Once, while riding through the country with some other lawyers, Lincoln was missed from the party, and was seen loitering near a thicket of wild plum trees where the men had stopped a short time before to water their horses.
 
``Where is Lincoln?'' asked one of the lawyers.
 
``When I saw him last,'' answered another, ``he had caught two young birds that the wind had blown out of their nest, and was hunting for the nest to put them back again.''
 
As Lincoln joined them, the lawyers rallied him on his tender-heartedness, and he said:--
 
``I could not have slept unless I had restored those little birds to their mother.''