Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-11-09
" THE LITTLE REBEL. /"

rdIne1, uOnL you mere! IleaSe come
quick"
Abraham Lincoln sat with Secretar,
Stanton in the busy Office at the Whit,
House, in 1862, while "little Tad" callec
from the hall below; but getting no an
swer he rushed into his fathers presence
laid his hand on his arm, and said: &C
father, do come down and see the poo
man and the little girl She cries SO
father, and she says Mr.. Lincoln can cur,
her papa, she knows"
Secretary Stanton asks, "Tad won't dc
as well? Let me go, while your father
signs these papers"
"No, mol Just father; he's the best
he helps everybody, you know"
Mr.. Lincoln could no more refuse his
little eager boy than he could stop the
war; so he slowly rose, took Tad by the
hand, and went down the stairway into
the large hall; and lying on the marble
floor, with an old gray coat under his head
they found a dying man. Close beside
him, with her small hands clasped around
his neck, knelt child, blue-eyed
little girl, about eight years old.
She raised her wild, fearful face and
sobbed, ooh, Mr.. Lincoln, they told me il
l could get to Washington you would cure
my papa. See-see how cold and tired he
isl And now he is going to Sleep"
Tad tugged at the long coat till his tall
father knelt down too, and laid his dark
face on the old jacket that had already
Il 1 Al
The servants and surgeon came they
laid the man on cot but he was dead.
The great east room of the White House
was then used as a hospital. The beauti-
full carpet had been taken up, covers had
been drawn over the satin and velvet fur
niture, and the vast place, eighty-six feet
long and forty feet wide, was closely filled
with cots, mattresses and blankets. One
could Just pass between the rows Of wound
ed and dying men.
The little girl watched eagerly every
movement of the doctor, and when Mr..
Lincoln said in a low voice, "Come now
come with Tad, my DEAR" she seemed to
know the truth. She threw herself
across the cot, kissing the still face, run
ming her fingers through the matted hair,
and calling, "Papa, do you hear me p
But the soldier had gone beyond the roll
call and battlefield, and the sad President
bent tenderly over him with heart heavy
and bowed down with care
Suddenly one long cry and the doctor
took the child in his arms and carried her
to Mrs. Lincoln's room, where she lay for
hours like one dead She looked like a
bit of flower grown under warm South
ern sky, but storm had swept over the
blossom. She had wonderful eyes, such as
the Indians would call "eyes of the sky"
soft, fair cheeks, yellow, tangled hair, and
such pretty throat, over which somebody
had pinned a rag of shawl The little
body was exhausted and worn with the
journey; her whole nature had sunk under
the strain
Pinned to the bosom of her torn waist
was ragged strip Of paper on which was
written in pencil;
To President ABRAHAM Lincoln: This man will
be passed through the lines. He will die. The
family are killed. / can't separate the child
from him. Take care of her. Name, Tennes-
see Carter. L. s. GRANT.
"God pity and bless herl" said Mr.. Lin
coin, as he went back to his work.
"Where is mother, and why don't she
come ?" asked the impatient Tad, as he
wandered up and down behind the doctor
and the servants while "little Missy" was
made comfortable.
"Don't know, Master Tad, but what do
you think she will say to this child?'
"Now, Albert" Ted answered, very con-
fdently, you know that my own father
said she was to stay here in this very place
with me, and mother'll think that's all
right, too"
And she STAYED. In the delirium Of
fever she sang Dixie" talked about home
and the flowers, of "Joe," ard mamma y
and the blue eyes opened to strange faces
as she lay in the pretty south room of the
Presidents home She was nursed by
''Mammy Jane" and held tenderly on her
big black breast, and soothed with all the
love and all the grooming scngsof Nanny
warm heart.
"De Lawd love de POI lamb-po' lamb,"
she would say, as she bent her gaily tur-
baned head over the sunny curls; and ode
good Lawd hoP de sweet lamb on His
heart"
NANNY, sing, singr' Tennie would
cry; "sing Maryland, my Maryland as
papa did"
Everybody in the White House loved
the pretty child The busy Secretaries on
their way to the Cabinet meetings always
give Tad and his companion word as they
passed them in the wide halls or out on
the green between the War Department
and the Executive Mansion. They named
her "the little rebel" and Tad claimed her
as his own.
But the big house was full of confusion
the summer nights were plaintive with the
groans of the wounded and dying the
streets echoed to little besides the march
ing of armies and the beating of drums.
Tennie watched, with sad, pitying eyes, the
pale-faced men who came to see Mr.. Lin
coin, and Nanny begged to take her to a
new home. A lady in Georgetown had
two little girls, and she would take good
care of "the little rebel" So Tennie went
to her new home.
The war was over. Our sad-eyed, over
burdened President had toiled, suffered
and borne a troubled nation on his heart
and died.
Little Tad seldom smiled He said tC
Secretary Chase one day: my father never
was happy here in this house, but God has
taken him now in nice home, where they
don't have soldiers and a war"
He went to say good-by to Tennie, and
it was a sad sight to see the pretty child
cling to Tad, the small brown head of the
boy touching the yellow curls, and the
bitter tears running down the fair cheeks
of one and the brown ones Of the other
"Tad, never will be happy again
neverw sobbed Tennie. you are nay
best, my first friend, Tad. Don't you re
member that awful day?-and your father
Tad, and"
30, Tennie, don't, don't, can't bear it
My father has gone now to live in the SAINT
beautiful city with yours and that's wha
the lovely verse is about-'The blues anC
the grays'p
That was the last time Tad ever saw hi
little friend.