Lincoln, the unknown

42 • LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNmore interested he became. Never before had he been so absorbedin a book. He read until he had devoured all four volumes.Then he made a momentous decision: he would be a lawyer.He would be the kind of man Ann Rutledge would be proudto marry. She approved his plans, and they were to be marriedas soon as he completed his law studies and established himselfin the profession.After finishing Blackstone he set out across the prairies forSpringfield, twenty miles away, to borrow other law-books froman attorney he had met in the Black Hawk War. On his wayhome he carried an open book in one hand, studying as hewalked. When he struck a knotty passage, he shuffled to astandstill, and concentrated on it until he had mastered thesense.He kept on studying, until he had conquered twenty orthirty pages, kept on until dusk fell and he could no longersee to read. . . . The stars came out, he was hungry, he hastenedhis pace.He pored over his books now incessantly, having heart forlittle else. By day he lay on his back, reading in the shade of anelm that grew beside the store, his bare feet angling up againstthe trunk of the tree. By night he read in the cooper's shop,kindling a light from the waste material lying about. Frequentlyhe read aloud to himself, now and then closing the book andwriting down the sense of what he had just read, revising, rephrasingit until it became clear enough for a child to comprehend.Wherever Lincoln went now—on his rambles along the river,on his walks through the woods, on his way to labor in thefields—wherever he went, a volume of Chitty or Blackstonewas under his arm. Once a farmer, who had hired him to cutfirewood, came around the corner of the barn in the middle ofthe afternoon and found Lincoln sitting barefooted on top ofthe woodpile, studying law.Mentor Graham told Lincoln that if he aspired to get aheadin politics and law he must know grammar."Where can I borrow one?" Lincoln asked.Graham said that John Vance, a farmer living six miles outin the country, had a copy of Kirkham's Grammar; and Lincolnarose immediately, put on his hat, and was off after thebook.