Best short stories for intermediate English learners: Why Lincoln Grew a Beard?
Best short stories for intermediate English learners: Why Lincoln
Grew a Beard?
Though he
wore his beard only four years, today we can hardly think of
Abraham Lincoln without it. He often talked about the little girl in Westfield,
New York, who suggested in a letter that he grow the famous the famous beard.
Few know the
girl’s name; there is no mention of 11-years old Grace Bedell in some of the
thickest books published about Lincoln. But he enjoyed telling the story and
would add with a quiet chuckle, “Sometime a small thing can
change our lives!”
The girl’s
advice
Grace Bedell
sat in her attic room looking at a picture which her father had
given her. It was not a drawing and it was not a painting, yet you could see
every hair on Lincoln’s head and all the details of his clothing. It was the
first photograph Grace had ever seen. It gave her a strange
feeling that the tall, lean man himself was looking at her.
Grace little
lamp threw shadows on the black-and-white photograph. The features seemed to
come alive. A series of small shadows lay around the thin face and covered the
hollow cheeks. “Whiskers!” she thought. “How becoming!”
she said to herself. “Somebody should tell him. If he really had whiskers, all
the ladies would like him. They would ask their husbands to vote for him, and
he would become president. I must tell him.” She reached for a pen and began to
write a letter:
Westfield
Chautauqua
County, N.Y.
October 15,
1860
Mr. Abraham Lincoln
Dear sir:
I am a
little girl 11 years old, but I want you to be president of the United States
very much. So I hope you won’t think me very bold to write to
such a great man as you are.
Have you a
little girl about as large as I am? If so, give her my love and tell her to
write me if you cannot answer this letter. I have four brothers and some of
them will vote for you. If you will let your whiskers grow, I will try to get
the others to vote for you. You would look a good deal better, for your face is
so thin. All the ladies like whiskers, and they would ask their husbands to
vote for you. Then you would become President.
GRACE
BEDELL
At that time
about 50 letters a day arrived at the Lincoln campaign headquarters.
Lincoln saw
only those from friends and from very important people. His two secretaries,
John Nicolay and John Hay, considered all the other mail unimportant and
usually did not give it to Lincoln.
Hay picked
up a group of letters from his desk and began to read them. “Now,” he said, “a
little girl tells the Chief how he can be elected.” “Put it in the wastebasket,”
answered Nicolay. “She has an original idea,” Hay smiled. “She thinks he should
grow whiskers,” “throw the letter away, Hay. We have plenty of other work to
do,” “No, Nicolay. Maybe the Chief should – ‘
A large,
blue-eyed, bearded man walked into the office without knocking. He said, “Good morning,
young fellows,” and Hay spoke to him. “Mr. Herndon, I think –“Nicolay became
impatient. “Hay let’s forget about the whisker, let’s forget about the little
girl,” he said.
“Little
girl?” Herndon’s eyes suddenly turned gentle as he looked toward the door of
Lincoln’s office.
It was not
completely closed, so Herndon lowered his voice, “The Chief loves little girls.
When he meets one on the street, he always stops to talk to her. What were you
saying about a little girl?”
Nicolay was
angry by this time. “Hay, I said drop that letter in the wastebasket! And after
that, you’ll have to rush a reply to this letter from the Governor of
Pennsylvania. This is really important.”
“Why?” said
Lincoln’s calm voice as he walked through the door. “The Governor’s old enough
to be patient.”
A few days
later Grace Bedell received this letter:
Springfield, Illinois
October 19, 1860
Miss Grace
Bedell
Westfield,
New York
My dear
little Miss,
Your very
agreeable letter of October 15 has been received. I regret the
necessity of saying that I have no daughters. I have three sons: one seventeen,
one nine and one seven years of age. They, with their mother, constitute
my entire family. As to whiskers, I have never had any. Do you think people
would consider it a silly thing to do if I began to grow some
now?
Your very good friend,
A. LINCOLN
On February
16 of the following year a special train carried the newly elected President
Lincoln to the White House. The people of west field learned that
the train would stop briefly at a station near their town. The Bedell family
arrived at the station and found a large sign with the words “Hail
to the Chief” above the tracks and the Star-Spangled Baner flying
from the roof of the station.
