urder trial; how Lincoln saved young Armstrong
from being hanged.--But Lincoln was as keen as he was truthful and
honest. A man was killed in a fight near where Lincoln had lived,
and one of Jack Armstrong's[10] brothers was arrested for the murder.
Everybody thought that he was guilty, and felt sure that he would
be hanged. Lincoln made some inquiry about the case, and made up his
mind that the prisoner did not kill the man.

Mrs. Armstrong was too poor to hire a lawyer to defend her son, but
Lincoln wrote to her that he would gladly do it for nothing.

When the day of the trial came, the chief witness was sure that he
saw young Armstrong strike the man dead. Lincoln questioned him
closely. He asked him when it was that he saw the murder committed.
The witness said that it was in the evening, at a certain hour, and
that he saw it all clearly because there was a bright moon. Are you
sure? asked Lincoln. Yes, replied the witness. Do you swear to it?
I do, answered the witness. Then Lincoln took an almanac out of his
pocket, turned to the day of the month on which the murder had been
committed, and said to the court: The almanac shows that there was
no moon shining at the time at which the witness says he saw the
murder.[11] The jury was convinced that the witness had not spoken
the truth; they declared the prisoner "Not guilty," and he was at
once set free.

Lincoln was a man who always paid his debts. Mrs. Armstrong had been
very kind to him when he was poor and friendless. Now he had paid
that debt.

[Footnote 10: See Jack Armstrong, in paragraph 251.]

[Footnote 11: The almanac usually gives the time when the moon rises;
and so by looking at any particular day of the month, one can tell
whether there was a moon on that evening.]

256. Lincoln and the pig.--Some men have hearts big enough to be kind
to their fellow-men when they are in trouble, but not to a dumb animal.
Lincoln's heart was big enough for both.

One morning just after he had bought a new suit of clothes he started
to drive to the court-house, a number of miles distant. On the way
he saw a pig that was making desperate efforts to climb out of a deep
mud-hole. The creature would get part way up the slippery bank, and
then slide back again over his head in mire and water. Lincoln said
to himself: I suppose that I ought to get out and help that pig; for
if he's left there, he'll smother in the mud. Then he gave a look
at his glossy new clothes. H