of the young men.

The poor drunkard was found in a perfectly helpless condition, upon
the chilly ground. Abraham's companions urged the cowardly policy of
leaving him to his fate, but young Lincoln would not hear to the
proposition. At his request, the miserable sot was lifted to his
shoulders, and he actually carried him eighty rods to the nearest
house. Sending word to his father that he should not be back that
night, with the reason for his absence, he attended and nursed the man
until the morning, and had the pleasure of believing that he had saved
his life.

A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS

BY CHARLES SUMNER

Abraham Lincoln was born, and, until he became President, always lived
in a part of the country which, at the period of the Declaration of
Independence, was a savage wilderness. Strange but happy Providence,
that a voice from that savage wilderness, now fertile in men, was
inspired to uphold the pledges and promises of the Declaration! The
unity of the republic on the indestructible foundation of liberty and
equality was vindicated by the citizen of a community which had no
existence when the republic was formed.

A cabin was built in primitive rudeness, and the future President
split the rails for the fence to inclose the lot. These rails have
become classical in our history, and the name of rail-splitter has
been more than the degree of a college. Not that the splitter of rails
is especially meritorious, but because the people are proud to trace
aspiring talent to humble beginnings, and because they found in this
tribute a new opportunity of vindicating the dignity of free labor.

CHOOSING "ABE" LINCOLN CAPTAIN

From "Choosing 'Abe' Lincoln Captain, and Other Stories"

When the Black Hawk war broke out in Illinois about 1832, young
Abraham Lincoln was living at New Salem, a little village of the class
familiarly known out west as "one-horse towns," and located near the
capital city of Illinois.

He had just closed his clerkship of a year in a feeble grocery, and
was the first to enlist under the call of Governor Reynolds for
volunteer forces to go against the Sacs and Foxes, of whom Black Hawk
was chief.

By treaty these Indians had been removed west of the Mississippi into
Iowa; but, thinking their old hunting-grounds the better, they had
recrossed the river with their war paint on, causing some trouble, and
a great deal of alarm among the settlers. Such was the origin of the
war; and the han