became
the owner of the delightful book.

He read the story of Washington many times over. He carried the book
with him to the field, and read it while he was following the plow.

From that time, Washington was the one great hero whom he admired. Why
could not he model his own life after that of Washington? Why could not
he also be a doer of great things for his country?

* * * * *

V.--LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS.

Abraham Lincoln now set to work with a will to educate himself. His
father thought that he did not need to learn anything more. He did not
see that there was any good in book-learning. If a man could read and
write and cipher, what more was needed?

But the good step-mother thought differently; and when another short
term of school began in the little log school-house, all six of the
children from the Lincoln cabin were among the scholars.

In a few weeks, however, the school had closed; and the three boys were
again hard at work, chopping and grubbing in Mr. Lincoln's clearings.
They were good-natured, jolly young fellows, and they lightened their
labor with many a joke and playful prank.

Many were the droll stories with which Abraham amused his two
companions. Many were the puzzling questions that he asked. Sometimes in
the evening, with the other five children around him, he would declaim
some piece that he had learned; or he would deliver a speech of his own
on some subject of common interest.

If you could see him as he then appeared, you would hardly think that
such a boy would ever become one of the most famous men of history. On
his head he wore a cap made from the skin of a squirrel or a raccoon.
Instead of trousers of cloth, he wore buckskin breeches, the legs of
which were many inches too short. His shirt was of deerskin in the
winter, and of homespun tow in the summer. Stockings he had none. His
shoes were of heavy cowhide, and were worn only on Sundays or in very
cold weather.

The family lived in such a way as to need very little money. Their bread
was made of corn meal. Their meat was chiefly the flesh of wild game
found in the forest.

Pewter plates and wooden trenchers were used on the table. The tea and
coffee cups were of painted tin. There was no stove, and all the cooking
was done on the hearth of the big fireplace.

But poverty was no hindrance to Abraham Lincoln. He kept on with his
reading and his studies as best he could. Sometimes he would