Lamps and candles were almost unknown in his home, and Abraham, flat on his stomach, would often do his reading, writing, and ciphering in the firelight, as it flashed and flickered on the big hearth in his logcabin home. An older cousin, John Hanks, who lived for a while with the Lincolns, says that when "Abe,” as he always called the great president, would come home, as a boy, from his work, he would go to the cupboard, take a piece of corn bread for his supper, sit down on a chair, stretch out his long legs until they were higher than his head—and read, and read, and read. Abe and I," said John Hanks, "worked barefoot; grubbed it, plowed it, mowed and cradled it; plowed corn, gathered corn, and shucked corn; and Abe read constantly, whenever he could get a chance."

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One day Abraham found that a man for whom he sometimes worked owned a copy of Weems's "Life of Washington." This was a famous book in its day. Abraham borrowed it at once. When he was not reading it, he put it away on a shelf — a clapboard resting on wooden pins. There was a big crack between the logs, behind the shelf, and one rainy day, the“Life of Washington" fell into the crack and was soaked almost into pulp. Old Mr. Crawford, from whom Abraham borrowed the book, was a cross, cranky, and sour old fellow, and when the boy told him of the accident he said Abraham must "work the book out."

The boy agreed, and the old farmer kept him so strictly to his promise that he made him "pull fodder'

for the cattle three days, as payment for the book! And that is the way that Abraham Lincoln bought his first book. For he dried the copy of Weems's "Life of Washington" and put it in his "library." But what boy or girl of to-day would like to buy books at such a price?

This was the boy life of Abraham Lincoln. It was a life of poverty, privation, hard work, little play, and less money. The boy did not love work. But he worked. His father was rough and often harsh and hard to him, and what Abraham learned was acquired by making the most of his spare time.

He was inquisitive, active, and hardy, and, in his comfortless boyhood, he was learning lessons of selfdenial, independence, pluck, shrewdness, kindness, and persistence.

These were the very things to do such a boy good. They developed his real character and helped to build him up. They were the very things that made him the ambitious, large-hearted, strong-souled, loving, and kindly man he afterwards rounded into, and they fitted him to "endure all things" as he rose to eminence and fame.

-ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS.

Pray for us: for we are persuaded that we have a good conscience, desiring to live honorably in all things.

Hebrews xiii. 18.

1. Tell how Lincoln looked when a boy of eight.

2. Where did he live?

3. What books did he have to read?

4. What sadness came to him?

5. How did his new mother treat him?

6. How much did he go to school?
7. Tell the story of the borrowed book.

ABIGAIL, THE PEACE MAKER

IN the days when King Saul was hunting for David and trying to kill him, David and his men had to live in the wild country, and get their food as best they could. Some people gave to David because they loved him, and some because they were afraid of him. Now and then he and his men had to fight for their food and take it, just as Robin Hood did, and as men do in all lands when they go to war.

Now there was a very rich man, who had a great farm not far from where David was hiding. His name was Nabal, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and everything that most men think would make them happy. And yet he was so rude and cross and selfish that he spoiled his own happiness and made other people dislike him; and one day his crossness almost cost him not only his flocks but his life.

It seems that he and his men had gone out to shear the sheep, and his good wife Abigail, who was a kind

and generous woman, was busy getting the dinner. It was a very big dinner, because Nabal needed a great many men to shear all his wool and get it ready for market. It was also a very good dinner, a kind of feast; because when men like Nabal knew that they would soon have a great deal of money, they gave their workers better food than they could afford to set before them at other seasons of the year. It was also a time when people gave generously to others, especially to poor folk, in order to show God that they were thankful for His goodness by sharing His gifts with their fellow

men.

Now David and his men were very hungry. They had watched the great flocks, and knew that Nabal was a rich man, and that he and his servants were feasting. But they had never fought with the shearers. On the contrary, they had been good to his young men, and guarded them from robbers; and thus far they had never taken so much as a lamb from Nabal, or asked for the gift of food. But now something had to be done. So David told ten of his young men to go to Nabal, and greet the rich man in David's name, and say: "Peace be to you, and to your house, and to all that you have! We know that you are rich, and are shearing your sheep, and feasting. Meanwhile we have been hungry, and King Saul is making war on us; yet we have never harmed your servants or taken a sheep from your fold. Let us find favor in your eyes, then, for we come in a day when men are kind and