| Show W ap 4 al r 4 ell 4 A pmj i j X ME 0 az imiri i the th things I 1 want to know are in books book my best beat friend Is the man git me a book I 1 I 1 aln aint t reada read A lincoln hi mam i 1111 1 1 14 i by dewitt J HE story of abraham lint coins thirst hirst for or knowledge ten e when he be was a boy growing up in his indiana home is one that Is in te resting to this day the farra arm boyaca boys in thet their evenings at jones store in Gentry gentryville ville t talked a I 1 k e d about how abe lincoln was always readi reading fig digging into books stretched out flat on his bis stomach in front froat of the fireplace fireplace studying till midnight and past midnight picking a piece of charcoal to write on the fire shovel shaving oft off what he wrote and then writing more till midnight and past midnight the next thing abe would be reading books between the plow handles it seemed to them and once trying to speak a last word dennis hanks banks said theres suthon pecullar some about abe ile he wanted to learn to know to live to reach out he wanted to satis batts fy ht hungers ingers and thirsts he tell about this big hoy boy of the backwoods and some of what he wanted so 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 hla his thoughts and the drifts of his mind ile he told dennis dennia and other people the things I 1 want to know are arc In lo 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 aa wildcats in these va parts ts ol 01 0 Ind lanny this was ont thing meant by dennis when he said there was buthla BUth ln pe cullar some about about abe it seemed that abe made the books tell him more than alian they told other people all ali the other farm boys boya had gone to school and read the kentucky preceptor but bat abe picked out questions from it such as who has the most right to complain the indian or the negro and abe would talk about it up uli one way and down the other while they were in the cornfield putting pulling fodder for the winter when abe got hold of a story hook book and rend read about a boat tant came sallie near at a magnetic rock and liow how the alie magnets in the rock pulled all the nails balls out of the bout boat so it went to ani the hie people in the hoat boat found themselves floundering in water abe thought it was funny and told it to other people after abe rend read poetry specially especially hobby bobby hums burns poems abe begun began writing rimes himself wh wb n abe sat with a girl wilh their bare feet in thee the creek reek water and she spoke of the moon rising lie explained to her it was the earth not the moon the woon moon only seemed to rise what lie ho got in the schools satisfy him he went to three different schools in indiana besides two in kentucky altogether about four months of school ile he learned hla his a b cs how to spell read write and he be had been with the other barefoot boya boy I 1 in butternut jeans learning man ners under the i schoolteacher school teacher an drew crawford Craw CrAvi tord ford who had them open a 4 door wax walk inland say howdy dol yet what hat he tasted of books ID lah 1 was only a b beginning eg Inning only made haq hungry and thirsty shook hook him with i 4 6 lw 71 it ma AL 97 at e W it 45 wanting of more and more of what was hidden between the covers of books he kept on saying the things I 1 want to know are in books my best friend la Is the man git me a book I 1 aint read besides reading the family bible and figuring his way all through the old arithmetic they had at home he got hold of aesoph Ae sops fables pilgrims 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 lie he read through the book a second and third time he had a feeling there were fables all around him that everything he touched and handled everything he saw and learnel 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 asking them it if they were strong enough to break it which they did easily then he handed them a bundle of sticks and asked them it if they were strong enough to break it and they tried their strength to the limit but could not dot break the bundle of sticks whereupon the farmer told them in union there Is strength the style of the dible of aesoph Ae sops fables the hearts and minds back of those houks books were much in ills thoughts alls favorite pages in them lie he read over and over behind such proy proverbs erbs as muzzle not tild the ox that hat tr eadeth out the corn and lie ile that ruleth lit his sown own spirit Is greater than liaci lie he that a city there wag a music of simple wisdom and a mystery of common everyday every day life that touched deep spots in him while out of the fables of the ancient greek slave lie he came to see that cats rats dogs horses plows hammers fingers toes people nil all had fables connected with their lives ilves characters places there was perhaps an outside for each thing as ag it stood alone while inside of it was its fable one book came titled tided the rhe life of george washington with curious anecdotes ec dotes equally honorable to himself and exemplary to ills his young countrymen Embel embellished listed with six steel engravings by M L weems formerly rector of mt vernon parish it pictured men of passion and proud I 1 ignorance branc in the th government of england 61 driving deg their country into war on the Ameri american eft colonies it quoted the far warning of chatham to the british parliament for gods sake then my lords let the way be ba instantly opened for reconciliation I 1 say instantly or it will be too late i forever the weems book reached some deep spots in the boy he asked himself what it if meant that men should march fight bleed go cold and hungry tor for the tha sake bake of what they called freedom few great men are great in every thing said this book boob and there was a cool sap eap in the passage delight was in that of the manliest sort which by stringing the limbs and swelling the muscles promotes the kindliest kind liest flow of bi jod and spirits at jumping with p a long pole or heaving heavy weights for hla his years he hardly had an equal such book talk was a comfort against the same thing ng over again day after day so many mornings the same kind of water from the same spring the same tried fried pork and corn meal to eat the same drizzle of rain spring plowing summer weeds fall fodder putting pulling each coming every year lincoln was thankful to the writer of aesoph Ae sops fables because that writer stood by him and walked with him an invisible companion when he pulled fodder or chopped wood books lighted lamps in the dark rooms of hla his gloomy hours well he would live on mai be the time would come when he would be free from work for a few weeks or a few months with books bonks and then he would read god then he would read then he would go and get tit at the proud secrets of his bis books ills fattier father would he be like hla his fattier when vilen he grew up H he hoped not why should shoud his father knock him off a fence rail when he was asking a neighbor passing by 4 question t j E even ven if it was a smart question too pert and too quick it was no way to handle a boy in front of a neighbor no he was going to be a man different from his father the books his father hated the books already abe knew more than his bis father he was waa writing letters for the neighbors they hunted out the lincoln farm to get young abe to find his bottle 0 of ink with blackberry brier root and copperas in it and his pen made from a turkey buzzards feather and write letters abe had it a suspicion sometimes his father was a littleproud to have a boy that could sprite letters and tell about things in books and out run ran andl and outwrestle oat wrestle and rough and tumble ay any boy or minin manin spencer county tes tea he would be different from his father he be anra fhi it be geleed h |
