The Rescue.IN THE BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN
A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster
and the Times of Black Hawk
BY
HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH
AUTHOR OF THE LOG SCHOOL-HOUSE ON THE COLUMBIA
Let us have faith that right makes might, andin that faith as to the end dare to do our duty.
President Lincoln.
ILLUSTRATED
NINTH EDITION
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1898
Copyright, 1892,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
PREFACE.
Abraham Lincoln has become the typical character of Americaninstitutions, and it is the purpose of this book, which is a truepicture in a framework of fiction, to show how that character, which socommanded the hearts and the confidence of men, was formed. He who inyouth unselfishly seeks the good of others, without fear or favor, maybe 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 ofAbraham Lincoln's success was the "faith that right makes might." Thisprinciple the book seeks by abundant story-telling to illustrate andmake clear.
In this volume, as in the "Log School-House on the Columbia," theadventures of a pioneer school-master are made to represent the earlyhistory of a newly settled country. The "Log School-House on theColumbia" gave a view of the early history of Oregon and Washington.This volume collects many of the Indian romances and cabin tales of theearly settlers of Illinois, and pictures the hardships and manlystruggles of one who by force of early character made himself thegreatest of representative Americans.[Pg iv]
The character of the Dunkard, or Tunker, as a wandering school-master,may be new to many readers. Such missionaries of the forests andprairies have now for the most part disappeared, but they did a usefulwork among the pioneer settlements on the Ohio and Illinois Rivers. Inthis case we present him as a disciple of Pestalozzi and a friend ofFroebel, and as one who brings the German methods of story-telling intohis work.
"Was there ever so good an Indian as Umatilla?" asks an accomplishedreviewer of the "Log School-House on the Columbia." The chief whoseheroic death in the grave of his son is recorded in that volume did notreceive the full measure of credit for his devotion, for he was reallyburied alive in the grave of his boy. A like question may be asked inregard to the father of Waubeno in this volume. We give the story verymuch as Black Hawk himself related it. In Drake's History of the Indianswe find it related in the following manner:
"It is related by Black Hawk, in his Life, that some time before the Warof 1812 one of the Indians had killed a Frenchman at Prairie des Chiens.'The British s