In The Boyhood of Lincoln

stories of beautiful spiritual meaning that he had been accustomed to hear at Marienthal, at Weimar, and on the Rhine. The tales of Richter, Haupt, Hoffman, and Baron Fo

, "Have you found the Lord?" The favorite tales were of Indians, bears, and ghosts, and t

sper loved them, for the tales of a people are the heart o

a lesson of contentment by a German household story. Johnnie Kongapod ha

id Jasper, "do you

y. We don't spin ai

e pass through fairy-land. There once came a fairy

man in these parts. 'Tis no harm

a fairy to t

ave three w

couple

and not make any mistake, since we can onl

ding upon the table. The poor

have done by your foolis

e,' said the woman. 'We have but t

fairy had disappeared from the hearth, a

t his wife had lost one

he. 'I wish that that miserable

he table and hung at the e

you see what you have don

one wish left. We must now be th

did so, the pudding grew heavy at the end of the ol

ow I wish that pudd

appeared, and th

ue," said A

true to life is true. Stori

light. Aunt Indiana knew that no fairy would ever

en 'em,"

ou seen? I'd like to k

iri

he

ve been

fairies in my dream

Yankee pioneer had no faculties for creative fancy. Her fairy was the plow that breaks the ground,

of the Pilgrim's Progress. He's all imagination, just like you and the Indians. People who don't have

hat the boy had id

m?" said Au

hedral is an ideal before it is a form. So is a house,

ng around with a book in his hand,

he can for her, and he has never given her an unkind word. He loves his step-mo

ons. She might have seen fairies. But she was an awful good woman-good to everybody, and everybody loved her; and we were all sorry when she died, and we all love her grave yet. It is queer, but we all seem to love her grave. A sermon goes better when it is preached there under the great trees. Some folks had rather hear a sermon preached there than at the

has a keen sense of what is right, and he is always governed by

he thought wrong-never. He couldn't. He takes after his mother'

lways do right. And a boy that has a heart to feel for every one, and a conscience that is true to a sense of righ

He leads now. His heart leads; his mind leads. I can see it. The world here is going to need men of knowledge, and it will select the man

travel a mile a minute, and clodhoppers become merchants and Congressers, and as rich as Spanish grandees, then Abraham Lincoln may become a leader of the people, but not till then! No, elder, you are no Samuel, that has come down h

ill talk of our prophecies in other years, should Providence permit. My soul has set its mark on that

wore a raccoon-skin cap, a linsey-woolsey shirt, and leather breeches, and was barefooted, although the weather was yet cool. He did not look lik

' to be somebody, and make somethin' in the world. I hope you will, though you're a shaky tree to hang hopes on. I ain't got nothin' ag

lder, for your good opinion. I wonder if I will ever make anything? I sometimes think I will. I look over toward mother's grave there, and think I will; bu

me to preach and to teach. Let us have faith that right is might, and do our duty, and the Spirit of God will g

through the trees. A robin

d-faced boy. It was a commonplace scene in the Indiana timber, and that one lonely g