drew." The laugh was on the boastful and discomfited
Larkins.

TRYING TO TEACH ASTRONOMY TO A YOUNG GIRL

Abe's efforts were not always so well received, for he was sometimes
misunderstood. The neighbors used to think the Lincoln boy was secretly
in love with Kate Roby, the pretty girl he had helped out of a dilemma
in the spelling class. Several years after that episode, Abe and Kate
were sitting on a log, about sunset, talking:

"Abe," said Kate, "the sun's goin' down."

"Reckon not," Abe answered, "we're coming up, that's all."

"Don't you s'pose I got eyes?"

"Yes, I know you have; but it's the earth that goes round. The sun
stands as still as a tree. When we're swung round so we can't see it any
more, the light's cut off and we call it night."

"What a fool you are, Abe Lincoln!" exclaimed Kate, who was not to blame
for her ignorance, for astronomy had never been taught in Crawford's
school.

THE EARLY DEATH OF SISTER NANCY

While brother and sister were working for "Old Blue Nose," Aaron
Grigsby, "Nat's" brother, was "paying attention" to Nancy Lincoln. They
were soon married. Nancy was only eighteen. When she was nineteen Mrs.
Aaron Grigsby died. Her love for Abe had almost amounted to idolatry. In
some ways she resembled him. He, in turn, was deeply devoted to his only
sister.

The family did not stay long at Pigeon Creek after the loss of Nancy,
who was buried, not beside her mother, but with the Grigsbys in the
churchyard of the old Pigeon Creek meeting-house.

EARNING HIS FIRST DOLLAR

Much as Abraham Lincoln had "worked out" as a hired man, his father kept
the money, as he had a legal right to do, not giving the boy any of the
results of his hard labor, for, strong as he was, his pay was only
twenty-five or thirty cents a day. Abe accepted this as right and
proper. He never complained of it.

After he became President, Lincoln told his Secretary of State the
following story of the first dollar he ever had for his own:

"Seward," he said, "did you ever hear how I earned my first dollar?"
"No," replied Seward. "Well," said he, "I was about eighteen years of
age . . . and had constructed a flatboat. . . . A steamer was going down
the river. We have, you know, no wharves on the western streams, and
the custom was, if passengers were at any of the landings they had to
go out in a boat, the steamer stopping and taking them on board. I
was contemplating my new boat, and wondering whether I c