atmosphere is more soft, no watercourses are more enticing. Into this
region came the Virginian family, consisting, besides the parents, of
three sons and two daughters.

A year or two later the head of the family was murdered by a skulking
Indian, who proceeded to kidnap the youngest son, Thomas. The oldest
son, Mordecai, quickly obtained a gun and killed the Indian, thus
avenging his father and rescuing his little brother.

This boy Thomas was father of the president. He has been called by some
writers shiftless and densely ignorant. But he seems to have been more
a creature of circumstances. There were no schools, and he,
consequently, did not go to school. There was no steady employment, and
consequently he had no steady employment. It is difficult to see how he
could have done better. He could shoot and keep the family supplied
with wild game. He did odd jobs as opportunity opened and "just
growed."

But he had force enough to learn to read and write after his marriage.
He had the roving disposition which is, and always has been, a trait of
pioneers. But this must be interpreted by the fact that he was
optimistic rather than pessimistic. He removed to Indiana because, to
him, Indiana was the most glorious place in the whole world. He later
removed to Illinois because that was more glorious yet.

He certainly showed good taste in the selection of his wives, and what
is equally to the purpose, was able to persuade them to share his
humble lot. He had an unfailing stock of good nature, was expert in
telling a humorous story, was perfectly at home in the woods, a fair
carpenter and a good farmer; and in short was as agreeable a companion