sister, a year or two older, was, no doubt often helping her mother. The two children went to school together to the only school in the neighborhood, where they learned the alphabet and not much more. But of books, toys, games and home care and petting, the little fellow knew nothing.

From a baby he wandered out by himself to find his own amusement in the lonely woods. Perhaps he, like Daniel Boone, loved the vast, beautiful woods, the stateliness of the treesthe sycamores, tulip trees, sugartrees, honey locusts, coffee trees, pawpaws, cucumber trees and black mulberries. There were not very many pines or fir trees which made it much easier for the pioneers, because they could so much more readily make a path through the woods, since the branches were high and there was not much underbrush. Then, the flowers were very beautiful, and there were so many of them in such variety.

But Abraham Lincoln when he was a young man was never a hunter like Daniel Boone. And in addition to his great tender heart, which loved all men and creatures too, there may have been another reason for this. For we can picture the lonely little fellow all by himself in the great woods, seated at the foot of some tree and making playmates of the inhabitants of these

forests, the rabbits, the squirrels, and the birds. They would not be afraid of him; they would come about him and he would welcome them. He would watch them and learn their habits and come to love them far too well ever to point his gun at any of the fur or feather denizens of the great forests. They had been his companions and friends. It was not in his heart to hurt them.

Like the barefoot boy whom the Poet Whittier writes about, little Abraham Lincoln must have learned

"Of the wild bee's morning chase,
Of the wildflower's time and place,
Flight of fowl and habitude
Of the tenants of the wood;

How the tortoise bears his shell,
How the woodchuck digs his cell,
And the ground-mole sinks his well;
How the robin feeds her young,
How the oriole's nest is hung;
Where the whitest lilies blow,
Where the freshest berries grow,
Where the groundnut trails its vine,
Where the wood-grape's clusters shine;
Of the black wasp's cunning way,
Mason of his walls of clay,
And the architectural plans
Of grey hornet artisans!—"

And the "barefoot boy" says:

"I was rich in flowers and trees,
Humming-birds and honey-bees;
For my sport the squirrel played,
Plied the snouted mole his spade;
For my taste the blackberry cone
Purpled over hedge and stone;
Laughed the brook for my delight
Through the day and through the night
Whispering at the garden wall,

Talked with me from fall to fall.' ""

The little shepherd boy, David, who afterwards became king of Israel, is not the only great man in history who in childhood or youth has been put out into the wilderness with fields or forests around him and the stars overhead. Many men who have brought blessings to their nation and to the world have been thus left alone for a time. Perhaps this is that they may come to depend upon themselves, to learn their own resources, to find what is in their minds and hearts, and may come to use what they find there and by using, to develop and strengthen their own powers. And also by watching the stars and the great sky spaces, to learn to have more faith in God and to rest more upon Him and grow strong.

It may have been that Abraham Lincoln was

always more sad at times for the memories of his lonely infancy and early childhood.

But, no doubt, also, he was a stronger man and understood better his own powers and how to use them.

It is with pity and love and admiration that we picture to ourselves the little boy wandering and playing, and dreaming and learning in the lonely woods.

IV.

GOING TO INDIANA.

Thomas Lincoln was a very sunny-tempered, jovial man, fond of a story and able to tell one well-a quality which his son inherited from him; but he had no ambition. He had selfrespect, however, and when some bullies in his neighborhood were insolent to him, he gave them a good drubbing. He was an excellent carpenter and could do fine work when he tried; but from his life it seems as if he was not fond of taking trouble, and as if he did not know how to keep what he had. For this fine farm to which he moved when Abraham was four years old was soon lost.

He made up his mind then that Kentucky was not the State for a poor man to live in. Things had changed a good deal from the early settlement of the State. From the first, plantations had been laid out for the cultivation of tobacco, and some of the settlers had brought their