46 chapters
4 hour read
Selected Chapters
46 chapters
Lincoln From New and Unusual Sources
Lincoln From New and Unusual Sources
The boy or girl who reads to-day may know more about the real Lincoln than his own children knew. The greatest President's son, Robert Lincoln, discussing a certain incident in their life in the White House, remarked to the writer, with a smile full of meaning: "I believe you know more about our family matters than I do!" This is because "all the world loves a lover"—and Abraham Lincoln loved everybody. With all his brain and brawn, his real greatness was in his heart. He has been called "the Gr
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Abraham Lincoln's Forefathers
Abraham Lincoln's Forefathers
Lincoln's grandfather, for whom he was named Abraham, was a distant cousin to Daniel Boone. The Boones and the Lincolns had intermarried for generations. The Lincolns were of good old English stock. When he was President, Abraham Lincoln, who had never given much attention to the family pedigree, said that the history of his family was well described by a single line in Gray's "Elegy": "The short and simple annals of the poor." Yet Grandfather Abraham was wealthy for his day. He accompanied Boon
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Abraham Lincoln's Father and Mother
Abraham Lincoln's Father and Mother
While Thomas Lincoln was living with a farmer and doing odd jobs of carpentering, he met Nancy Hanks, a tall, slender woman, with dark skin, dark brown hair and small, deep-set gray eyes. She had a full forehead, a sharp, angular face and a sad expression. Yet her disposition was generally cheerful. For her backwoods advantages she was considered well educated. She read well and could write, too. It is stated that Nancy Hanks taught Thomas Lincoln to write his own name. Thomas was twenty-eight a
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Boy Lincoln's Best Teacher
The Boy Lincoln's Best Teacher
At Knob Creek the boy began to go to an "A B C" school. His first teacher was Zachariah Riney. Of course, there were no regular schools in the backwoods then. When a man who "knew enough" happened to come along, especially if he had nothing else to do, he tried to teach the children of the pioneers in a poor log schoolhouse. It is not likely that little Abe went to school more than a few weeks at this time, for he never had a year's schooling in his life. There was another teacher afterward at K
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Learning to Work
Learning to Work
The little Lincoln boy learned to help his father and mother as soon as he could, picking berries, dropping seeds and carrying water for the men to drink. The farm at Knob Creek seems to have been a little more fertile than the other two places on which his father had chosen to live. Once while living in the White House, President Lincoln was asked if he could remember his "old Kentucky home." He replied with considerable feeling: "I remember that old home very well. Our farm was composed of thr
10 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Losing his Mother
Losing his Mother
In the fall of 1817, when the Lincoln family had moved from the shed into the rough log cabin, Thomas and Betsy Sparrow came and occupied the "darned little half-faced camp," as Dennis Hanks called it. Betsy Sparrow was the aunt who had brought up Nancy Hanks, and she was now a foster-mother to Dennis, her nephew. Dennis became the constant companion of the two Lincoln children. He has told most of the stories that are known of this sad time in the Lincoln boy's life. The two families had lived
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
School Days Now and Then
School Days Now and Then
Lincoln once wrote, in a letter to a friend, about his early teachers in Indiana: "He (father) removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer 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 p
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Abe and the Neighbors
Abe and the Neighbors
Nat Grigsby stated once that writing compositions was not required by Schoolmaster Crawford, but "Abe took it up on his own account," and his first essay was against cruelty to animals. The boys of the neighborhood made a practice of catching terrapins and laying live coals on their backs. Abe caught a group of them at this cruel sport one day, and rushed to the relief of the helpless turtle. Snatching the shingle that one of the boys was using to handle the coals, he brushed them off the turtle
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Moving to Illinois
Moving to Illinois
Thomas Lincoln had become restless again. Fourteen years was a long time for him to live in one place. Abe was seven years old when they came over from Kentucky, and he was now nearly twenty-one. During that time Thomas had lost his wife, Nancy, and his only daughter, who bore her mother's name. While the land he had chosen was fertile enough, the want of water had always been a sad drawback. The desire to try his fortunes in a newer country had taken possession of him. John Hanks had gone to Il
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Starting Out for Himself
Starting Out for Himself
According to his own account, Abe had made about thirty dollars as a peddler, besides bearing the brunt of the labor of the journey, though there were four grown men in the combined family. As he had passed his twenty-first birthday on the road, he really had the right to claim these profits as his own. His father, who had, for ten years, exacted Abraham's meager, hard-earned wages, should at least have given the boy a part of that thirty dollars for a "freedom suit" of clothes, as was the custo
