In a few minutes Mr. Lincoln joined them. His shoes were covered with mud; he had torn his coat on the thorny tree.
"Hello, Abraham!" said Mr. Hardin. "Where have you been?"
"I stopped a minute to give those birds to their mother," he answered.
"Well, we always thought you were a hero," said Mr. Speed. "Now we know it."
Then all three of them laughed heartily. They thought it so foolish that a strong man should take so much trouble just for some worthless young birds.
"Gentlemen," said Mr. Lincoln, "I could not have slept to-night, if
I had left those helpless little robins to perish in the wet grass."
Abraham Lincoln afterwards became very famous as a lawyer and statesman. He was elected president. Next to Washington he was the greatest American.
ANOTHER BIRD STORY
A great battle had begun. Cannon were booming, some far away, some near at hand. Soldiers were marching through the fields. Men on horseback were riding in haste toward the front.
"Whiz!" A cannon ball struck the ground quite near to a company of soldiers. But they marched straight onward. The drums were beating, the fifes were playing.