such as can arouse a passionate sense of justice, would kindle his
slow, kind nature with a sudden fire.

The total amount of his schooling, at the several brief periods for
which there happened to have been a school accessible and facility to
get to it, was afterwards computed by himself at something under twelve
months. With this slight help distributed over the years from his
eighth to his fifteenth birthday he taught himself to read, write, and
do sums. The stories of the effort and painful shifts, by which great
men accomplish this initial labour almost unhelped, have in all cases
the same pathos, and have a certain sameness in detail. Having learnt
to read he had the following books within his reach: the Bible,
"Aesop's Fables," "Robinson Crusoe," the "Pilgrim's Progress," a
"History of the United States," and Weems' "Life of Washington." Later
on the fancy took him to learn the laws of his State, and he obtained
the "Laws of Indiana." These books he did read, and read again, and
pondered, not with any dreamy or purely intellectual interest, but like
one who desires the weapon of learning for practical ends, and desires
also to have patterns of what life should be. As already said, his
service as a labourer could be considerable, and when something stirred
his ambition to do a task quickly his energy could be prodigious. But
"bone idle is what I called him," was the verdict long after of one,
perhaps too critical, employer. "I found him," he said, "cocked up on
a haystack with a book. 'What are you reading?' I said. 'I'm not
reading, I'm studying,' says he. 'What are you studying?' says I.
'Law,' says he, as proud as Cicero. 'Great God Almighty!' said I."
The boy's correction, "studying" for "reading," was impertinent, but
probably sound. To be equally sound, we must reckon among his
educational facilities the abundant stories which came his way in a
community which, however unlettered, was certainly not dull-spirited;