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Clerking and Working
Clerking and Working
It was in August, 1831, that Abraham Lincoln appeared in the village of New Salem, Illinois. Neither Denton Offutt nor his merchandise had arrived as promised. While paying the penalty of the punctual man—by waiting for the tardy one—he seemed to the villagers to be loafing. But Abraham Lincoln was no loafer. He always found something useful and helpful to do. This time there was a local election, and one of the clerks had not appeared to perform his duties. A New Salem woman wrote of Lincoln's
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Politics, War, Storekeeping and Studying Law
Politics, War, Storekeeping and Studying Law
By "a step still further in advance" Dr. Holland must have meant the young clerk's going into politics. He had made many friends in New Salem, and they reflected back his good-will by urging him to run for the State Legislature. Before doing this he consulted Mentor Graham, the village schoolmaster, with whom he had worked as election clerk when he first came to the place. Abe could read, write and cipher, but he felt that if he should succeed in politics, he would disgrace his office and himsel
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Buying and Keeping a Store
Buying and Keeping a Store
After making what he considered a bad beginning politically, young Lincoln was on the lookout for a "business chance." One came to him in a peculiar way. A man named Radford had opened a store in New Salem. Possessing neither the strength nor the sagacity and tact of Abe Lincoln, he was driven out of business by the Clary's Grove Boys, who broke his store fixtures and drank his liquors. In his fright Radford was willing to sell out at almost any price and take most of his pay in promissory notes
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Young Legislator in Love
The Young Legislator in Love
Paying his debts had kept Lincoln so poor that, though he had been elected to the Legislature, he was not properly clothed or equipped to make himself presentable as the people's representative at the State capital, then located at Vandalia. One day he went with a friend to call on an older acquaintance, named Smoot, who was almost as dry a joker as himself, but Smoot had more of this world's goods than the young legislator-elect. Lincoln began at once to chaff his friend. "Smoot," said he, "did
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Moving to Springfield
Moving to Springfield
New Salem could no longer give young Lincoln scope for his growing power and influence. Within a few weeks after the Lincoln-Stone protest, late in March, 1837, after living six years in the little village which held so much of life and sorrow for him, Abe sold his surveying compass, marking-pins, chain and pole, packed all his effects into his saddle-bags, borrowed a horse of his good friend "Squire" Bowling Green, and reluctantly said good-bye to his friends there. It is a strange fact that Ne
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Lincoln & Herndon
Lincoln & Herndon
Lincoln remained in the office with Judge Logan about four years, dissolving partnership in 1845. Meanwhile he was interesting himself in behalf of young William H. Herndon, who, after Speed's removal to Kentucky, had gone to college at Jacksonville, Ill. The young man seemed to be made of the right kind of metal, was industrious, and agreeable, and Mr. Lincoln looked forward to the time when he could have "Billy" with him in a business of his own. Mrs. Lincoln, with that marvelous instinct whic
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
His Kindness of Heart
His Kindness of Heart
Mr. Lincoln's tender-heartedness was the subject of much amusement among his fellow attorneys. One day, while out riding with several friends, they missed Lincoln. One of them, having heard the distressed cries of two young birds that had fallen from the nest, surmised that this had something to do with Mr. Lincoln's disappearance. The man was right. Lincoln had hitched his horse and climbed the fence into the thicket where the fledglings were fluttering on the ground in great fright. He caught
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
What Made the Difference Between Abraham Lincoln and His Stepbrother
What Made the Difference Between Abraham Lincoln and His Stepbrother
These letters show the wide difference between the real lives of two boys brought up in the same surroundings, and under similar conditions. The advantages were in John Johnston's favor. He and Dennis Hanks never rose above the lower level of poverty and ignorance. John was looked down upon by the poor illiterates around him as a lazy, good-for-nothing fellow, and Dennis Hanks was known to be careless about telling the truth. In speaking of the early life of Abe's father and mother, Dennis threw
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
How Emancipation Came to Pass
How Emancipation Came to Pass
When Abraham Lincoln was a small boy he began to show the keenest sympathy for the helpless and oppressed. The only time he betrayed anger as a child was, as you already have learned, when he saw the other boys hurting a mud-turtle. In his first school "composition," on "Cruelty to Animals," his stepsister remembers this sentence: "An ant's life is as sweet to it as ours is to us." As you have read on an earlier page, when Abe grew to be a big, strong boy he saved a drunken man from freezing in
