a thousand can say, Abe never
gave me a cross word or look, and never refused, in fact or appearance,
to do anything I asked him. His mind and mine seemed to run together.

"I had a son, John, who was raised with Abe. Both were good boys, but I
must say, both now being dead, that Abe was the best boy I ever saw or
expect to see."

"Charity begins at home"--and so do truth and honesty. Abraham Lincoln
could not have become so popular all over the world on account of his
honest kindheartedness if he had not been loyal, obedient and loving
toward those at home. Popularity, also, "begins at home." A mean,
disagreeable, dishonest boy may become a king, because he was "to the
manner born." But only a good, kind, honest man, considerate of others,
can be elected President of the United States.

CHAPTER VII

ABE AND THE NEIGHBORS

"PREACHING" AGAINST CRUELTY TO ANIMALS

Nat Grigsby stated once that writing compositions was not required by
Schoolmaster Crawford, but "Abe took it up on his own account," and his
first essay was against cruelty to animals.

The boys of the neighborhood made a practice of catching terrapins and
laying live coals on their backs. Abe caught a group of them at this
cruel sport one day, and rushed to the relief of the helpless turtle.
Snatching the shingle that one of the boys was using to handle the
coals, he brushed them off the turtle's shell, and with angry tears in
his eyes, proceeded to use it on one of the offenders, while he called
the rest a lot of cowards.

One day his stepbrother, John Johnston, according to his sister Matilda,
"caught a terrapin, brought it to the place where Abe was 'preaching,'
threw it against a tree and crushed its shell." Abe then preached
against cruelty to animals, contending that "an ant's life is as sweet
to it as ours is to us."

ROUGHLY DISCIPLINED FOR BEING "FORWARD"

Abe was compelled to leave school on the slightest pretext to work for
the neighbors. He was so big and strong--attaining his full height at
seventeen--that his services were more in demand than those of his
stepbrother, John Johnston, or of Cousin Dennis. Abe was called lazy
because the neighbors shared the idea of Thomas Lincoln, that his
reading and studying were only a pretext for shirking. Yet he was never
so idle as either Dennis Hanks or John Johnston, who were permitted to
go hunting or fishing with Tom Lincoln, while Abe stayed out of school
to do the work that one of