usier,
that was all.

When President Lincoln spoke to the people, or sent letters (messages,
they are called) to Congress, every one said: "What a brain that man
has!" But he used very short, simple words. Once he gave a reason for
this. He said it used to make him angry, when he was a child, to hear
the neighbors talk to his father in a way that he could not understand.
He would lie awake, sometimes, half the night, trying to think what they
meant. When he thought he had at last got the idea, he would put it into
the simplest words he knew, so that any boy would know what was meant.
This got to be a habit, and even in his great talk at Gettysburg the
beautiful words are short and plain.

* * * * *

One day when Lincoln was running the ferry-boat for the man I have
spoken of before, he saw at one of the river landings some negro slaves
getting a terrible beating by their master. He was only a boy, but he
never forgot the sight, and one of the things he brought about when he
became President of the United States was the freedom of the black
people.

There are a great many lives and stories about Lincoln which you will
read and enjoy, and it is certain that the more you know of this great
man, Dear "Honest Abe," the better you will love him.

ROBERT EDWARD LEE

Small Robert Lee, of Virginia, aged five, was playing one day with
another boy of his own age, whose mother was visiting Mrs. Lee. The Lees
had lived for two centuries in the beautiful brick mansion, "Stratford,"
on the Potomac River. While the boys played on the veranda, there was
the sound of busy feet inside the house, and an air of bustle and
hurrying to and fro. Robert knew the cause of this and was feeling very
happy. His father, Colonel Robert E. Lee, was coming home from Mexico,
where he had done brave things in the Mexican War. The story of this had
been in the papers, and though Robert had not seen his father for two
years and sometimes could not remember just how he looked, he knew from
the way people mentioned Colonel Lee's name that he was a man to be
proud of.

When Eliza, Robert's black mammy, called him in to be dressed, there
was trouble. He would not wear what she had ready for him. He was the
Colonel's namesake, and if his father was coming home, nothing was nice
enough but his best frock of blue and white.

Small Robert had his way about the frock. His hair was freshly curled,
and he rushed down