Abraham’s devotion to his books and his sums stands forth in more striking light from the fact that his habits differed from those of most frontier boys in one important particular.  Almost every youth of the backwoods early became a habitual hunter and superior marksman.  The Indiana woods were yet swarming with game, and the larder of every cabin depended largely upon this great storehouse of wild meat.[2] The Pigeon Creek settlement was especially fortunate on this point.  There was in the neighborhood of the Lincoln home what was known in the West as a deer-lick—­that is, there existed a feeble salt-spring, which impregnated the soil in its vicinity or created little pools of brackish water—­and various kinds of animals, particularly deer, resorted there to satisfy their natural craving for salt by drinking from these or licking the moist earth.  Hunters took advantage of this habit, and one of their common customs was to watch in the dusk or at night, and secure their approaching prey by an easy shot.  Skill with the rifle and success in the chase were points of friendly emulation.  In many localities the boy or youth who shot a squirrel in any part of the animal except its head became the butt of the jests of his companions and elders.  Yet, under such conditions and opportunities Abraham was neither a hunter nor a marksman.  He tells us: 

“A few days before the completion of his eighth year, in the absence of his father, a flock of wild turkeys approached the new log cabin, and Abraham, with a rifle gun, standing inside, shot through a crack and killed one of them.  He has never since pulled a trigger on any larger game.”

 [Footnote 2:  Franklin points out how much this resource of the
 early Americans contributed to their spirit of independence by
 saying: 

 “I can retire cheerfully with my little family into the boundless
 woods of America, which are sure to afford freedom and subsistence
 to any man who can bait a hook or pull a trigger.”

 (See “The Century Magazine,” “Franklin as a Diplomatist,” October,
 1899, p. 888.)]

The hours which other boys spent in roaming the woods or lying in ambush at the deer-lick, he preferred to devote to his effort at mental improvement.  It can hardly be claimed that he did this from calculating ambition.  It was a native intellectual thirst, the significance of which he did not himself yet understand.  Such exceptional characteristics manifested themselves only in a few matters.  In most particulars he grew up as the ordinary backwoods boy develops into the youth and man.  As he was subjected to their usual labors, so also he was limited to their usual pastimes and enjoyments.