encer County,
Indiana, in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the
State came into the Union. It was a wild region with many bears and
other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some
schools, so-called; but no qualification was ever required of a teacher
beside readin', writin', and cipherin' to the Rule of Three (simple
proportion). If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to
sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was
absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education."

Abe's first teacher in Indiana, however, was Hazel Dorsey. The school
house was built of rough, round logs. The chimney was made of poles well
covered with clay. The windows were spaces cut in the logs, and covered
with greased paper. But Abe was determined to learn. He and his sister
thought nothing of walking four miles a day through snow, rain and mud.
"Nat" Grigsby, who afterward married the sister, spoke in glowing terms
of Abe's few school days:

"He was always at school early, and attended to his studies. He lost no
time at home, and when not at work was at his books. He kept up his
studies on Sunday, and carried his books with him to work, so that he
might read when he rested from labor."

Thomas Lincoln had no use for "eddication," as he called it. "It will
spile the boy," he kept saying. He--the father--had got along better
without going to school, and why should Abe have a better education than
his father? He thought Abe's studious habits were due to "pure laziness,
jest to git shet o' workin'." So, whenever there was the slightest
excuse, he took Abe out of school and set him to work at home or for one
of the neighbors, while he himself went hunting or loafed about the
house.

This must have been very trying to a boy as hungry to learn as Abe
Lincoln was. His new mother saw and sympathized with him, and in her
quiet way, managed to get the boy started to school, for a few weeks at
most. For some reason Hazel Dorsey stopped "keeping" the school, and
there was a long "vacation" for all the children. But a new man, Andrew
Crawford, came and settled near Gentryville. Having nothing better to do
at first, he was urged to reopen the school.

One evening Abe came in from his work and his stepmother greeted him
with:

"Another chance for you to go to school."

"Where?"

"That man Crawford that moved in a while ago is to begin school next
week, and two mile