“Why don’t you study law?” he asked Lincoln.
“Because I am poor; I have no money to buy the necessary books,” said Abe.
“Have you ever thought of following the profession?”
“Yes, I have already read law some.”
“I believe you would succeed. If books are all you need, I have a large law library and will lend you what you need.”
Abe’s face lighted up with pleasure.
“You are very kind,” he said, “and I will take you at your word. When can I have the books?”
“Whenever you will call for them.”
This was not an offer which young Lincoln could afford to slight. At the close of the canvass he walked to Springfield, called at the office of his friend Stuart, and returned to New Salem with a load of books, which he forthwith began to read and study.
“Abe’s progress in the law,” says Mr. Lamon, “was as surprising as the intensity of his application to study. He never lost a moment that might be improved. It is even said that he read and recited to himself on the road and by the wayside, as he came down from Springfield with the books he had borrowed from Stuart. The first time he went up he had ‘mastered’ forty pages of Blackstone before he got back. It was not long until, with his restless desire to be doing something practical, he began to turn his acquisitions to account in forwarding the business of his neighbors. He wrote deeds, contracts, notes, and other legal papers, for them, ‘using a small dictionary and an old form-book’; pettifogged incessantly before the justice of the peace, and probably assisted that functionary in the administration of justice as much as he benefited his own clients. This species of country student practice was entered upon very early, and kept up until long after he was a distinguished man in the Legislature. But in all this he was only trying himself; as he was not admitted to the bar until 1837, he did not regard it as legitimate practice, and never charged a penny for his services.”