nd confidence. He was faithful in little things, and in that way
he made himself able to deal with great ones.

Once a woman made a mistake in paying for something she had bought,
and gave the young man six cents too much. He did not notice it at
the time, but after his customer had gone he saw that she had overpaid
him. That night, after the store was closed, Lincoln walked to the
woman's house, some five or six miles out of the village, and paid
her back the six cents. It was such things as this that first made
the people give him the name of "Honest Abe."

253. The Black Hawk War; the Indian's handful of dry leaves; what
Lincoln did in the war.--The next year Lincoln went to fight the
Indians in what was called the Black Hawk War. The people in that
part of the country had been expecting the war; for, some time before,
an Indian had walked up to a settler's cabin and said, "Too much white
man." He then threw a handful of dry leaves into the air, to show
how he and his warriors were coming to scatter the white men. He never
came, but a noted chief named Black Hawk, who had been a friend of
Tecumseh's,[9] made an attempt to drive out the settlers, and get
back the lands which certain Indians had sold them.

Lincoln said that the only battles he fought in this war were with
the mosquitoes. He never killed a single Indian, but he saved the
life of one old savage. He seems to have felt just as well satisfied
with himself for doing that as though he had shot him through the
head.

[Footnote 9: Tecumseh: See paragraph 202.]

254. Lincoln becomes postmaster and surveyor; how he studied law;
what the people thought of him as a lawyer.--After Lincoln returned
from the war he was made postmaster of New Salem. He also found time
to do some surveying and to begin the study of law. On hot summer
mornings he might be seen lying on his back, on the grass, under a
big tree, reading a law-book; as the shade moved round, Lincoln would
move with it, so that by sundown he had travelled nearly round the
tree.

[Illustration: LINCOLN READING LAW.]

When he began to practise law, everybody who knew him had confidence
in him. Other men might be admired because they were smart, but
Lincoln was respected because he was honest. When he said a thing,
people knew that it was because he believed it, and they knew, too,
that he could not be hired to say what he did not believe. That gave
him immense influence.

255. The Armstrong m