As soon as little Abraham Lincoln was old enough to understand, his mother read stories to him from the Bible.  Then, while he was still very young, she taught him to read the stories for himself.

The neighbors thought it a wonderful thing that so small a boy could read.  There were very few of them who could do as much.  Few of them thought it of any great use to learn how to read.

There were no school-houses in that part of Kentucky in those days, and of course there were no public schools.

One winter a traveling schoolmaster came that way.  He got leave to use a cabin not far from Mr. Lincoln’s, and gave notice that he would teach school for two or three weeks.  The people were too poor to pay him for teaching longer.

The name of this schoolmaster was Zachariah Riney.

The young people for miles around flocked to the school.  Most of them were big boys and girls, and a few were grown up young men.  The only little child was Abraham Lincoln, and he was not yet five years old.

There was only one book studied at that school, and it was a spelling-book.  It had some easy reading lessons at the end, but these were not to be read until after every word in the book had been spelled.

You can imagine how the big boys and girls felt when Abraham Lincoln proved that he could spell and read better than any of them.

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II.—­WORK AND SORROW.

In the autumn, just after Abraham Lincoln was eight years old, his parents left their Kentucky home and moved to Spencer county, in Indiana.

It was not yet a year since Indiana had become a state.  Land could be bought very cheap, and Mr. Lincoln thought that he could make a good living there for his family.  He had heard also that game was plentiful in the Indiana woods.

It was not more than seventy or eighty miles from the old home to the new.  But it seemed very far, indeed, and it was a good many days before the travelers reached their journey’s end.  Over a part of the way there was no road, and the movers had to cut a path for themselves through the thick woods.

The boy, Abraham, was tall and very strong for his age.  He already knew how to handle an ax, and few men could shoot with a rifle better than he.  He was his father’s helper in all kinds of work.

It was in November when the family came to the place which was to be their future home.  Winter was near at hand.  There was no house, nor shelter of any kind.  What would become of the patient, tired mother, and the gentle little sister, who had borne themselves so bravely during the long, hard journey?

No sooner had the horses been loosed from the wagon than Abraham and his father were at work with their axes.  In a short time they had built what they called a “camp.”

This camp was but a rude shed, made of poles and thatched with leaves and branches.  It was enclosed on three sides, so that the chill winds or the driving rains from the north and west could not enter.  The fourth side was left open, and in front of it a fire was built.