Some time after the scuffle, Lincoln found a home, for a time, with Jack Armstrong, where he read and studied. Armstrong was a farmer, and a poor man, but he saw genius struggling in the young student, and welcomed him to his cabin home and rough fare. Mrs. Armstrong, a most excellent woman, learned to respect Mr. Lincoln, and befriended him in many ways. About twenty years after Lincoln's stay in the Armstrong home, William D. Armstrong, commonly called "Duff," a son of Jack and Hannah Armstrong, became involved in a difficulty. He was somewhat wild, and was often in bad company. One night, in August, 1857, in company with a wild crowd, he went to a camp-meeting, where a row ensued, in which a man named Metzker received injuries from which he died three days later. Young Armstrong and another young man, Norris, were arrested, charged with murder, and put in jail. The community was greatly stirred over the matter and demanded the speedy punishment of the prisoners. A short time after "Duff" was placed in jail, his father, Jack Armstrong, died, and his last request was for his wife to sell everything she had to clear "Duff." Mrs. Armstrong engaged two lawyers at Havana, Illinois, and Lincoln, hearing of her troubles, wrote her the following letter: "SPRINGFIELD, OHIO, September 18, ——. "DEAR MRS. ARMSTRONG:—I have just heard of your deep affliction, and the arrest of your son for murder. I can hardly believe that he can be guilty of the crime alleged against him. It does not seem possible. I am anxious that he should have a fair trial, at any rate; and gratitude for your long-continued kindness to me in adverse circumstances prompts me to offer my humble services gratuitously in his behalf. It will afford me an opportunity to requite, in a small degree, the favors I received at your hand, and that of your lamented husband, when your roof afforded me grateful shelter without money and without price. Yours truly, "ABRAHAM LINCOLN." The first act was to secure a postponement and a change in place of trial. The trial was held at Beardstown, in May, 1858, only two years before Mr. Lincoln was nominated for President of the United States, and the case was watched with great interest. Norris had already been convicted and sent to the penitentiary. "When the trial was called the prisoner was pale and emaciated, with hopelessness written on every feature. He was accompanied by his half-hoping, half-despairing mother, whose only hope was in a mother's belief of her son's innocence, in the justice of the God she worshiped, and in the noble counsel, who, without hope of fee or reward upon earth, had undertaken the case." A statement of the trial is here taken, with a few changes, from Barrett's excellent "Life of Lincoln":