10 See Jack Armstrong, in paragraph [251].
11 The almanac usually gives the time when the moon rises; and so by looking at any particular day of the month, one can tell whether there was a moon on that evening.
[256. Lincoln and the pig.]—Some men have hearts big enough to be kind to their fellow-men when they are in trouble, but not to a dumb animal. Lincoln's heart was big enough for both.
| LINCOLN AND THE PIG. |
One morning just after he had bought a new suit of clothes he started to drive to the court-house, a number of miles distant. On the way he saw a pig that was making desperate efforts to climb out of a deep mud-hole. The creature would get part way up the slippery bank, and then slide back again over his head in mire and water. Lincoln said to himself: I suppose that I ought to get out and help that pig; for if he's left there, he'll smother in the mud. Then he gave a look at his glossy new clothes. He felt that he really couldn't afford to spoil them for the sake of any pig, so he whipped up his horse and drove on. But the pig was in his mind, and he could think of nothing else. After he had gone about two miles, he said to himself, I've no right to leave that poor creature there to die in the mud, and what is more, I won't leave him. Turning his horse, he drove back to the spot. He got out and carried half a dozen fence-rails to the edge of the hole, and placed them so that he could get to it without falling in himself. Then, kneeling down, he bent over, seized the pig firmly by the fore legs and drew him up on to the solid ground, where he was safe. The pig grunted out his best thanks, and Lincoln, plastered with mud, but with a light heart, drove on to the court-house.
[257. Lincoln is elected to the state legislature; he goes to Springfield to live; he is elected to Congress.]—Many people in Illinois thought that they would like to see such a man in the state legislature[12] helping to make their laws. They elected him; and as he was too poor at that time to pay so much horse-hire, he walked from New Salem, a distance of over a hundred miles, to Vandalia,[13] which was then the capital of the state.
Lincoln was elected to the legislature many times; later, he moved to Springfield, Illinois, and made that place his home for the rest of his life.
The next time the people elected him to office, they sent him to Congress to help make laws, not for his state only, but for the whole country. He had got a long way up since the time when he worked with John Hanks[14] fencing the cornfield round his father's cabin; but he was going higher still,—he was going to the top.
12 Legislature: persons chosen by the people of a state or country to make its laws.
13 Vandalia (Van-da'li-a).