ance, fertile in resources, and of good
judgment within certain limitations. Before he was fairly in his teens
his father intrusted to him domestic and business affairs which required
him to go to the city of Cincinnati alone, a two-days' trip. His own
account of this period of his life is: "When I was seven or eight years
of age I began hauling [driving the team] all the wood used in the house
and shops.... When about eleven years old, I was strong enough to hold a
plow. From that age until seventeen, I did all the work done with
horses.... While still young, I had visited Cincinnati, forty-five
miles away, several times alone; also Maysville, Ky., often, and once
Louisville.... I did not like to work; but I did as much of it while
young as grown men can be hired to do in these days, and attended school
at the same time.... The rod was freely used there, and I was not exempt
from its influence."

But his knowledge of horses, of timber, and of land was better than his
knowledge of men. He had no precocious "smartness," as the Yankees name
the quality which enables one person to outwit another. His credulity
was simple and unsuspecting, at least in some directions. This is
illustrated by a story which he has told himself, one which he was never
allowed to forget:--

"There was a Mr. Ralston, who owned a colt which I very much wanted. My
father had offered twenty dollars for it, but Ralston wanted
twenty-five. I was so anxious to have the colt that ... my father
yielded, but said twenty dollars was all the horse was worth, and told
me to offer that price. If it was not accepted, I was to offer
twenty-two and a half, and if that would not get him, to give the
twenty-five. I at once mounted a horse and went for the colt. When I got
to Mr. Ralston's house, I said to him: 'Papa says I may offer you twenty
dollars for the colt, but, if you won't take that, I am to offer
twenty-two and a half, and if you won't take that, to give you
twenty-five.'" This naive bargaining was done when he was eight years
old. Some persons have thought it betokens a defect in business acumen
which was never fully cured.

He learned his school tasks without great effort. His parents were alive
to the advantages of education, and required him to attend all the
subscription schools kept in the town. There were no free schools there
during his youth. He was twice sent away from home to attend higher
schools. It is not recorded that he especially lik