River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-02-09
NE LAYcOlWA 0IzE NJ COLEO COAlYTX III.

+bev s+udied-so hard To memorize the AS, BIS
and C's-and with what doting tondness sn0
must have trained little Abe's tiny hano u
trace the letters a slate!
Dearly Nancy Lincoln loved the BloIe ana
there were readings from the sacred BOOK;
there was told the DID, old story And these
stories Lincoln never forgot When, IN AFTER
life, he electrified the world by his eloquence.
his mastery of pure and perfect Engllsh ana
his tempestuous oratory, he retold the same
stories--the stories he heard at his mother
knee.
Life was not prosperous with the father. He
left Kentucky and went prospecting in Illinois,
where he took up land on Little Pigeon creek
in Spencer county And again the hard-Worke0
wife was called upon to move her home.
With their furniture packed in wagon and
their COW behind the family started on their
long pilgrimage in 1916. During the winter OF
1916 and 1917 the family lived in camp. The
winter rigorous.
OVERWHELMINGLY the tender, gentle woman
bore her lot, but her health slowly gave way,
her face became more rough cabin was
begun in the spring and life opened anew. Land
was cleared Thomas Lincoln piled his trade
among the scattered inhabitants of the solitary
region. They began to prosper. But the life
had been too hard for the tender, loving wife
and she sank under the burden.
One day in October 1918, she lay in her
bed In the little cabin, she called her two chill
dren to her.
"She took the hands of Sarah and the thin,
serious-faced boy. BE good to one another"
she said, brokenly, with infinite tenderness.
Then she closed her eyes, The wonderful
smile deepened The sunlight faded into even
ing and little Abe, leaving Sarah kneeling by
the bed crept away aAd climbed the pegs in the
wall to the garnet, where he flung himself on
the mattress of leaves.
Night fell, and from the loft stif1ed
sound of sobbing-sobbing repressed, checked,
restrained, yet so poignant, so keen, SO heart
forlorn that the father, returning home, paused
hearing it. his heart sinking. He knew the SUM-
light of the boys life had departed.
Many years afterward people wondered at
the sorrow moulded indeby on the face of
Lincoln-like agony craven on a figure of stone.
Before the next December Thomas Lincoln
married Sarah Bush Johnston, widow, who,
it is said had rejected him many years before.
In later years, when Lincoln, again shrouded
in sorrow, sat by the bedside Of his little son,
Willie, who dying, he cried in despair
"This is the hardest trial of my life. Why is
it? Why is it?" nurse who had lost her hus-
band and children told him of her loss, adding,
But trust in Cod rely upon his will" Lin
coin shook his head sadly.
On the day of the funeral he asked the nurse
and some friends to pray for him. 81 will try
to go to God with my sorrows" he said. 81 wish
1 had that childlike faith you speak of. l trust
God will give it to me-"
Then mis- memory travelled back over the
years and his first loss by death came to his
mind. He told of his mothers confident belief
in the wisdom Of God. II remember her pray
ers," he said in low voice. land they have
always followed me. They have followed me all
my life"