When he was fourteen years old, young Abraham attended a log cabin school during the winter.
Nailed to one of the logs in the schoolhouse was a large buck’s head, high above the children’s reach.
A hunter had shot a deer in the forest, and presented the head, when mounted, to the school. It had two unusually fine horns.
One day the teacher noticed that one of the horns was broken off short.
Calling the school to order he asked who had broken the horn.
“I did it,” answered young Lincoln promptly. “I reached up and hung on the horn and it broke. I should not have done so if I had thought it would break.”
He did not wait until he was obliged to own up, but did so at once.
Dare to be true; nothing can need a lie.
A fault which needs it most grows two thereby.