he had an
abundance of work and earned fair wages, hopeful of being admitted
in a few months to the bar, a member of the State Assembly with every
reason to believe that, if he desired it, his constituency would
return him--few men are as far advanced at twenty-six as was Abraham
Lincoln.

Intellectually he was far better equipped than he believed himself to
be, better than he has ordinarily been credited with being. True,
he had had no conventional college training, but he had by his own
efforts attained the chief result of all preparatory study, the
ability to take hold of a subject and assimilate it. The fact that in
six weeks he had acquired enough of the science of surveying to enable
him to serve as deputy surveyor shows how well-trained his mind was.
The power to grasp a large subject quickly and fully is never an
accident. The nights Lincoln spent in Gentryville lying on the floor
in front of the fire figuring on the fire-shovel, the hours he passed
in poring over the Statutes of Indiana, the days he wrestled with
Kirkham's Grammar, alone made the mastery of Flint and Gibson
possible. His struggle with Flint and Gibson made easier the volumes
he borrowed from Major Stuart's law library.

[Illustration: GRAVE OF ANN RUTLEDGE IN OAKLAND CEMETERY.

From a photograph made for McCLURE'S MAGAZINE by C.S. McCullough,
Petersburg, Illinois, in September, 1895. On the 15th of May, 1890,
the remains of Ann Rutledge were removed from the long-neglected grave
in the Concord grave-yard to a new and picturesque burying-ground a
mile southwest of Petersburg, called Oakland cemetery. The old grave,
though marked by no stone, was easily identified from the fact that
Ann was buried by the side of her younger brother, David, who died in
1842, upon the threshold of what promised to be a brilliant career
as a lawyer. The removal was made by Samuel Montgomery, a prominent
business man of Petersburg. He was accompanied to the grave by James
McGrady Rutledge and a few others, who located the grave beyond doubt.
In the new cemetery, the grave occupies a place somewhat apart from
others. A young maple tree is growing beside it, and it is marked
by an unpolished granite stone bearing the simple inscription "Ann
Rutledge."--_J. McCan Davis._]

Lincoln had a mental trait which explains his rapid growth in
mastering subjects--seeing clearly was essential to him. He was
unable to put a question aside until he understood it. It pursued hi