Of course when I came of age I did not know much.

Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rule of Three, but that was all.

I have not been to school since.

The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity.
I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty-two.
At twenty-one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year in Macon County.

Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store.