During his legal apprenticeship of three or four years, he was at the call of every citizen. He wrote deeds, contracts and other legal papers, and often appeared before the local Justice of the Peace. All this service was free. He was not forgotten by those he helped. Even when he moved to Springfield, his New Salem friends found that his counsel was ever at their disposal. His door was as open to poverty as to riches. His study of the law widened the exercise of his sympathy and his usefulness. Then, too, every satisfied client was likely to become a political supporter. It would have been amazing if Lincoln had come short of being the hero of New Salem. He won "golden opinions" from every class of men. His popularity had a substantial basis. He rode into favor on the tide of service to his fellowmen. Wholesale dispenser of laughter and sympathy, clerk at a store of the village, athlete of renown, arbiter of fights and games, pilot on a memorable journey, a debater of singular skill, an orator commanding attention, a sincere student, a soldier of some distinction, popular postmaster, a skilled surveyor, and later a lawyer and legislator--master in all these relations, he proved his worth and value to the community. No man was more thoroughly gifted in the qualities of manhood and character that lodge in the human heart. He took up the harp of pioneer life and smote all "the vital chords with might." Attuned to the lowly sentiments, to the humble ways and the hardships of the people of the prairie, his sympathies were as broad as the plains of Sangamon County. The drunkard, the outcast, the children and the women, the rowdy and the ruffian, the teacher, the store keeper, and politicians, all were his friends. He was odd in liking so many of his kind, in the universality of his sympathies. While Lincoln acted from a "full warm heart," policy could not have dictated wiser conduct for a political career. Could genius have planned the course, it would not have added greater skill to its success. His very faults were the highway to public esteem. Almost every man, each woman and child in New Salem were gladdened by his honest hand shake, the cheer of his voice and the charm of his character. CHAPTER IV PRACTICAL LEGISLATOR The fame of Lincoln as a law student and lawyer, as surveyor and postmaster, spread beyond New Salem, and the qualities that had attracted local distinction continued to find him admirers in a broader world. He steadily gained headway with an ever growing audience.