i $6 Language Through Nature 



pole bedstead, while the bedding was the skins of 

 animals and a homespun quilt. 



In this lowly home in Kentucky the little boy 

 Abraham Lincoln lived and grew until he was eight 

 years old. His only playmate was his sister Sarah, 

 two years older than himself, and though he had no 

 toys such as most children have, he was a happ}^ 

 child. He caught fish in the clear brook, watched 

 birds and squirrels in the tree-tops, and found 

 many things to enjoy in the woods about his home. 

 He was tall and strong for his age, and his father 

 had taught him to swing an ax and shoot a gun, so 

 that he felt quite brave and manly, and often helped 

 his mother, who was a very busy woman. She 

 kept the cabin clean, cooked their food, made their 

 clothes from skins or from cloth which she spun 

 and wove, and sometimes helped to take care of 

 the garden. With all this work she kept a happy 

 heart and found time to tell the children stories she 

 knew, and to teach little Abraham to read as soon 

 as he was old enough to learn. 



In the autumn after his eighth birthday the Lin- 

 coln family moved to Southern Indiana. In the 

 story of Lincoln's life you may read of that hard 

 journey, of the building of a new cabin home, of 



