Page:Abraham Lincoln, A Story and a Play.djvu/37

 wherever he went, reading as he walked along the street, or whenever he could rest a moment from rail-splitting or farming.

At this time he took great pleasure in reading the plays of William Shakespeare, as well as his law books. One day he received some good news. He had been made a surveyor of lands. It was the very work that George Washington had done so well when a young man. Lincoln was delighted. He was to be paid three dollars a day, and this seemed a large sum.

But he knew little about surveying. What did that matter? He would set to work and learn the business at once. So he went to the schoolmaster, who gave him all the help he needed during the next few weeks to make him a good surveyor. A short time after this he was made postmaster, but the town was so small and there were so few letters, that Lincoln often carried them about in his hat.

Mr. Lincoln was now twenty-five years old. He had been farm hand, rail-splitter, carpenter, clerk, ferryman, soldier, storekeeper, surveyor and