The boy Lincoln

Front matter

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Preface

There is a wonderful romance in the early life of Abraham Lincoln. It is worth anybody's while to study the beginnings of such a career and examine the first steps made toward the greatness which was to come. Only a few months before I became acquainted with him, I was living in just such a log house as he built for his father in Illinois and but a few miles north of it. Both were larger and better than the cabin in the Indiana backwoods, but each had just such a puncheon floor as Abe's step-mother made Tom Lincoln put down on her arrival. There were ten miles of open prairie between me and the nearest fenced settlement, and all the Embarrass River timber near at hand contained but one Yankee. The other settlers were all from Kentucky, southern Indiana and Ohio, altogether such neighbors as were his own around Gentryville. With all features of their character and life I became so familiar that it sometimes seems as if I had lived where he did.

I wish that those who may read this story might understand him better and then read on through the grand history of his life till they know why those

v

PREFACE

who were associated with him obtained such exalted ideas of him. During the years of my experience with him in the White House, it seemed to me as if his tall form grew taller all the while; and now, as I look back through the mists of memoiy and a half century of time, to our first meeting in my editorial room, he appears gigantic and I almost doubt if he ever did really get into so small a place and sit down with me to discuss our county politics.

I have carefully avoided bringing into this narrative imaginaiy places or occurrences or individuals, and if old man Sansom is to be called an exception to the rule, it may be replied that no man can live long on the frontier or in the backwoods without meeting his counterpart and hearing him say, " I knowed a man, once "

There is here a lesson of possible development, advancement, uplifting, which is invaluable. It is peculiarly American and should become familiar to every boy or girl in the Republic for which he did and suffered so much and so unselfishly. Therefore I am going to send out my little book and ask them to go into the Indiana clearing with me and hoar Abe talk with old man Sansom and listen to the debates of the parliament that held its important sessions in Gentry's grocery.

William 0. Stoddard. vi

Contents

CHAPTER PAGK

I. — The Neighbors 1

II. — Great Comfort 18

Chapter I

HERE were about thirty acres of land upon which there were no trees. All around this patch the forest was unbroken. On the southerly side were many stumps to tell of ax work, and the remainder was one of the natural " opens " which are always so eagerly sought for by frontiersmen, because it is as if there was just so much weary chopping already done and the stumps pulled out. In among the stumps, but not at all concealed, were two rude structures made of untrimmed logs. One of these was only a long, low shed, with a front composed of poles and slabs of bark. This was what some of the Western people called a " half-faced camp," and others a " pole shelter." The other building was a well-made log house, about twenty feet by thirty, with a splitshingle roof. On the farther side of it was a huge chimney, made of sticks and tempered clay, but as yet, that frosty morning, no smoke from its blackened nose was rising above the roof-peak. Opposite the chimney and in the middle of the house-front there was a doorway, and on either side of this were wide, square holes for windows, but these had in them neither sash nor glass.

Just as a faint glimmer of coming light began to grow among the eastern tree tops, a framework of planks inside the doorway swung slowly back, and beyond this the sound of shrill young voices was heard, cheerily answering one another. It had required the strength of two young borderers to lift and swing back that door, and one of them stepped quickly out and glanced in all directions around him. If he were only ten, he was a tall boy for his age, and somewhat slender. His dark, bushy hair was partly hidden by a brimless coonskin cap, which seemed to add something or other to the expression of merry good-humor upon his sunburned face. As to the rest of his outfit, he did not appear to have anything on him which had not originally been part of the wearing apparel of some luckless deer. However well his buckskin shirt and leggings had been constructed by a backwoods tailor, they were now a good deal the worse for wear. As to warmth and comfort, they would have been well enough at some other season of the year, but were hardly the thing for frosty weather. The moccasins on his feet came half-way up the ankles, and seemed to be made of pretty thick deer leather.

" Hard frost, Dennis," he said. " It a'most looks as if thar had been a fall o' snow. Keckon deer 'd leave a good trail, this mornin'."

" It wouldn't do us any good if they did," replied Dennis, from beyond the doorway. " Wish we had a gun ! "

" Abe ! Abe ! " called out a girl's voice from within, " what we want first is a bucket of water. Don't let's poke up the fire till we git one."

"All right," said Abe. "The bucket's right here by the door. Come on."

Dennis was no taller than Abe, but he was 3 broader shouldered and may have been older. The third member of that household to come out in sight was not more than twelve years old. She was a great deal better-looking than either of the others, without being at all better dressed ; that is, her moccasins were in fair condition, but her woolen frock was in need of darning in several places. Her head was bare, and her rippling brown hair fell down over her shoulders.

When Abe had picked up his bucket and the three walked away together, the house behind them was all alone.

The land, upon which there were no trees, including that upon which there were stumps, lay in low ridges which told of the plow. At regular intervals along the ridges the white carpet of frost was pierced by the stiff-looking yellow stumps which are left behind by the corn-cutter. There were no other signs of any cropping on that small farm.

The three were following a well-trodden pathway. It led away to the eastward, almost into the forest. Not quite, for here at its edge was a long, narrow level, the face of which looked as if a great pane of polished glass, with ragged borders, were gloomily waiting for the sunlight to come over the tree tops and enable it and its neighboring frostfaces to glimmer and smile. There was no spring here, for no rivulet flowed away from the pool, but much rain-water had drained into this hollow and it had become a natural cistern, such as was needed by people who had no other and had digged no well.

The young people halted at the edge of the ice, and Abe put down his bucket to take another long look around him and to remark :

" I say, Sis, don't you be skeered. But didn't old man Sansoin tell how the redskins used to come an' watch at sech places as this? They'd skulk in bushes, like them over yonder, an' draw a bead on you while you were fillin' your bucket. Then they'd come 'round an' take your skelp an' git away with it. Ain't you glad they're gone'?"

" Oo-oogh ! " shuddered Sis. " I wish he wouldn't tell any more awful stories. But our folks killed 'em off for it, anyway."

" So tliey did," almost whispered back Abe. " But, Nancy, keep still ! You an' Dennis, both. Look yonder — 'cross the pool — 'naong the sumacs ! "

There was a dense growth of bushes on the farther margin of the sheet of ice. Away out over them stretched the leafless branches of the giant oaks, with a protective expression, although no sumac-bush was ever the child of any oak. The previous summer had been one of prosperity for that copse. The red " bobs " were numerous, and the frost had brought out all their brilliancy of color, while it had not lessened the yellow tints of such remnants of foliage as still clung to the wide arms of the forest monarchs.

" Hush-sh ! " whispered Nancy. " I see 'em ! Keep still, Denny ! "

There were three faces which were almost out from the cover of the bushes; three forms which were as motionless as those of Nancy herself and her two companions. That was only for a moment, and then they gently nudged one another, as if they were pointing across the ice and saying something about the water-carriers from the log house. One of them, in the middle, was a very handsome fellow, and he was large for one of his family, although his antlers told for him that he was only five years old. Once more he stood still, while the two does on either side of him drew closer till they touched him, as if to remind him that he was their protector, in case there might be any danger to them in the three other wild creatures at whom they were staring.

" Buck an' two does," muttered Abe. " Don't I wish I had a rifle ! But father took his with him, all the way to Kentucky. Good short range."

" Oh, don't kill 'em ! " said Nancy ; " they're too pretty."

"Can't!" grumbled Abe. "But I could, if I had a gun."

" Don't believe you could hit 'em," said Dennis doubtfully.

The buck stood quite fearlessly, and may have

been under the impression that he had not been

seen. No one could have told him that the family

rifle had just then gone visiting. The fact is that

as to deer and their perceptions concerning hunters a 7 there is do authentic record. They will sometimes expose themselves recklessly without any apparent reason. Other animals are strangely careless at times. It has been declared by a multitude of intelligent farmers that the crow alone will never allow a man with a gun to come anywhere near him. If, indeed, the man will lay down his gun and walk away from it, or if he has accidentally left his ammunition at home, the dark- winged cornstealer will be more neighborly. There have been endless arguments as to the manner in which he determines the precise range of any shotgun, and whether or not it is loaded.

The buck and his companions continued to look on in silence, while Abe broke the thin ice with a stick and filled his rude bucket with water. So little did they appear to be alarmed, in fact, that one of the does began to nibble at a sumac bob, and the other went back a step or two and picked at the red berries of a mountain-ash. Abe put down his bucket to watch them, and remarked:

" Pve heard tell about that. It's one way the deer git thar livin', all winter long. They'll eat twigs, too, an' they'll scratch away the snow from any place whar thar's a bunch o' grass under it."

" Why," objected Nancy, " they couldn't see the grass."

" Yes, they can," said Abe, " right through the snow. An' father says a buck'll stand an' keep watch while the does eat up the fodder."

" But how does he git his own dinner? " asked Nancy.

" Oh," replied Abe, with a chuckle, " he says the old coon's only playin' sharp. He watches, an' then he goes round an' scoops all the rest o' the grass the does have been uncoverin' for him. They'll scratch the snow in a dozen places. Saves him heaps o' work."

There was hardly any wind blowing. There rarely is, near the roots of the trees in a great forest, whatever gusts may be driving overhead. In the summer-time, when the foliage is thick, one may often lie on the ground in an almost undisturbed stillness, unless a hurricane should upset a heavy trunk upon him. Nevertheless the air was bracing, and the young water-carriers were quite willing to pick up their bucket and walk off with it toward the house. Nancy lingered for one more glance at the pretty brown faces among the sumacs, but at that moment the buck tossed his antlered head and the does wheeled gracefully to spring away with him into the forest. They had seen enough for one morning, and it might be best for them to go and break the ice in some other pool. At least they had no fires to build, if their breakfasts were yet to come, and that was what their human neighbors were now thinking of.

" If we'd only jest set it goin' ! " said Nancy regretfully.

" Never mind," replied Abe ; " I reckon it'll come up, quick enough. We covered heaps o' red coals last evenin'."

There was an important feature of border housekeeping hidden in that statement concerning fire that was smothered under a heap of ashes. Not in all that forest, down to the Ohio River, sixteen miles away southerly, nor beyond it, could there have been found one box of good lucifer matches that morning. As for going northward after one, there were no settlements of any importance between that small clearing and the shores of the great lakes. All was a wilderness, into which matches had not yet intruded, for the entire new State contained not more than a hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants. In every cabin, therefore, the fire when once kindled had to be kept up perpetually, like the Sacred Fire of the Six Nations in their Council-house among the Onondagas. Wise men have studied and written concerning the origin and meaning of that mystic and wonderful Sacred Fire, not thinking deeply enough to put themselves in mind of how many other fires, in how many wigwams, were from day to day, year to year, continually kindled from that central blaze. It was but a sort of National Treasury of carefully preserved combustion.

The heap of ashes on the hearth in the log cabin had a cold look on its face when the children came in. Abe and Dennis put down the bucket inside the door, but Nancy darted ahead of them and began very gently to shave away ashes from the top of the heap.

" Hold on ! " said Abe. " I'll fetch in some birch bark; hickory, too. We'll have a fire, soon enough. Don't blow it till I come."

Out he went, and it was but a few steps to a liberal wood-pile, on one side of which lay a heap of bark and small branches. Dennis had followed him for an armful of larger wood, and in less than a minute they also were stooping over the ashes. More were scraped away, and Abe exclaimed :

" It's kept first-rate. Look at those coals ! It'll come up."

There they were, plenty of them, and as their gray blanket was removed, so that they could obtain a breath of the morning air, they all woke up, with red and healthy faces. Nancy blew them hard, and more color came into their cheeks and her own. Some of them even sent out angry sparkles, as if they resented being disturbed from their quiet slumbers. The bits of dry bark were deftly laid in place, and now there was no need for any more blowing, so speedily did the yellow flames dance upward. More bark went on, some small branches, and then Abe sprang to his feet, exclaiming :

" Thar ! That'll do. Nancy, you stir up the pone, while he an' I go for a back-log. You'd better let me cut the bacon."

" I'll do that," said Dennis. " I can cut it better'n you can."

"No, you can't," said Abe; "you always cut it too thick."

Out they went to the wood-pile, and here there was a selection to be made, on consultation. They agreed, and the cut of oak which was to serve as a backlog for the fire was one which had been chopped off by stronger hands than theirs. It was a bit of fuel which was to be rolled to its place rather than carried. It was easy enough to get it in front of the fireplace and take away the andirons, but then there still remained a kind of problem in log-house engineering as to the manner in which so heavy a weight was to be put away back without crushing out the very life of that now joyous and healthy fire. Both of the boys, however, had seen that thing done, for they now brought out of a corner a couple of short, strong poles, which they skilfully employed as levers. Under the log went the poles, and then both skill and strength went into one long, hard-breathing lift.

" Thar she goes ! " shouted Abe. " That'll burn all day an' all night. Now we'll put in the irons and go for a forestick."

Whack up against the backlog went the andirons, and, shortly, in came a smaller cut which was still heavy enough to require prying with the levers. Here was therefore a good foundation, and all sorts of smaller firewood might be heaped upon it at pleasure. At the same time all the coals which remained, with others which were rapidly making, were carefully poked out to the front, for it was getting hungrily near breakfast-time, and the cabin cookery was yet to be done. Part of it had already begun, for Nancy had climbed upon a table in a corner to bring down a large earthenware bowl, and into this, with an iron spoon, she had ladled a quantity of Indian corn-meal from a bag under the table. This itself consisted of four forked stakes driven into the ground, crosspieces on the stakes, and on these three sawed planks, all unplaned. Into the meal Nancy had sifted a little salt, she had poured on water from the bucket, she had stirred vigorously, and now the pone was standing to soak until its time should come for further treatment. Against the wall near the table hung several flitches of bacon, a good-looking ham and a shoulder ; and Abe, with Dennis watching him, was now at work with a butcher-knife cutting long slices from one of the flitches. He made the slices thin, but liberal, for he knew about what might be done with them by himself and his two assistants.

The bed of coals was now a good one, and on it Dennis had placed a long-handled sheet-iron saucepan, which heated so quickly that the fragrant pork began to hiss and sizzle the moment the slices were laid down. The whole house took on a different air, one of comfort, as soon as that smoke began to rise and float around. Any part of it which might choose to do so was free to go out at the door, for none of them had thought of closing it. The windows were still closed by wooden shutters, which hung from leather strap hinges above and were secured at the bottoms by leather catches, so that no midnight burglar could break in — not without a shove strong enough to break that deerskin. All the light in the room came in at the door, but there was enough of it, for the sun was now well up, and his pleasant rays were shining brightly among the tops of the forest trees, to tell of the coming day. It would be a good while before he could climb high enough to shine down upon the ice of the pool, or to look in at the hole in the front of the cabin.

The fire was now going so well that it was warm work to stand near enough to turn the bacon so it would be done on both sides. At last it was cooked finely and was spooned off, so that its place in the saucepan might be taken by spats of corn pone, deftly sleighted in by Nancy, with one hand shielding her pretty face from the fire. She was not dark and sallow, like her brother Abe. There were roses in her cheeks, and there was a perpetual laugh lurking away back in her bright blue eyes.

There were other plates to which the cakes and bacon might be carried, but there was no breakfasttable in that house. Instead of one, there was an affair which may have been planned for a frontier sofa, but which would do to lay plates on. A verywide slab of black walnut had been smoothed on its flat side. Into its other side auger-holes had been bored to receive crooked wooden legs, of nearly but not quite the same lengths, and the table, or sofa, had received no further improvements. At all events, it was not likely to break down, and the three housekeepers were soon gathered around it. The fact was that almost precisely such a morning meal was at that hour being prepared in thousands of frontier houses, and eaten without butter, sugar, or milk.

Chapter II

HE fire was dancing merrily, and more sticks had been put on, for the one luxury which was almost unstinted at that homestead was first-rate firewood. The room was warm, and there was even light enough, although the shutters over the window-holes had not been lifted. Breakfast was over and Nancy was clearing away the dishes. Two of the plates were of pewter, and another was of earthenware. There were also glimpses of shining tin upon the shelf, and there was a big, sheet-iron " Dutch oven " in a corner. The floor looked as if a little sweeping would do it no harm, but it did not get any. It consisted of pounded clay, which had been hardened by time and by the treading of many feet until it was as hard as " adobe," if not quite so smooth. The chairs upon which the children had been seated were tliree-legged stools, which were strong enough to uphold the heaviest person. When a log of wood is split through lengthwise and the faces of the halves are trimmed flat, they become " puncheons," and are available for a variety of purposes. The tables and chairs in this house were all made from puncheons.

" Come on, Denny," said Abe ; " it's time for you an' me to go an' feed the shoats. Jest hear 'em squeal ! "

" Reckon I heard 'em callin' for corn," replied Dennis ; " but they can go down to the pool an' root for their own water."

" They don't care to wallow in it in wintertime, anyhow," said Abe. " Father says he'll have it railed in before spring. Then the shoats'll have to go all the way to the other pool."

" That's what we may have to do, if this one dries up," said Nancy, " but I do jest hope it won't. What we need is a spring or a well."

