ood in her, brought
forward by a slave-driver and handled and struck with a whip like a
horse. I had heard of such things before, but it did not seem possible
that they could be true. Then I saw the same girl sold at auction, and
purchased by a man who carried the face of a brute. When she saw who had
purchased her, she wrung her hands and cried, but she was helpless and
hopeless; and I turned my face toward the sky and vowed to give my soul
against a system like that. I'm a Free-Soiler in my heart, and I have
faith that right is might, and that the right in this matter will one
day prevail."

Jasper remained with Mrs. Duncan for some days, and then formed a small
school in the neighborhood, on the road to the town of Springfield,
Illinois.

While teaching here he could not but notice the growth of Orfutt's clerk
in the confidence of all the people. In all the games, he was chosen
umpire or referee; in most cases of dispute he was consulted, and his
judgment was followed. Long before he became a lawyer, people were
accustomed to say, in a matter of casuistry:

"Take the case to Lincoln. He will give an opinion that will be fair."

Amid this growing reputation for character, a test happened which showed
how far this moral education and discipline had gone.

A certain Henry McHenry, a popular man, had planned a horse-race, and
applied to young Lincoln to go upon the racing stand as judge.

"The people have confidence in you," he said to Lincoln.

"I must not, and I will not do it," said Lincoln. "This custom of racing
is wrong."

The man showed him that he was under a certain obligation to act as
judge on this occasion.

"I will do it," he said; "but be it known to all that I will never
appear at a horse-race again; and were I to become a lawyer, I would
never accept a case into which I could not take an honest conscience, no
matter what the inducements might be."

There was a school-master in New Salem who knew more than the honest
clerk had been able to learn. This man, whose name was Graham, could
teach grammar.

Abraham went to him one day, and said:

"I have a notion to study grammar."

"If you ever expect to enter public life, you should do so," said Mr.
Graham. "Why not begin now and recite to me?"

"Where shall I secure a book?" asked the student of this hard college of
the wood.

"There is a man named Vaner, who lives six miles from here, who has a
grammar that I think he will be willing to se