He was never grasping, and seemed incapable of believing that his services could be worth much to anyone.
One of the most famous cases in which Lincoln engaged was that of William D.Armstrong, son of Jack and Hannah Armstrong of New Salem, the child whom Lincoln had rocked in the cradle while Mrs.Armstrong attended to other household duties.

Jack Armstrong, it will be remembered, was an early friend of Lincoln's, whom he had beaten in a wrestling-match on his first arrival in New Salem.

He and his wife had from that time treated the youth with the utmost kindness, giving him a home when he was out of work, and showing him every kindness it was in their power to offer.

Lincoln never forgot his debt of gratitude to them; and when Hannah, now a widow, wrote to him of the peril her boy was in, and besought him to help them in their extremity, he replied promptly that he would do what he could.

The circumstances were these: "In the summer of 1857, at a camp-meeting in Mason County, one Metzgar was most brutally murdered.