"Good lessons on every page, and this you may not get from another book, though I don't object to your reading other books, if you can get them."

"Perhaps some of the settlers in this region may have some books that I can borrow," said Mr. Lincoln. "I will remember it when I see any on 'em. Till then, Abe, the Bible will have to answer."

"And it will answer well, too," said his mother; "he can't read it too much, nor remember what he reads too long. Perhaps he 'll never have another opportunity to go to school, and he can read now pretty well, if he don't lose what he has learned.”

“I can read better now than I could when I stopped goin' to school," said Abraham, as if that was sufficient proof that he would not go backwards.

"I know that," answered his mother; "now you have got started, you can go along fast, and that's the reason I want you should read when you can."

"I don't want to read the Bible all the time; I want some other books, too."

"And I wish you had them; and perhaps the Lord will provide a way to get them." His mother was equally desirous with himself that he should read other books, but she did not want. he should undervalue the Word of God. She

was more anxious that he should think well of this volume than of all others. Hence her re marks concerning the Scriptures.

Abraham had improved remarkably since he left going to Mr. Hazel's school in Kentucky. He had read under his mother's eye, and with an earnest desire to learn, so that his progress was rapid, more so than his parents' counsel would seem to imply.

During the long winter evenings of that first winter in Indiana he read by the light of the fire only; for they could not afford the luxury of any other light in their cabin. This was true, very generally, of the pioneer families: they had no more than was absolutely necessary to supply their wants. They could exist without lamp-oil or candles, and so most of them did without either. They could afford the largest fire possible, since wood was so plenty that they studied to get rid of it. Hence the light of the fire was almost equal to a good chandelier. Large logs and branches of wood were piled, together in the fireplace and its mammoth blaze lighted up every nook and corner of the dwelling. Hence lamps were scarcely needed.

Once more we say to the reader, that Abraham's prospects were not very bright at that time. Living in a floorless log-cabin, beyond the limits of civilization, with poverty pressing heavily

upon him, and little expectation of changing his obscure condition for a better one, we can scarcely conceive of a more unpromising situation for a boy. Let the reader keep this in view.

THE

IX.

THE LUCKY SHOT.

HE winter passed away, and the spring brought forth the flowers. Mr. Lincoln was preparing to put his first seed into the soil of Indiana.

"I've been thinking," said his wife, "that our loss, when you upset on the Ohio River was all for the best. I think I can see it."

"Glad if you can," replied Mr. Lincoln, "you 're pretty good for seein' what nobody else can "; and he uttered this sentence rather thoughtlessly, as his mind was really absorbed in another subject.

"I don't know about that; but what in the world would you have done with all the whiskey, if we had not lost any of it in the river? Never could sell it all here, and what a job it would have been to get it here from the Ferry!

"Well, if I didn't sell it, we should be about as well off as we are now."

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Except the cost of getting the barrels here." "That would n't be much."

"Then there's the danger of the evil it might do. It's dangerous stuff any way, as the case of old Selby shows."

"I know that; but I don't fear for myself."

"Neither do I fear for you; but I was thinking of Abe. You know how it is with boys in these times, and how much misery whiskey makes in a great many families. And I can't help thinkin', that it is all for the best that most of it is in the river."

"I can't say but what it is; I hope it is. It makes mischief enough, if that's all; and if I dreamed it would make any in my family, I should wish that all of it was at the bottom of the river."

"You may as well be glad now; for we have less to fear; and perhaps the Lord thought it was best to put so much of it where it could n't injure no one."

"So be it, then; but I must go to my work. This weather is too fine to be lost in doin' nothin'. The stuff is all sold now, so that there is no fear on that score." He sold a barrel to Posey, the teamster, who hauled his goods from the Ferry, and the remainder he disposed of in the course of the winter."

Mr. Lincoln arose and went out to his work, and within ten minutes afterwards Abe came rushing into the cabin in a state of great excitement.

"Mother," he exclaimed, "there's a turkey right out here that I can shoot. See it there," and he directed her to look through a crack in the cabin where the clay had fallen off. "Let me shoot it,

mother."