rance, was covered with
"pelts," or half-dressed skins of wild animals. There was no ruder
dwelling in the wilds of Indiana, and no poorer family among the
settlers than the new adventurers from Kentucky. They were reduced to
the most primitive makeshifts in order to eke out a living. There was
no lack of food, however, for the woods were full of game of all kinds,
both feathered and furred, and the streams and rivers abounded with
fish. But the home lacked everything in the way of comfort or
convenience.

Abraham, who was then in his eighth year, has been described as a tall,
ungainly, fast-growing, long-legged lad, clad in the garb of the
frontier. This consisted of a shirt of linsey-woolsey, a coarse
homespun material made of linen and wool, a pair of home-made
moccasins, deerskin leggings or breeches, and a hunting shirt of the
same material. This costume was completed by a coonskin cap, the tail
of the animal being left to hang down the wearer's back as an ornament.

This sturdy lad, who was born to a life of unremitting toil, was
already doing a man's work. From the time he was four years old, away
back on the Kentucky farm, he had contributed his share to the family
labors. Picking berries, dropping seeds, and doing other simple tasks
suited to his strength, he had thus early begun his apprenticeship to
toil. In putting up the "half-faced" camp, he was his father's
principal helper. Afterward, when they built a more, substantial cabin
to take the place of the camp, he learned to handle an ax, a maul, and
a wedge. He helped to fell trees, fashion logs, split rails, and do
other important work in building the one-roomed cabin, which was to be
the permanent home of the family. He assisted also in making the rough
tables and chairs and the one rude bedstead or bed frame which
constituted the principal furniture of the cabin. In his childhood
Abraham did not enjoy the luxury of sleeping on a bedstead. His bed was
simply a heap of dry leaves, which occupied a corner of the loft over
the cabin. He climbed to it every night by a stepladder, or rather a
number of pegs driven into the wall.

Rough and poor and full of hardship as his life was, Lincoln was by no
means a sad or unhappy boy. On the contrary, he was full of fun and
boyish pranks. His life in the open air, the vigorous exercise of every
muscle which necessity forced upon him, the tonic of the forests which
he breathed from his infancy, his interest in every