eir gay talk was interrupted. "Cheep! cheep! cheep!" they
heard. On the ground, not far from the roadside, two little birds lay
in the grass. They had fallen from the nest in the tree above them.
Their mother fluttered about, uttering pitiful cries.

"See those young robins that have fallen from their nest," said one
man.

"That's too bad," said another. "They are sure to die down there."

"Some cat will get them," said a third.

On they went, but soon they missed Abraham Lincoln. They looked
behind, but a turn of the road hid him from sight. "We can guess what
kept him," laughed the leader. "He has stopped to put those robins
back into their nest."

They were right. Abraham Lincoln was even then climbing the tree to
the nest with the tiny birds cuddled tenderly in one big kind hand.

Soon he rejoined his friends. One of them raised his riding-whip and
pointed at Lincoln's muddy boots. "Confess now, old Abe," he said,
"wasn't it those young robins that kept you?"

"We know you, old fellow!" said another.

"Yes, boys, you are right," Lincoln replied. "But if I hadn't put
those birds back into the nest I shouldn't have slept a wink all
night."

Here is another story of the great-hearted Lincoln. He passed a beetle
one day that was sprawling upon its back. It was kicking hard in its
efforts to turn over. Lincoln stooped and set it right. "Do you know,"
he said to the friend beside him, "I shouldn't have felt just right if
I'd left that insect struggling there. I wanted to put him on his
feet and give him a chance with all the other beetles."

Another time Lincoln and a party of lawyers were riding from one town
to another to attend court. Each lawyer wore his best clothes. Lincoln
was most careful of his well-worn suit.

On the road the party passed a small pig that had fallen into a ditch.
The poor little creature cried in a most pitiful fashion. At a bend of
the road Lincoln drew rein. His friends rode on, but he returned. He
jumped into the muddy ditch, lifted up the helpless pig, and placed
him again on solid ground. Then he galloped after the others.

The splashes of mud told their own story. His friends laughed at the
big man with the tender heart. "I could not do otherwise," said
Lincoln.

_How Molly spent her Sixpence_

ELIZA ORNE WHITE (_Adapted_)

Molly and Priscilla were two little cousins. They had been spending a
week together at their grandmother's.

When Molly was going home, the