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
The Glory of Gettysburg
The Glory of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg, which raged through July 1st, 2nd and 3d, 1863, was called the "high water mark" of the Civil War, and one of the "fifteen decisive battles" of history. It was decisive because General Robert E. Lee, with his brave army, was driven back from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. If Lee had been victorious there, he might have destroyed Philadelphia and New York. By such a brilliant stroke he could have surrounded and captured Baltimore and Washington. This would have changed the gr
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
"No End of a Boy"
"No End of a Boy"
" The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln " would be incomplete without some insight into the perfect boyishness of the President of the United States. When the cares of State and the horrors of war had made his homely yet beautiful face pallid and seamed, till it became a sensitive map of the Civil War, it was said that the only times the President was ever happy were when he was playing with little Tad. He used to carry the boy on his shoulder or "pick-a-back," cantering through the spacious rooms
11 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
Lieutenant Tad Lincoln, Patriot
Lieutenant Tad Lincoln, Patriot
There was no more sturdy little patriot in the whole country than Lieutenant Tad Lincoln, "the child of the nation," nor had the President of the United States a more devoted admirer and follower than his own small son. A word from his father would melt the lad to tears and submission, or bring him out of a nervous tantrum with his small round face wreathed with smiles, and a chuckling in his throat of "Papa-day, my papa-day!" No one knew exactly what the boy meant by papa-day. It was his pet na
8 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS SERIES
THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS SERIES
Dick Prescott, Dan Dalzell, Tom Reade, and the other members of Dick & Co. are always found in the forefront of things—in scholarship, athletics, and in school-boy fun. Small wonder that this series has made such a hit with the boys of America....
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS SERIES
THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS SERIES
This series of stories, based on the actual doings of High School boys, teems with incidents in athletics and school-boy fun. The real Americanism of Dick Prescott and his chums will excite the admiration of every reader....
33 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS VACATION SERIES
THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS VACATION SERIES
Outdoor sports are the keynote of these volumes. Boys will alternately thrill and chuckle over these splendid narratives of the further adventures of Dick Prescott and his chums....
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE YOUNG ENGINEERS SERIES
THE YOUNG ENGINEERS SERIES
Tom Reade and Harry Hazelton meet every requirement as young civil engineers with pick, shovel, and pluck, and with resourcefulness and determination overcome all obstacles....
26 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE ANNAPOLIS SERIES
THE ANNAPOLIS SERIES
Dave Darrin and Dan Dalzell proved their mettle at the U. S. Naval Academy and gave promise of what might be expected of them in the great war that was even at that moment hovering over the world....
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE WEST POINT SERIES
THE WEST POINT SERIES
Dick Prescott and Greg Holmes are not human wonders, but a pair of average bright American boys who had a hard enough time working their way through West Point. Their experiences will inspire all other American boys....
29 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE BATTLESHIP BOYS SERIES
THE BATTLESHIP BOYS SERIES
Inspiring adventure, moving incidents over the seven seas, and in the air above them; fighting the Huns from the decks of sinking ships, and coming to grief above the clouds; strange peoples and still stranger experiences, are some of the things that the readers of this series will live when they cruise with Dan Davis and Sam Hickey. Mr. Patchin has lived every phase of the life he writes about, and his stories truly depict life in the various branches of the navy—stories that glow with the spir
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE BOYS OF THE ARMY SERIES
THE BOYS OF THE ARMY SERIES
These stimulating stories are among the best of their class that have ever been written. They breathe the life and spirit of our army of today, and in which Uncle Sam's Boys fought with a courage and devotion excelled by none in the world war. There is no better way to instil patriotism in the coming generation than by placing in the hands of juvenile readers books in which a romantic atmosphere is thrown around the boys of the army with thrilling plots that boys love. The books of this series t
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
DAVE DARRIN SERIES
DAVE DARRIN SERIES
No more efficient officers ever paced the deck of a man-o'-war than Dave Darrin and Dan Dalzell. The last two volumes chronicle the experiences of Dave and Dan in the great war....
38 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE CONQUEST OF THE UNITED STATES SERIES
THE CONQUEST OF THE UNITED STATES SERIES
If the United States had not entered the war many things might have happened to America. No liberty-loving American boy can afford to miss reading these books....
