In The Boyhood of Lincoln / A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster and the Times of Black Hawk

The Rescue.
Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith as to the end dare to do our duty.
President Lincoln.
NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1898
Copyright, 1892, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

Abraham Lincoln has become the typical character of American institutions, and it is the purpose of this book, which is a true picture in a framework of fiction, to show how that character, which so commanded the hearts and the confidence of men, was formed. He who in youth unselfishly seeks the good of others, without fear or favor, may be ridiculed, but he makes for himself a character fit to govern others, and one that the people will one day need and honor. The secret of Abraham Lincoln's success was the faith that right makes might. This principle the book seeks by abundant story-telling to illustrate and make clear.
In this volume, as in the Log School-House on the Columbia, the adventures of a pioneer school-master are made to represent the early history of a newly settled country. The Log School-House on the Columbia gave a view of the early history of Oregon and Washington. This volume collects many of the Indian romances and cabin tales of the early settlers of Illinois, and pictures the hardships and manly struggles of one who by force of early character made himself the greatest of representative Americans.
The character of the Dunkard, or Tunker, as a wandering school-master, may be new to many readers. Such missionaries of the forests and prairies have now for the most part disappeared, but they did a useful work among the pioneer settlements on the Ohio and Illinois Rivers. In this case we present him as a disciple of Pestalozzi and a friend of Froebel, and as one who brings the German methods of story-telling into his work.
Was there ever so good an Indian as Umatilla? asks an accomplished reviewer of the Log School-House on the Columbia. The chief whose heroic death in the grave of his son is recorded in that volume did not receive the full measure of credit for his devotion, for he was really buried alive in the grave of his boy. A like question may be asked in regard to the father of Waubeno in this volume. We give the story very much as Black Hawk himself related it. In Drake's History of the Indians we find it related in the following manner: