ft-en ver-y cold. It was not an eas-y life, and it was
full of hard work, for peo-ple in this rough place could not read and
there were no schools; but when he was still a young boy his folks moved
to In-di-an-a, and though there was more work to be done, life was not
quite so sad, for he and his sis-ter Nan-cy now had a play-mate, their
cous-in, Den-nis Hanks, who was full of life and fun. "Abe," as folks
called him, was but eight years old when his par-ents went out into the
West to live, but he was so strong that he could help chop down the
trees of which the new home was made; then, too, he learned how to shoot
the game and wild fowl in the big woods, and so could bring good things
in-to the house to eat. But a dark time came in his life soon, for the
kind, good moth-er took sick and died. Her death was a great loss to
"Abe," and he felt much grief that there was no one to say a pray-er at
her grave; so he wrote to the min-is-ter in the old home in Ken-tuck-y,
and asked him if he would not come there and bless his moth-er's grave.
This good man came as soon as he could, but it was a long while af-ter
her death be-fore "Abe" had his wish. That win-ter was long and hard for
the poor lit-tle boy and girl with no moth-er to see that they were
warm, or that they had good food to eat; but in the fall of 1819, the
fa-ther brought home a new wife, Mrs. Sal-ly John-son and now at last a
ray of bright light came to stay with "Abe" and Nan-cy. The new moth-er
was a good, kind wo-man, and was quite rich for those days. She soon had
the home bright and neat; she put good warm clothes on "Abe" and Nan-cy;
saw that they had food to eat and at once sent them to school.

"Abe" was now e-lev-en years old, tall and big, and of more strength
than most boys of his age. His fa-ther hired him out for all sorts of
work; to pitch hay, to chop wood, to help on the farm; no work was too
hard for this big, strong boy; but, with all this work, he kept at his
books too. Late at night, while all the rest slept, he would stud-y his
books; and as books were few he read them ma-ny times o-ver; one of the
books he loved the most was the "Life of Wash-ing-ton."

He was a young man, for it was in March, 1828, that a chance came to him
to see more of life; he was hired to take a boat filled with skins down
the Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er to New Or-le-ans; he did this work well, and
when he came back was paid a good price for it. He was just of age when
his fo