would break."

Other boys of that "class" would have tried to conceal what they did
and not own up until obliged to do so. His immediate friends believed
that the hatchet and cherry-tree incident in Washington's life traced
this truthful course.


* * * * *


THE LITTLE HATCHET AGAIN TURNS UP.

In his teens Abraham Lincoln, while not considered a man, was able to
swing an ax with full power. It was the borderer's multifarious tool
and accompanied him everywhere. One time, while sauntering along
Gentryville, his stepsister playfully ran at him of a sudden and
leaped from behind upon him. Holding on to his shoulders, she dug her
knees into his back--a rough trick called fun by these semi-savages--and
brought him to the ground. Unfortunately, she caused him to release the
ax in his surprise, and it cut her ankle. The boy stopped the wound and
bandaged it, while she moaned. Through her cries, he reproached her,
and concluded:

"How could you disobey mother so?" for she had been enjoined not to
follow her brother. "What are you going to tell her about getting hurt?"

"Tell her I did it with the ax," she replied. "That will be the truth?"
she questioned, with the prevarication of her sex inborn.