hut for the shelter of his family. The pioneers of Kentucky cleared
small spaces and erected their humble dwellings. They had to contend not
only with the wild forces of nature, and to defend themselves from the
beasts of the forest,--more to be feared than either were the hostile
Indians. The settlers were filled with terror of these stealthy foes. At
home and abroad they kept their guns ready for instant use both night
and day. Many a hard battle was fought between the Indian and the
pioneer. Many an unguarded woodsman was shot down without warning while
busy about his necessary work. Among these was Abraham Lincoln. The
story of his death is related by Mr. I.N. Arnold. "Thomas Lincoln was
with his father in the field when the savages suddenly fell upon them.
Mordecai and Josiah, his elder brothers, were near by in the forest.
Mordecai, startled by a shot, saw his father fall, and running to the
cabin seized the loaded rifle, rushed to one of the loop-holes cut
through the logs of the cabin, and saw the Indian who had fired. He had
just caught the boy, Thomas, and was running toward the forest. Pointing
the rifle through the logs and aiming at a medal on the breast of the
Indian, Mordecai fired. The Indian fell, and springing to his feet the
boy ran to the open arms of his mother at the cabin door. Meanwhile
Josiah, who had run to the fort for aid, returned with a party of
settlers. The bodies of Abraham Lincoln and the Indian who had been
killed were brought in. From this time forth Mordecai Lincoln was the
mortal enemy of the Indian, and it is said that he sacrificed many in
revenge for the murder of his father."

In the presence of such dangers Thomas Lincoln spent his boyhood. He was
born in 1778, and could not have been much more than four years old on
that fatal day when in one swift moment his father lay dead beside him
and vengeance had been exacted by his resolute boy brother. It was such
experiences as these that made of the pioneers the sturdy men they were.