Abraham Lincoln often went out of his way to do a kindness to some weak
or suffering creature. [Footnote: The following incident is related by
one who knew Lincoln: "We passed through a thicket of wild plum and
crab-apple trees, and stopped to water our horses. One of the party came
up alone and we inquired: 'Where is Lincoln?'
"'Oh,' he replied, 'when I saw him last he had caught two young birds
which the wind had blown out of their nest, and he was hunting for the
nest, that he might put them back in it.'"] A great German poet so loved
the birds that he left a sum of money with the request that they should
be fed every day on his grave.
Thoreau, who has written many beautiful books about nature, had a great
love for the little wild creatures of the woods, and they in turn loved
and trusted him. "Even the fishes came into his hand when he dipped it
into the stream. The little mice would come arid playfully eat from his
fingers, and the very moles paid him friendly visits. Sparrows lighted
on his shoulders when he called them; the phoebe birds built their nests
in his shed, and the wild partridge with her brood came and fed quietly
beneath his window.
"After he had lived two or three months in the woods the wild birds
ceased to be afraid of him, and would come and perch on his shoulder,
and sometimes on his spade when he was digging.
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