He sought Mentor Graham, the schoolmaster, and asked his advice.
"If you are going before the public," Mr.Graham told him, "you ought to do it." But where could he get a grammar?
There was but one in the neighborhood, Mr.Graham said, and that was six miles away.
Without waiting for more information the young man rose from the breakfast-table, walked immediately to the place, borrowed this rare copy of Kirkham's Grammar, and before night was deep in its mysteries.
From that time on for weeks he gave every moment of his leisure to mastering the contents of the book.

Frequently he asked his friend Greene to "hold the book" while he recited, and when puzzled by a point he would consult Mr.Graham.
Lincoln's eagerness to learn was such that the whole neighborhood became interested.

The Greenes lent him books, the schoolmaster kept him in mind and helped him as he could, and even the village cooper let him come into his shop and keep up a fire of shavings sufficiently bright to read by at night.

It was not long before the grammar was mastered.
"Well," Lincoln said to his fellow-clerk, Greene, "if that's what they call science, I think I'll go at another." He had made another discovery--that he could conquer subjects.
The poor and friendless lad, George Peabody, weary, footsore and hungry, called at a tavern in Concord, N.H., and asked to be allowed to saw wood for lodging and breakfast.

Half a century later he called there again, but then George Peabody was one of the greatest millionaire bankers of the world.