The Lincoln Boys

going home

Willie: all pa's suits are black mama says you don't want to trust a man who wears blue suits or brown suits because they look cheap mama see to it that pa wears respectable cloths and cravats she has to keep him up with the other big city lawyers

Mr Steinway: you sir are the longest man in Illinois

Willie: pa Taddie knew you were going to run again the minute mama ordered up that suit

Abe: he reads the signs well scout

Willie: pa will you have to run against Senator Douglas again

Abe: most likely

Willie: I don't like Senator Douglas the boys at school want let me forget he skunked you in the election how did such a wormy little man skunk you pa

Abe: SENATOR DOUGLAS IS NOT A WORMY LITTLE MAN

Willie: BOB SAYS HE IS

Abe: there are a hundred reasons why things happen Willie those reasons fan out like circles of those reasons rings is called truth truth is the very hardest thing on earth to see clear

Willie: what is the truth

Abe: next year I will skunk Senator Douglas

Willie: how are you going to do it

Abe: we will get your mother a pair of gloves for her birthday what color should we get

Willie: red because mama's fancy shoes are red

Abe: blue because forgive me notes are her favorite

Willie: we cannot decide so we go over to Belt Buckles and get a nice steel one to send to Bob at school we get socks for Tad and get candy for me and Tad we go back to the gloves we still can't agree red or blue and so we buy both colors

Abe: we will go to Mcuickers now and purchase two tickets for Jenny Lind

Willie: pa what will Miss Jenny Lind sing tonight

Abe: probably songs in German or Italian

Willie: Will I like that pa

Abe: your mother made me swear on a stack of bibles I would take you to see Miss Jenny Lind for your own edification son

Willie: I heard her say it pa she said she doesn't want me growing up to be a prarie tick like the other people she wasn't going to name

Abe: exactly so son your mother is completely right I am a prairie tick

Willie: pa the newspaper had a notice that the Chinese acrobats and jugglers are in town they are at Metropoliton Hall we see both shows on the train home i see pa reading something when he reads he reads aloud and writes on the pages what is that pa

Abe: it's a play by William Shakespeare called Julius Caesar I have no proper schooling sob not a nickel more than nine months all together next year there will be a squad of patroons running against me all have Harvard education's and were born in silk pajamas your pa does not want to sound like a prairie tick along side em the idiom Shakespeare is a topic for the mind it plates the toughest with silver

Willie: look pa mama is on the platform waiting SHE HAS BROUGHT TADDIE TO MEET US

Abe: always she is afraid of the angel of darkness when we are not with her

Willie: I know about that angel of darkness it comes and brushed over mama when my brother Eddie died of fever he was only 3 years old ever since Eddie mama had been fearful but in the hotel we saw a good angel playing the harp didn't we pa

Abe: we will tell her that

Willie: and we will give her the gloves now and not wait for her birthday