The time for that clearing to own so great an improvement as a deep hole in the earth, with a windlass and a bucket, had evidently not yet come, and the nearest running water was almost a mile from the house.

Abe and Dennis set out at once in the direction of the impatient summons which was now sounding incessantly. It came from away at the left, in the edge of the woods, and the path to it carried them past the second specimen of forest architecture which had been seen from the pool. It was a curious affair. The roof was almost as good as that of the house itself. Three sides had been roughly made of logs, but the front, of bark and poles and slabs, appeared to tell that the builders had been in a hurry or had wearied of so much heavy log-work. There was an open doorway in the middle, but windows there were none, and there was no chimney. If ever a fire had been kindled inside of that thing, instead of out in front of the door, the smoke had to find its own way out. The pole-shelter promised protection from the weather, but no comfort, unless it might be for a picnic party in summer. It was only a little better than such " camps " as trappers and hunters were in the habit of constructing for the headquarters of considerable parties who were not going home very soon.

" That's where aunt an' uncle Sparrow used to live, before the milk-sick came," said Abe thoughtfully. " They're gone, now. So is mother."

Dennis made no reply whatever, but Abe turned his head as he walked on and seemed to be looking away off among the trees. He could not see them, but at no great distance, hidden from him by the tree trunks, were three low mounds of earth upon which the frost was resting whitely. That these mounds were there accounted for the fact that neither the log house nor the pole-shelter contained at this time a father or a mother, and that the three children were alone in the woods.

" Come on, Abe ! " shouted Dennis. " Jest look at 'em ! "

The shoats, as he called them, were about thirty in number, besides a lot of smaller ones. Any four-legged hog may aspire to that title if he is big enough to kill; but a human being has been known to consider it a grave offense when another called him a shoat. Those that were here were making all this fuss around an octagonal structure of chestnut rails about fifteen feet high. A little farther on was another like it, and beyond that another. The reason why the squealers were here, and not there, though all were full of corn, was that for the present this was the crib from which they were in the habit of receiving their morning and evening supplies. Whenever this should disappear, they would transfer their hopes and their squealing. In putting up such a crib, it is only necessary to fence in the ground breast-high at first. When that hollow is filled up, more rails may be put on, successively, until the walls are too high to pitch corn over them easily from a wagon, or until the corn on hand is all in. In like manner, the upper rails may be dropped off as the corn is fed out. It is the most complete and readily made corn-crib in all the world, with the one defect that it is open at the bottom for any kind of corn-eating animal which can burrow under or squeeze in between the rails, or that can gnaw in the soft chestnut wood, or any other, a hole large enough to let him out after he has eaten his dinner and increased his size. There are many marauders with these capacities in the neighborhood of all Western cornfields.

The two boys went up the side of the corn-crib like a pair of squirrels, and in a moment more their cloven-footed charges were contending with one another for the first long, yellow ears that were thrown to them. They were a long-nosed, high-backed company, of the kind that in after-times, when improved stock began to come in, received the ugly name of " timber-sharks." It was, indeed, a number of long years before shoats received any better care than this. During spring and summer they were permitted to range the woods for a living ; in the autumn they might even grow fat upon beechnuts and acorns, but only such favored individuals as were penned up for " fall killing " received any corn before winter. There was one curious consequence of this kind of farming. While in a state of nature, uninvaded by white settlers, the Western wilderness abounded with snakes. Among these were the large "timber rattlesnakes," that never came out on the prairies ; and with them were their 3 23 cousins, the copperheads. There were also massauga rattlesnakes, shorter and of a different color, that preferred the prairie, and were rarely found in the woods. Black snakes, milk snakes, adders, and other varieties were in liberal supply, but they all were soon to become things of the past. They were to vanish like the red men themselves, and the land they had lived in was to become almost as free of reptiles as Ireland is said to be. It is not that a shoat has any kind of innate enmity for a serpent, but that one is to him a kind of delicacy. He will root for one, chase him down, dance on him in the strangest manner until he is dead, and then, copperhead or massauga, will tear him up and eat him as if he were something better than oysters. It is said that no hog was ever known to be hurt by a snake-bite. At all events, one of the oddest sights to be anywhere obtained is that of an excited porker, back arched high and bristling, eyes flashing, teeth clashing, fiercely grunting, and springing up and down to strike a wriggling, struggling serpent with his sharp-rimmed hoofs.