oming from middle Germany and the
Rhine lands, everything seemed vast and limitless. The prairies with
their bluebells, the prairie islands with their giant trees, the forests
that shaded the streams, were all like a legend, a fairy story, a dream.
He admired the heroic spirit of the pioneers, and he took the Indians to
his heart. In this spirit he began to travel over the unbroken prairies
of Indiana and Illinois.

CHAPTER II.

THOMAS LINCOLN'S FAMILY STORIES.

The red sun was glimmering through the leafless boughs of the great oaks
when Jasper again came to the gate of Thomas Lincoln's log cabin. Mr.
Crawford had remained after school with the tall boy who had brought
"obliquity" upon the spelling-class. Tradition reports that there was a
great rattling of leather breeches, and expostulations, and lamentations
at such solemn, private interviews. Mr. Crawford, who was "great on
thrashing," no doubt did his duty as he understood it at that private
session at sundown. Sticks were plenty in those days, and the will to
use them strong among most pioneer schoolmasters.

Abraham Lincoln and his sister accompanied Jasper to the log-house. They
heard the lusty cry for consideration and mercy in the log school-house
as they were going, and stopped to listen. Jasper did not approve of
this rugged discipline.

"I should not treat the boy in that way," said he philosophically.

"You wouldn't?" said Abraham. "Why? Crawford is a great teacher; he
knows everything. He can cipher as far as the rule of three."

"Yes, lad, but the true purpose of education is to form character. Fear
does not make true worth, but counterfeit character. If education fails
to produce real character, it fails utterly. True education is a matter
of the soul as much as of the mind. It should make a boy want to do
right because it is the right thing to do right. Anything that fails to
produce character for its own sake, and not for a selfish reason, is a
mistake. But what am I doing--criticising? Now, that is wrong. I seemed
to be talking with Froebel. Yes, Crawford is a great teacher, all things
considered. He does well who does his best. You have a great school. It
is not like the old German schools, but you do well."

Jasper began a discourse about Pestalozzi and that great thinker's views
of universal education. But the words were lost on the air. The views of
Pestalozzi were not much discussed in southern Indiana at this time,
though the