In The Boyhood of Lincoln

erest seventy years ago than now. Andrew Crawford was always ambitious that this

ead Latin was an event. Years after, when the pure gold of fame was no longer a glimmering vision or a current of fate, but a wonderful fact, Ab

the examination, it is no wonder that this special event excited the greatest

of Mr. Crawford, before the appointed day. "May

said Mr. Crawford; "but it is a commendable thing to have an eye to beauty, and to d

outhern magnolia. The creeping Jenney could be entwined with the laurel-leaves in such a way as to form long festoons. The boys and girls s

leaves and plums they made the word "Welcome," which they hung over the door. They covered the rude chimney with pin

There was to be a spelling-match on the day, and, although it was already felt

s, a party of the scholars were passing along the path in the timber.

ust as Crawford

. Crawford spel

y, and that is just

now! I heard Crawfor

di

to tell me

don't nee

iar by anybody. I'll m

thing is settled. I've got fists as well as you, and I

each other with a wounded sense of honor

. It took one boy under one of its arms and the

d one of the boys. "I won'

"and I won't stand any sassin'

called a liar,"

sassin'," sa

and leather breeches strode on,

last said on

said th

go, and we'll all

, I'll give i

l. Let

wo boys, and soon all was p

"Where he is there has to be peace. It wouldn't be fair for him to use his streng

s of human government. A will to do right and the power to

lue sky over all. People came from a distance to attend the examination,

as a Pea

girls did not stand greatly in awe of him. They seemed to feel instinctively that he was their friend and was with them. But a different feeling came over them when 'Squire Gentry, of Gentryville, came cantering on a horse that looked like a war-charger. 'Squire Gentry was a great man in those parts, and filled a continental space in their young minds. The faces of all the scholars were turned silently and deferently to their b

rah Lincoln, Abraham's sister, looked out of the window,

whispered,

," whispered the ta

fe of Washington." The boy read it with absorbing interest, but there came a driving storm, and the rain ran in the night through the walls of the log-cabin and wet and warped the cover of the book. Blue-nose Crawford charged young Lincoln seventy-five cents for the damage done to th

may take their places,

ss Roby, a girl of some fifteen years of age, whom young Lincoln greatly liked, and whom he had once helped at a spelling ma

wford, as he should be called. "She ought to keep school. We'

won a triumph of which every pupil

d. You're a strappin' feller, and y

ike one near-sighted. He spread his legs apart, and

d, the teacher. "Verses supposed to be written by Al

d

very long one. Josiah Crawford turned around in great surprise; and Aunt Olive planted the cha

page of the English Reader, was diligently spelling out the next line, w

ere-is-none-

s anothe

ur book," sai

wford. "What do ye cover yer face for? Ther

to spell out the words to himself, and in doing so his face was full of the most distressing grima

, center; center, a

the f-o-w-l a

den conclusion, and was fol

Andrew Crawfor

he rate you're goin' now you won

eyebrows and uttered

O

d Aunt Olive. "Don't let him

ter? S-o-l-i-t-u-d-e, so

re the charms?" read

have seen

l in the mi

in this hor

e place," when his face assumed a startled expression, like one who had met with an apparition. He

oy read any more,

by his side, and cast a far

uch of a reader,"

r!" said

"And he smote the Hittite that he died"-"And he smote him Hi-ti-ti

wn fine preparation for a forest school. The reading of verses, in which "sound corresponded to the sign

trees in

xe, redoubling st

ound the fores

choing groan the

rackling, crashi

of a bo

ring l

sharp, like the sh

phea

ake the whirring

ulting on tri

and Cha

ere a scene of

dis fills the d

ushes from her

oars; tumultuous

s and gen

cks projectin

ds' tempestuous

ves in softer

re without the

and impetu

eary step, an

l he heaves a h

stone resulti

s down, and smoke

and slow

e heavy mules

ales, o'er crags,

low and

lexandrine e

ed snake, drags it

rom the brow

force, it smokes

thunders down imp

violence of

ind impel the

ing high, and tumb

ve nu

solitudes an

pensive conte

sing melanc

tt

rmor clas

ord; and the

en fury

tating re

dumb forgetf

anxious being

precincts of t

onging, ling'r

ded as the best speller in Spencer County. He is noted to have soon exhausted all that the three teachers whom he found there could teach him. Once

place at the head of the class during the winter. You may t

owed the method of the old Webster's "Speller

be in

malt

he atm

ne who

the w

n inst

place for

, to c

little

ister to

a v

rt of a

Crawford and Aunt Olive, until the word drachm was reached, when all the

and that signed the Emancipation Proclamation. In one corner of a certain page he had written an odd bit of verse in which one may read a common experience in the struggles of life after what

ham L

and a

ll be

d know

Damon, in which fidelity in friendship was commended. After this, each of the visitors, Aunt Oli

pelled well, and are good arithmetic

of the school had been excellent, but

hes gone in the clearing, bu

ose. The pupils could see his great heart under his face. It shone through. His fi

human heart, and at the doors of heaven. Spirits whisper, as it were. The soul, a great right intention, is here; and there

d that the citizens of Rome would one day delight

he Liberator of the American Republic. It looke

tizens of Rome present this stone, from the wall of Servius Tullius, by which the

White House. It now constitutes a part of his monument, being one of the most impressive relics in the Memorial Hall of that structure. It is twenty-four hundred years old, and it