who had faith in
Indian character. Among those settlers who held all Indians to be bad it
was treated as a joke. Old Jasper asked Johnnie Kongapod many questions
about it, and at last laid his hand on the dusky poet's shoulder, and
said:

"My brother, I hope that it is true. I believe it, and I honor you for
believing it. It is a good heart that believes what is best in life."

How strange all this new life seemed to Jasper! How unlike the old
castles and cottages of Germany, and the cities of the Rhine! And yet,
for the tall boy by that cabin fire new America had an opportunity that
Germany could offer to no peasant's son. Jasper little thought that that
boy, so lively, so rude, so anxious to succeed, was an uncrowned king;
yet so it was.

And the legend? A true story has a soul, and a peculiar atmosphere and
influence. Jasper saw what the Indian's story was, though he had heard
it only indirectly and in outline. It haunted him. He carried it with
him into his dreams.

[Illustration: THE HOME OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN WHEN IN HIS TENTH YEAR.]

CHAPTER IV.

A BOY WITH A HEART.

Spring came early to the forests and prairies of southern Indiana. In
March the maples began to burn, and the tops of the timber to change,
and to take on new hues in the high sun and lengthening days. The birds
were on the wing, and the banks of the streams were beginning to look
like gardens, as indeed Nature's gardens they were.

The woodland ponds were full of turtles or terrapins, and these began to
travel about in the warm spring air.

There was a great fireplace in Crawford's school, and, as fuel cost
nothing, it was, as we have said, well fed with logs, and was kept
almost continually glowing.

It was one of the cruel sports of the boys, at the noonings and recesses
of the school, to put coals of fire on the backs of wandering terrapins,
and to joke at the struggles of the poor creatures to get to their homes
in the ponds.

Abraham Lincoln from a boy had a tender heart, a horror of cruelty and
of everything that would cause any creature pain. He was merciful to
every one but the unmerciful, and charitable to every one but the
uncharitable, and kind to everyone but the unkind. But his nature made
war at once on any one who sought to injure another, and he was
especially severe on any one who was so mean and cowardly as to
disregard the natural rights of a dumb animal or reptile. He had in this
respect the sensitiveness of