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When Abraham Lincoln was a young man he was the postmaster at his home village of New Salem, Illinois. The duties were not very hard, for people did not write many letters in those days. Indeed,Hie mail was so small that it is said the post-master of New Salem carried the post-office in his hat. He would go off on a trip and take the post-office along with him, delivering letters on the way.
Lincoln’s strong love of fair play was so well known that he was often called upon to settle disputes among his neighbors. In this way he came to be looked upon as the peacemaker of the village.
One day Lincoln acted as umpire in a quarrel which had arisen between two young fellows very much smalls than himself. One of these boys, angry because the dispute had been decided against him, said boastfully to Lincoln, “See here, Abe! I’ll lick you.”
The tall umpire looked down at his small challenger. “All right,”he said, “but let’s fight fair. You are so small that there isn’t much of you for me to hit, but I am so big that you can’t help hitting me. So you make a chalk mark on me that will show just your size. When we fight, you must hit me inside this mark, or it will not count as fair.”
This idea was so funny that the little bully began to laugh. Of course that took all the anger out of him, and the quarrel ended as a joke.
At another time, Lincoln came upon a poor man who was chopping up an old hut into firewood. The day was raw, and the man looked too weak for such hard work. He was barefooted and so thinly clad that he was shivering with cold.
Lincoln stopped and called out, “See here! how much do you get for this job?”
“A dollar,” said the man, “I’ve got to have the dollar to get some shoes.”
“You go home and warm yourself,” said Lincoln, taking the ax from the wood-chopper. Then he swung the ax as only Abraham Lincoln could, and in a short time the old hut was chopped into firewood. The poor wood-chopper got his dollar and his shoes, and he never forgot the kindness of Abraham Lincoln.
( Elbridge S. Brooks )
postmaster : a person who delivers mail
quarrel : argument
lick : to beat in a figh
umpire : a referee
A) Answer the following questions.
1) Why was Lincoln chosen as the umpire?
2) What quality did Lincoln show when the bully offered to figh him?
3) What quality did he show in the case of the woodchopper?
4) What qualities does Lincoln have that would make him a good leader?
5) What words in this story made you laugh?
B) Word Groups—Complete the following word groups with words from the story.
1) town, city, v _ _ _ _ _ _
2) argument, disagreement, q _ _ _ _ _ _
3) cabin, shack, h _ _
4) looks, peeks, g _ _ _ _ _ _ _
5) knife, sword, a _
C) Summary—Write a short summary of the story.