d Holmes was not worth revivin',
even if he had any life left in him; that it would be better for himself
and everybody if he were left to perish."

"Holmes! Did you carry that man on your back, Abraham?"

"Yes. I could not leave him by the road. He is a human being, and I did
by him as I would have him do by me if I lost my moral senses. They told
me to leave him to his fate, but I couldn't, mother. I couldn't."

Waubeno gazed on the young giant as he drank his coffee, and sank into a
deep slumber on a mat in the room. He watched him as he slept.

When he woke, Jasper said to him:

"Abraham, I wish you to know this Indian boy. I think there is a native
nobility in him. Do you remember Johnnie Kongapod's story, at which the
people all used to laugh?"

"Yes, elder."

"Abraham Lincoln, I can believe that story was true. I have faith in
men. You do. Your faith will make you great."

CHAPTER XV.

THE DEBATING SCHOOL.

There were some queer people in every town and community of the new
West, and these were usually active at the winter debating school. These
schools of the people for the discussion of life, politics, literature,
were, on the whole, excellent influences; they developed what was
original in the thought and character of a place, and stimulated reading
and study. If a man was a theorist, he could here find a voice for his
opinions; and if he were a genius, he could here uncage his gifts and
find recognition. Nearly all of the early clergymen, lawyers,
congressmen, and leaders of the people of early Indiana and Illinois
were somehow developed and educated in these so-called debating schools.

Among the odd people sure to be found in such rural assemblies were the
man with visionary schemes for railroads, canals, and internal
improvements, the sanguine inventor, the noisy free-thinker, the
benevolent Tunker, the man who could preach without notes by "direct
inspiration," the man who thought that the world was about to come to an
end, and the patriot who pictured the American eagle as a bird of fate
and divinity. The early pioneer preacher learned to talk in public in
the debating school. The young lawyer here made his first pleas.

The frequent debates in Jones's store led to the formation of a debating
school in Gentryville and Pigeon Creek. In this society young Abraham
Lincoln was the leader, and his cousin Dennis Hanks and his uncle John
were prominent disputants. The story-telling blacksm