young man studing at desk
as a boy, abraham lincoln was known as “honest abe.” like other boys he sometimes did wrong, but never did he try to hide his wrongdoing. he was always ready to own up and tell the truth. so his neighbors called him “honest abe.”
in this way he was like young george washington. the american people are fond of that kind of boy. that is one of the reasons why lincoln and washington were each twice elected president of the united states.
i. the broken buck-horn
when he was fourteen years old, young abraham[24] attended a log cabin school during the winter.
nailed to one of the logs in the schoolhouse was a large buck’s head, high above the children’s reach.
a hunter had shot a deer in the forest, and presented the head, when mounted, to the school. it had two unusually fine horns.
one day the teacher noticed that one of the horns was broken off short.
calling the school to order he asked who had broken the horn.
“i did it,” answered young lincoln promptly. “i reached up and hung on the horn and it broke. i should not have done so if i had thought it would break.”
he did not wait until he was obliged to own up, but did so at once.
dare to be true; nothing can need a lie.
a fault which needs it most grows two thereby.
—herbert.
ii. the rain-soaked book
there were no libraries on the frontier in those early days. when the boy lincoln heard of[25] anyone who had a book, he tried to borrow it, often walking many miles to do so. he said later that he had read through every book he had heard of within fifty miles of the place where he lived.
when living in indiana he often worked as a hired boy for a well-to-do farmer named josiah crawford. mr. crawford owned a “life of george washington,” a very precious book at that time. the book-hungry boy borrowed it to read.
one night he lay by the wood fire reading until he could no longer see, and then he climbed the ladder into the attic and went to bed under the eaves. before going to sleep he placed the book between two logs of the walls of the cabin for safe-keeping.
during the night a heavy rain-storm came up. when young lincoln examined the book in the morning it was water soaked. the leaves were wet through and the binding warped.
he dried the book as best he could by the fire and then in fear and trembling took it home to mr. crawford. after telling the story he asked what he might do to make good the damaged property.
to his relief, mr. crawford replied: “being[26] as it’s you, abe, i won’t be hard on you. come over and shuck corn for three days and the book is yours.”
shuck corn for three days for such a book as that! it was nothing! he felt as if mr. crawford was making him a wonderful present.
after reading the book he often talked about what he was going to do when he grew up.
mrs. crawford, who was very fond of him, would ask, “well, abe, what do you want to be now?”
“i’ll be president,” he would declare.
she would laugh at him, and say, “you would make a pretty president with all your tricks and jokes, wouldn’t you?”
“oh, i’ll study and get ready, then the chance will come,” he would reply.
truth is the highest thing a man may keep.
—cervantes.
iii. the young storekeeper
at the age of twenty-one abraham lincoln became a store clerk for a short time. he was then six feet four inches tall and very strong. he could out-run, out-jump, out-wrestle, and[27] out-fight any man in the rough pioneer country where he lived.
while the people respected his great strength, they liked him still more for his honesty in little things.
one evening, on reckoning up his accounts, he found that in making change he had taken six cents too much from a customer. on closing the store he immediately walked three miles to the farmhouse where the customer lived and returned the six cents. then he walked the three miles back.
on opening the store one morning, he discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. he remembered that his last customer the evening before had purchased half a pound of tea. he saw at once that he had given her short weight. he measured out the four ounces still due, locked the store, took a long walk to the customer’s house, and explained the shortage.
these were little things, but honest abe could not rest until he had made them right.
this above all: to thine own self be true;
and it must follow, as the night the day,
thou canst not then be false to any man.
—shakespeare.