As Grace
looked around at the many strange faces, there was a sudden silence. A thousand
ears strained to listen. “Here comes the train!” someone in the crowd shouted.
Grace raised her eyes as high as she could and saw the top of a black railway
engine pass slowly beyond the heads of the people in front of her. Then came
the flat roof of a railway car, and another, and a third with the Stars and
Stripes waving from the back of it.
A very tall,
black hat stood a little higher than a lot of other black hats – that was all
Grace could see. Some of the people were shouting “ speech! Speech!” and Grace held her breath.
All around her everyone became quiet. “Ladies and gentlemen,” someone said, “I
have no speech to make and no times to make it. I appear before you so that I
may see you and you may see me.”
Grace felt
ice-cold. It was he-his voice. He was up there on the platform.
She tried hard to see him, but all she could see was the black hat.
Lincoln was
speaking again. “I have but one question, standing here beside the flag: will
you give me the support a man needs to be president of out country?”
Hands and
hats rose into the air along with loud voices: “Yes- yes- we certainly will, Abe!”
Once more
Graces heard Lincoln. “I have a little correspondent in this
place,” he said. “This little lady told me how to improve my appearance, and I
want to thank her. If she present, I would like to speak to her.”
“My little
Friend”
“Tell us her
name,” someone shouted. “The name!” And Lincoln replied: “Her name is Grace
Bedell.”
Her father
took Grace’s hand and led her forward. She went without noticing that a path
was opened for them and that they were trailed by pointing fingers and
whispers. She went to the one who had asked for her by name.
There were
steps ahead, so her father lifted her up to the platform in sight of a thousand
people, up to a pair of big feet.
Somewhere
above her she heard s slow chuckle. “She wrote me that thought I would look
better if I wore whiskers”
He stooped.
Grace felt strong hands under her arms. Then, as if she had no weight at all,
she was raised high in the air, kissed on both cheeks and gently set down
again. The beard was good to look a, but it did not feel good against her
checks.
The thousand
people were forgotten. Grace looked and laughed happily, for up there on the rugged
face were the whiskers.
“You see, I
let them grow for you, Grace,” said Lincoln. Grace could do nothing but look at
the tall, plain, great man. She would have been happy to stand and look forever
and ever.
He took her
hand. She heard him say that he hoped to see his little friend again sometime;
she understood that this moment had to end. He helped her down the steps of the
railway car, and she went obediently, like a good girl, back to her proud
father.
Grace heard
the train whistle and the loud noise of the engine starting again on it
journey. People cheered and waved after the train until it was far down the
tracks. But in her mind Grace heard only three words repeated over and over:
“My little friend…”
If you visit
Springfield, Illinois, today you will see where Abraham Lincoln used to live.
It is a plain, white, two-story house with a fence around it. People say it
looks just as it did then, outside and inside. On the wall of a room hangs a
piece of paper covered with a child’s handwriting: “Dear Sir – I am a little
girl 11 years old…”
Vocabulary
Beard, long
hair growing on sides and lower parts of a man’s face
Chuckle, a
low, quiet laugh
Attic, a
room at the top of a house, just under the roof
Photograph,
a picture made with a camera
Whiskers,
pleasingly suitable to one's appearance
Bold, daring
Campaign
headquarters, a place where a man seeking to be elected to public office plans
his activities and directs his helpers. The effort to win the election is
called a campaign.
Wastebasket,
a basket or box in which to throw wastepaper or other useless material
Regret, be
sorry about
Constitute,
make up, form
Silly,
foolish
White House,
a large white house in Washington, D.C., where the president of the United
States lives.
Hail,
greetings, welcome. “Hail to the Chief’ means “welcome to the chief”
Star-Spangled
Banner, a name for the United States flag
Stars and
Stripes, another name for the United States flag
Platform, a
raised floor, usually made of wood. In this story, the platform is a kind of
porch on the end of a railway car.
Abe, a short
form of the name Abraham
Correspondent,
a person with whom one exchanges letters
Stooped,
bent his body forward and down
Rugged, deeply
lined
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