not know what hurt him, and when the punishment was over, the good-natured young giant was ready to soothe the feelings of the vanquished. When he had knocked down and mauled a bully, and had rubbed his face with smart-weed, by way of ridiculous discipline, he let him up, helped him to compose his disorder and brought him water to assuage the woes of his irritated countenance. Lincoln was no fighter. He was brave, absolutely unafraid of anybody or anything. He never played cards, nor gambled, nor smoked, nor used profane language, nor addicted himself to any of the rude vices of the times. But far and wide he was reckoned a hero, worshipped by the stalwart wrestlers and runners of the region, cordially liked by the women, respected as a rising and brave young fellow by the elders, and earning, for himself the title that stuck to him through life, "honest Abe."

Abe Lincoln became, by general consent, the peacemaker, the arbitrator of all the petty quarrels of the neighborhood. Shunning vulgar brawls himself, he attempted to keep others out of them. An absolutely honest man, he advised exact justice to all who sought his advice; and, whenever there was too much violence developed in debate around Offutt's store door, the tall form of the young manager was sure to be seen towering over the conflict; and when argument failed to quell the disturbance, the terrific windmill of those long arms invariably brought peace. In all his activities, however, Lincoln never for one moment knew what it was to "let up" on his reading and studies. There is some

thing saddening in the record of his struggles to master everything that he thought worth knowing that was within his reach. Very poor he was, but he skimped himself and went without what many boys would call necessary clothing to subscribe to the Louisville Courier, then edited by that famous Whig George D. Prentice, a witty and most brilliant man. This was, as he afterwards said, his greatest luxury. He read every word, and some of its articles were committed to memory by sheer force of habit. Pondering over the editorial articles of his favorite. newspaper, he attempted to discover how they were constructed, and what were the rules by which language was composed and sentences framed. Application to the village schoolmaster gave him a hint as to grammar, and he was not satisfied until he had hunted down, somewhere in the region, a copy of "Kirkham's Grammar.” This he carried home, borrowed, in great triumph, nor did he pause until he had mastered its contents. Speaking of it, long afterwards, he said that he was surprised to find how little there was in a work that was made so much of by the schoolmaster. He had "collared" it in a week, and had returned the book to its owner.

CHAPTER V.

A PLUNGE INTO POLITICS.

Young Lincoln's Growing Passion for Knowledge-Candidate for the State Legislature-Captain in the Black Hawk War-A Gathering of Men Since Famous-Hardships of the Volunteer Soldiers -Stump-Speaking and Defeat-Lincoln as a Country Merchant -Lawyer and Surveyor.

UP

P to this time, Lincoln had never held any office, except that of an occasional clerk of election. So far as we know, he never had any ambition for office-holding. But the spring of 1832 found him out of business, out of work. Offutt's store had gone to pieces, that gentleman's numerous irons in the fire having at last proved too many for him. If ever Lincoln was at liberty to try his hand at politics, this was the time. He had been trained, or rather had grown up, in the backwoods, had gradually made the acquaintance of mankind, had meditated and read as no young man ever before had meditated and read, and had accustomed himself to speak extemporaneously. He was a good story-teller, alert, quickwitted, full of apt illustration and anecdote, was so close a student of human nature that he was always able to adapt himself to his little audience, whether it was the group of loungers about the blacksmith's shop at the crossroads, or the knot of farm laborers that gathered about to hear him "make a speech

on internal improvements. And, above all, by his unvarying good-nature and helpfulness, he had made friends of all who ever met him.

One historian, who happened to see him about this time, says he found him lying on a trundle-bed, reading intently while he rocked a cradle with his foot. He had plenty of leisure; he was ready to lend a hand (or foot) to any overworked housewife, but he could not neglect his book. Always a book was ready to his hand, and it is said of him that when he had nothing else to do he laid himself at length in the shade of a tree, wheeling around with the sun all day long, reading, reading, always reading. At the bottom of a barrel of "trash" that Offutt had bought of some speculative person, or had taken in exchange for goods, Lincoln found two old law books. On these he fell like a hungry child, and he never left them until he had mastered their contents, dry and indigestible though they might have seemed to the average youngster of his day. In this way, Lincoln had absorbed a great deal of useful knowledge. He was always thirsty for information. If he heard of a new book—and new books were pretty scarce in those days he was restless until he had got a sight at it. For this purpose he walked many a mile, counting no labor, no privation, anything if it brought him nearer the coveted information of men and things. He was accounted very learned by those of his neighbors who knew aught of his studies; not that his knowledge was aired with any pride, but they argued that nobody could read so much as he and not be very erudite. And in the village debates,

held in the country store or at other lounging-places, the admiring community united in the verdict that "Abe Lincoln could out-argue any ten men in the settlement."

Lincoln resolved to become a candidate for representative to the Legislature, and in a circular, dated March 9, 1832, he appealed to his friends and fellowcitizens to vote for him. He had by this time become a pronounced Whig in politics, following in the footsteps of his great chief and pattern, Henry Clay. But he hoped, and not without reason, to secure many of the votes of those who knew and liked him for his manly and admirable qualities. Before the election came on, however, there was a call for volunteers to repel hostile Indians. The famous chief Black Hawk was on the warpath. During the previous year, the Sacs, of whom Black Hawk was the recognized leader, had given much trouble to the settlers along the east bank of the Mississippi, in Illinois. By treaty, the band had gone to the west of the river and had given up all claim to their old hunting-grounds and corn-fields on the other side of the stream; but they insisted that they had been wrongfully dealt with by the white man, and that they still had a right to "make corn" in their old haunts. It is a matter of record, too, that they had been shamefully treated by some of the settlers, and that, on the least provocation, they were made to suffer the white man's vengeance. These troubles came to a head in May, 1832, when Black Hawk, at the head of about forty braves, crossed the Mississippi near the mouth of the Rock River, in the

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