
Lincoln was nine years old when his mother died, October 5th, 1818 Her lot was hard, her horizon was narrow, her opportunities were restricted, her life was one of toil and poverty All through her life and after her untimely death, many people would have said that she had had at best but a poor chance in the world Surely no one would have predicted that her name would come to be known and reverenced from ocean to ocean But she was faithful, brave, cheerful She did her duty lovingly In later years the nation joined with her son in paying honor to thewoman
CHAPTER IV
IN INDIANA
The death of his wife had left Tho children: namely, Sarah, about eleven years old, Abe, ten years old, and the foster brother, Dennis (Friend) Hanks, a year or two younger The father was not able to do woman's work as well as his wife had been able to do man's work, and the condition of the home was pitiable indeed To the threeand dreary winter When spring came they had the benefits of life in the woods and fields, and so lived through the season until the edge of the follointer It is not to be wondered at that the father was unwilling to repeat the loneliness of the preceding year
Early in December, 1819, he returned to Elizabethtown, Ky, and proposed e to a , Mrs Sally Bush Johnston The proposal must have been direct, with few preli The neife brought hies, of sundry articles of household furniture Parents, children, and goods were shortly after loaded into a wagon drawn by a four-horse team, and in all the style of this frontier four-in-hand, were driven over indescribable roads, through woods and fields, to their Indiana home
The accession of Sally Bush's furniture made an important improvement in the home What wascabin by providing , door, and floor What was ht the sweet spirit of an al to all the children alike a generous portion of mother-love
The children now numbered six, and not only were they co for woer of the heart of child or man, was beautifully met
She did not humor them to the point of idleness, but wisely ruled with strictness without imperiousness She kept them from bad habits and retained their affection to the last The influence upon the growing lad of two such women as Nancy Hanks and Sally Bush orth e in all the land
The boy grew into youth, and he grew very fast While still in his teens he reached the full stature of his th was astonishi+ng, and many stories were told of this and subsequent periods to illustrate his physical prowess, such as: he once lifted up a hencoop weighing six hundred pounds and carried it off bodily; he could lift a full barrel of cider to his -hole; he could sink an ax-halve deeper into a log than any rowth into youth he spent , and, after a fashi+on, s won great adhbors
He occasionally wrote satires which, while not refined, were very stinging This would not be worthwere it not for the fact that it shows that from boyhood he knew the force of this formidable weapon which later he used with so much skill The country store furnished the frontier substitute for the club, and there theLincoln was the life of the gatherings, being an expert in the telling of a hu always a plentiful supply His speech- proved so attractive that his father was forced to forbid hi hours because the men would always leave their work to listen to hiular eot a chance At one time, for exaes of thirty-seven and one half cents a day
When sixteen years old, Lincoln had his first lesson in oratory He attended court at Boonville, county seat of Warwick County and heard a case in which one of the aristocratic Breckenridges of Kentucky was attorney for the defense The power of his oratory was a revelation to the lad At its conclusion the aard, ill-dressed, bashful but enthusiastic young Lincoln pressed forward to offer his congratulations and thanks to the eloquent lawyer, who haughtily brushed by hi the proffered hand In later years the ton City, in the white house The president ree of the incident which the latter had no desire to recall
When about nineteen years old, he e down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers Two incidents are worth recording of this trip
The purpose was to find, in New Orleans, a market for produce, which was simply floated down stream on a flat-boat There was, of course, a row-boat for tender The crew consisted of hi Gentry, son of his eht in accordance with the custoht they were awakened by a gang of seven ruffian negroes who had come aboard to loot the stuff
Lincoln shouted ”Who's there?” Receiving no reply he seized a handspike and knocked over the first, second, third, and fourth in turn, when the re three took to the woods The two northerners pursued them a short distance, then returned, loosed their craft and floated safely to their destination
It was on this trip that Lincoln earned his first dollar, as he in after years related to Willia down the river We have, you know, no wharves on the western streaers were at any of the landings, they were to go out in a boat, the stea them on board Two es, and looking at the different boats, singled out mine, and asked, 'Who owns this?' I modestly answered, 'I do' 'Will you take us and our trunks out to the steamer?' 'Certainly' The trunks were put in ers seated theot on board, and I lifted the trunks and put theain, when I called out: 'You have forgotten to pay me' Each of them took from his pocket a silver half dollar and threw it on the bottom of my boat
I could scarcely believe my eyes as I picked up the , and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life I could scarcely credit that I, a poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work I had earned a dollar I was a oods were sold profitably at New Orleans and the return trip was made by steae from New York to Albany, which required seven days Steamboats had been put on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, but these crafts were of primitive construction--aard as to shape and slow as to speed
The frequency of boiler explosions was proverbial for many years The lads, Gentry and Lincoln, returned home duly and the employer ell satisfied with the results of the expedition
In 1830 the epidemic ”milk sick” reappeared in Indiana, and Thoet out of the country Illinois was at that ti accounts of its desirableness Thomas Lincoln's decision to move on to the new land of promise was reasonable He sold out and started with his faoods to his new destination The ti out of the ground so that the mud is apparently bottomless The author will not attempt to describe it, for he has in boyhood seen it many times and knows it to be indescribable