30 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB SERIES
THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB SERIES
Bright and sparkling as the waters over which the Motor Boat Boys sail. Once cast off for a cruise with these hardy young fresh-water navigators the reader will not ask to be "put ashore" until the home port has finally been made. Manliness and pluck are reflected on every page; the plots are ingenious, the action swift, and the interest always tense. There is neither a yawn in a paragraph nor a dull moment in a chapter in this stirring series. No boy or girl will willingly lay down a volume of
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE SUBMARINE BOYS SERIES
THE SUBMARINE BOYS SERIES
A voyage in an undersea boat! What boy has not done so time and again in his youthful dreams? The Submarine Boys did it in reality, diving into the dark depths of the sea, then, like Father Neptune, rising dripping from the deep to sunlight and safety. Yet it was not all easy sailing for the Submarine Boys, for these hardy young "undersea pirates" experienced a full measure of excitement and had their share of thrills, as all who sail under the surface of the seas are certain to do. The author k
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE PONY RIDER BOYS SERIES
THE PONY RIDER BOYS SERIES
This unusual and popular series tells vividly the story of four adventure-loving lads, who, with their guardian, spent their summer vacations in the saddle in search of recreation and healthful adventure. Long journeys over mountain, through the fastness of primitive forest and across burning desert, lead them into the wild places of their native land as well as into many strange and exciting experiences. There is not a dull moment in the series....
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE CIRCUS BOYS SERIES
THE CIRCUS BOYS SERIES
No call to the heart of the youth of America finds a readier response than the call of the billowing canvas, the big red wagons, the crash of the circus band and the trill of the ringmaster's whistle. It is a call that captures the imagination of old and young alike, and so do the books of this series capture and enthrall the reader, for they were written by one who, besides wielding a master pen, has followed the sawdust trail from coast to coast, who knows the circus people and the sturdy manl
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE MADGE MORTON SERIES
THE MADGE MORTON SERIES
The heroines of these stories are four girls, who with enthusiasm for outdoor life, transformed a dilapidated canal boat into a pretty floating summer home. They christened the craft "The Merry Maid" and launched it on the shore of Chesapeake Bay. The stories are full of fun and adventure, with not a dull moment anywhere....
26 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS SERIES
THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS SERIES
Four clever girls go hiking around the country and meet with many thrilling and provoking adventures. These stories pulsate with the atmosphere of outdoor life....
33 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS SERIES
THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS SERIES
Girls as well as boys love wholesome adventure, a wealth of which is found in many forms and in many scenes in the volumes of this series....
32 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS SERIES
THE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS SERIES
The scenes, episodes, and adventures through which Grace Harlowe and her intimate chums pass in the course of these stories are pictured with a vivacity that at once takes the young feminine captive....
31 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE COLLEGE GIRLS SERIES
THE COLLEGE GIRLS SERIES
Every school and college girl will recognize that the account of Grace Harlowe's experiences at Overton College is true to life....
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE GRACE HARLOWE OVERSEAS SERIES
THE GRACE HARLOWE OVERSEAS SERIES
Grace Harlowe went with the Overton College Red Cross Unit to France, there to serve her country by aiding the American fighting forces....
27 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE GRACE HARLOWE OVERLAND RIDERS SERIES
THE GRACE HARLOWE OVERLAND RIDERS SERIES
Grace Harlowe and her friends seek adventure on the mountain trails and in the wilder sections of their homeland, after their return from service in France....
41 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ALTEMUS' NEW ILLUSTRATED YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY
ALTEMUS' NEW ILLUSTRATED YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY
A series of choice literature for children, selected from the best and most popular works. Printed on fine paper from large type, with numerous illustrations in color and black and white, by the most famous artists, making the most attractive series of juvenile classics before the public. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 70 illustrations. ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. 42 illustrations. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE. 50 illustrations. BUNYAN'S PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. 46 i
54 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WEE BOOKS FOR WEE FOLKS SERIES
WEE BOOKS FOR WEE FOLKS SERIES
MOTHER GOOSE NURSERY TALES. MOTHER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES. A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES. Robert Louis Stevenson. THE FOOLISH FOX. THREE LITTLE PIGS. THE ROBBER KITTEN. LITTLE BLACK SAMBO. THE LITTLE SMALL RED HEN. THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. THE LITTLE WISE CHICKEN THAT KNEW IT ALL. THE FOUR LITTLE PIGS THAT DIDN'T HAVE ANY MOTHER. THE LITTLE PUPPY THAT WANTED TO KNOW TOO MUCH. THE COCK, THE MOUSE AND THE LITTLE RED HEN. GRUNTY GRUNTS AND SMILEY SMILE—INDOORS. GRUNTY GRUNTS AND SMILEY SMILE—OUTDOORS
37 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WEE FOLKS BIBLE STORIES SERIES
WEE FOLKS BIBLE STORIES SERIES
WEE FOLKS STORIES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. In Words of One Syllable. WEE FOLKS STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT. In Words of One Syllable. WEE FOLKS LIFE OF CHRIST. WEE FOLKS BIBLE A B C BOOK. LITTLE PRAYERS FOR LITTLE LIPS....
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter