Once he thought he would like to read all the books in the city library.  He read for a long time, but he found that he could not finish all the books.  He then made up his mind that one would have to live a thousand years in order to read all the books in that library, so he gave up the idea.

One day he bought a book on electricity.  Soon after that the basement of his home was filled with many odd things.  He used a stovepipe to connect his home with that of another boy, and through this the boys could talk when they wished.

A kind friend taught young Edison how to telegraph, and in five months he could operate well and was given a position.  He worked very hard, night and day, so that he could learn all he could about electricity.  He lost place after place because he was always trying some new idea.  When he first proposed to send four messages on one wire at the same time, he was laughed at by the people; but Edison succeeded.  Later on he invented the phonograph.  His greatest invention is the incandescent light, which is used for lighting purposes.

Mr. Edison loves his work, and although he is now a very wealthy man, he keeps on inventing and working every day.  It is said that he sometimes works for twenty-four hours, day and night, without food or rest, until he has perfected some new invention.  Mr. Edison is a true type of an American gentleman.

SELECTION XVII

  OFT IN THE STILLY NIGHT

  Oft in the stilly night,
    Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
  Fond memory brings the light
    Of other days around me;
    The smiles, the tears
    Of boyhood’s years,
  The words of love then spoken;
    The eyes that shone,
    Now dimm’d and gone,
  The cheerful hearts now broken. 
  Thus in the stilly night,
    Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
  Sad memory brings the light
    Of other days around me.

  When I remember all
    The friends, so linked together,
  I’ve seen around me fall,
    Like leaves in wintry weather,
    I feel like one
    Who treads alone
  Some banquet hall deserted,
    Whose lights are fled,
    Whose garlands dead,
  And all but he departed. 
  Thus in the stilly night,
    Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
  Sad memory brings the light
    Of other days around me.

  Thomas Moore.

LESSON LIX

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Abraham Lincoln, the restorer of the Union, the sixteenth president of the United States, was born in Kentucky on the twelfth of February, 1809.  His father was a typical backwoodsman, and young Lincoln grew up among frontier surroundings.  The Lincoln family came originally from Pennsylvania.  At a later period the Lincolns moved south to Virginia, and again they migrated to Kentucky.  It was here that the grandfather of Abraham Lincoln lost his life in a battle with the Indians.