woolen mixed, and usually not dyed.

Antiseptics were unknown, and a severe surgical operation was
practically certain death to the patient. Nor was there ether,
chloroform, or cocaine for the relief of pain.

As to food, wild game was abundant, but the kitchen garden was not
developed and there were no importations. No oranges, lemons, bananas.
No canned goods. Crusts of rye bread were browned, ground, and boiled;
this was coffee. Herbs of the woods were dried and steeped; this was
tea. The root of the sassafras furnished a different kind of tea, a
substitute for the India and Ceylon teas now popular. Slippery elm bark
soaked in cold water sufficed for lemonade. The milk-house, when there
was one, was built over a spring when that was possible, and the milk
vessels were kept carefully covered to keep out snakes and other
creatures that like milk.

Whisky was almost universally used. Indeed, in spite of the
constitutional "sixteen-to-one," it was locally used as the standard of
value. The luxury of quinine, which came to be in general use
throughout that entire region, was of later date.

These details are few and meager. It is not easy for us, in the midst
of the luxuries, comforts, and necessities of a later civilization, to
realize the conditions of western life previous to 1825. But the
situation must be understood if one is to know the life of the boy
Lincoln.

Imagine this boy. Begin at the top and look down him--a long look, for
he was tall and gaunt. His cap in winter was of coon-skin, with the