From
that time Abraham Lincoln had no better friends than young Armstrong
and the Armstrong family. Later on we shall see what he was able to
do for them.
[Footnote 8: New Salem is on the Sangamon River, in Menard County,
about twenty miles northwest of Springfield, the capital of
Illinois.]
252. Lincoln's faithfulness in little things; the six cents; "Honest
Abe."--In his work in the store Lincoln soon won everybody's respect
and confidence. He was faithful in little things, and in that way
he made himself able to deal with great ones.
Once a woman made a mistake in paying for something she had bought,
and gave the young man six cents too much. He did not notice it at
the time, but after his customer had gone he saw that she had overpaid
him. That night, after the store was closed, Lincoln walked to the
woman's house, some five or six miles out of the village, and paid
her back the six cents. It was such things as this that first made
the people give him the name of "Honest Abe."
253. The Black Hawk War; the Indian's handful of dry leaves; what
Lincoln did in the war.--The next year Lincoln went to fight the
Indians in what was called the Black Hawk War. The people in that
part of the country had been expecting the war; for, some time before,
an Indian had walked up to a settler's cabin and said, "Too much white
man.
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