Show 1111 esy LN r 4 11 c pt WU va 4 x LL 4 xa IX A tk al 7 11 1 1 I r 1 1 1 l l fl ft fr I 1 i i the things I 1 want to know are in books my best friend Is the man git flit me a book I 1 aint read reada A lincoln l l l 1 I 1 I 1 1 I 1 1 I l t H H HI 1 1 1 l by dewitt J MASON UE story of abraham lin coins thirst for or knowledge when he be was a boy growing up in his indiana home Is one that Is interesting te to tills this day the farm boys in their evenings at jones store in Centry ville talked 16 ij about how abe lincoln was waa always reading digging into books stretched out flat fiat on tits his stomach in front of the fireplace studying till midnight and past midnight night picking a piece of charcoal to write on the fire shovel shaving off what he wrote and then writing more till midnight and past midnight tiie the next tiling thing abe would be reading books between the plow handles to them and once trying loi to I 1 speak a last word dennis hanks said I 1 theres suthon pecullar some about abe lie he wanted to learn to know to if live ve to reach out he wanted to satisfy hungers and thirsts he tell about this big boy of the backwoods and some of what he wanted so BO much so deep down seemed to be in the books maybe in books he would find the answers to dark questions pushing around in the pools of his thoughts and the drifts of ills his mind ile he told dennis and other people the things I 1 want to know are in books my best friend is the man git me a book I 1 aint read and sometimes friends answered well books aint as plenty as wildcats in these parts 0 indianna Indi anny this was one thing meant by dennis when lie he said there was su euthin sut hla thin culiar cullar some about abe it seemed that abe made the books tell him more than they told other people all the other farm farin boys had gone to school and read the kentucky preceptor I 1 but abe picked filched out questions from it such euch as who has the most right to complain the indian or the negro and abe would talk about 14 it up one way and down the other while they were in the cornfield pulling odder fodder for the winter when abe got hold of 0 a story book and read about a boat that came near a magnetic rock and bow the magnets in the rock pulled all the balls out of the boat so it went to pieces and the people in tile the boat found themselves flounder floundering lUg in water abe thought it was funny and told it to other people after abe read poetry especially abby burns poems abe began writing rimes himself when abe sat with a girl with their bare feet in the creek water and slie she spoke of the moon rising lie he explained to lier her it was the earth not tile the moon the moon only seemed to rise what he be got in the schools school satisfy him ne ile went to three different schools in rn indiana diana besides two in kentucky altogether about four foul months of school lie ile learned ills hla tt a b cs how to ebell read write arid and be had been with the other barefoot boys in butternut jeans learning manners under the school teacher andrew crawford who had then them open a door walk in and say ray howdy do yet what he tasted of books in school was only a beginning only made blin hungry and thirsty shook him with a R 40 ica aw 6 1 11 1 1 M wanting of more and more of what was hidden between the covers of books I 1 ne le kept on saying the thin things I 1 want to know are in books my best friend Is the man who it git me a book I 1 aint read besides reading the family bible and figuring his way nil all through the old arithmetic they had at hole home he got hold 0 of aesoph Ae sops fables pilgrims ril grims progress robinson crusoe and weems the life of washington the book of fables written or collected thousands of years ago by the greek slave known as aesop sank deep in his mind As he rend read through the book a second and third time lie had a feeling there were fables all around him that everything he touched tou clied and handled everything he be saw and learned had a fable wrapped in it somewhere one fable was about a bundle of sticks and a farmer whose sons were quarreling and fighting instead of sticking together and the farmer took a bundle of sticks gave them each a stick slick asking them if they were strong enough to break it which they did easily then lie he handed them a bundle of sticks and asked them if they were strong enough to break it and they tried their strength to the limit but could not break the bundle of sticks whereupon the farmer fanner told them in union there Is strength this sty leof the bible of aesoph Ae sops fables the hearts and minds back of those books ave were e much in ls lis thoughts nis ills favorite pages in them lie read over and over behind such proverbs as manzle not the be ox os that tr eadeth out the corn and ile he that ruleth his own spirit Is greater than lie he that a city there was a music of simple wisdom and a mystery of common aery day life that touched deep spots in him while out of all the fables of the ancient greek creek slave lie ike came to see that cats ruts rats dogs horses plows harn hammers mers lingers fingers toes people all had fables connected with their lives characters places there was perhaps an outside tor for each thin as it stood alone while inside of it was its fable one book came titled the life or of george washington with curious anecdotes ec equally honorable to nim 1 i elf and exemplary to ills young countrymen embellished with six alc steel E engravings rig ravings by it L weems formerly rector of alt vernon parish it pictured men of passion and proud ignorance in the government of england driving their ther country into war on oil the american colonies it quoted the far warning of chatham to the british parliament for gols sake then my lords let the way be b instantly opened for reconciliation I 1 say instantly or it will be too late forever the beems book reached some deep spots in the boy lie ile naked asked himself what it meant that men should march light fight bleed go cold and hungry for or the sake of what they called freedom few great men are great in everything said this book and there was a cool sap in the passage delight was in that of the manliest sort bort which by stringing the limbs and swelling the muscles promotes the kindliest kind liest flow of blood and i spirits at jumping with a long pole or heaving heavy weights for Us hla years yeara he be hardly had an equal such book talk was a comfort against the same thing over again day after lay day so 50 many mornings the same kind of water from tile the same spring the same fried pork and corn meal to eat the same drizzle of rain spring plowing summer weeds fall fodder pulling each coming every year lincoln was thankful to the writer of aesoph Ae sops fables because that writer stood by bv him find and walked with him nn an invisible companion when he pulled fodder or chopped wood books lighted lamps in tile the dark rooms of hla his gloomy hours well he would live on tile time would come when lie lie free from work for a few weeks or a few months with books and then he would read god then lie he would read then lie he would go arid and get at the proud secrets of ills his books ills fattier would he be like hla his father fathe r when alit n lie grew up lie ile hoped not why should his father knock beirl off a fence rail ak ahen ben lie was asking a neighbor nels libor passing by ft a question uen it if it was a smart question too pert and too quick it was no do way to handle a licy boy in front of a neigh bor vo no lie was ans going to be a man mail citi ferent from roin his father the books ills his father hated the books already abe more thin than his father lie he was waa writing letters for the they hunted out oat the lincoln farm to get young abe to flail find ills his bottle of ink with blackberry brier root and cop parag in it and his pen mado made from a turkey buzzards feather feat lier and write letters abe had a suspicion sometimes his father was a little proud to have a boy that could write letters and tell about things la in books and outrun and outwrestle and rough and tumble any boy or man in spencer county yes he would be different from his father he was as already so it be helped |