Before winter came she made her husband put a good floor, and a door, and windows in the cabin. She took charge of Abe and his sister, and made them "look a little more human." She put good clothes on the children and put them to sleep in comfortable beds. [Sidenote: =Abe's education=] =159. Lincoln Educates Himself.= Schools were scarce in that new country, and Abe never had more than a year at school. His stepmother encouraged him in every way to study at home. [Sidenote: =A taste for reading=] [Sidenote: =He copies down what pleases him=] When Abe got a taste for reading it was hard to satisfy it. He read the Bible, _Æsop's Fables_, _Robinson Crusoe_, _Pilgrim's Progress_, a history of the United States, and Weem's _Life of Washington_. He borrowed the _Revised Statutes of Indiana_. These were all solid books, good for a young boy to read. When a sentence pleased him, he read and reread it. If he did not own the book, he took many notes, filling his copy book with choice sentences. [Illustration: LINCOLN READING BY THE LIGHT OF THE OPEN FIRE _After a painting by Eastman Johnson_] [Sidenote: =Lincoln reads while he eats=] John Hanks, a boy brought up with Lincoln, says: "When Abe and I returned to the house from work, he would go to the cupboard, snatch a piece of corn bread, sit down, take a book, cock his legs up as high as his head, and read." He read, wrote, and ciphered incessantly. [Sidenote: =A great story-teller when a boy=] Young Lincoln was soon able to do a "man's labor," although only a boy. He was strong and powerful, and a great favorite. In that family of brothers, sisters, and cousins, his good-natured jokes and stories kept peace. Abe was the great story-teller of the family. [Sidenote: =At nineteen years of age=] At the age of nineteen Lincoln reached his full height of six feet four inches. By that time he had read every book he could find, and could "spell down" the whole country. "He could sink an ax deeper into the wood than any man I ever saw," said a neighbor. [Illustration: FASHIONS IN THE DAYS OF LINCOLN'S BOYHOOD] [Sidenote: =Moves to Illinois=] When Abe was twenty-one, the entire family started for Illinois. Along forest roads, and across muddy prairies, for two weeks they traveled till they came to the Sangamon River. They built a cabin on the north fork of the river. With the help of John Hanks, young Lincoln plowed fifteen acres, planted it in corn, and split the rails from the tall walnut trees on the ground and fenced it. [Sidenote: =A trip to New Orleans=] =160. Tries to be a Business Man.= The next year he was hired to take a flatboat to New Orleans. The boat was loaded with hogs, pork, and corn. The wages of the trip were fifty cents a day, and twenty dollars besides for each man. [Sidenote: =A slave auction=] [Sidenote: =Clerk in a store=]