Looking Back Detail Page

01 Apr

- Farrokh Kavarana
Class of ‘58
Written when in Std V

Abraham Lincoln was born of poor parents on February 12th, 1809 in a small log cabin in Kentucky. He had a great sense of humour. An incident in his boyhood illustrating this, occurred in connection with his habit of entering the house without being mind­ful of his muddy feet. "Abe!" his step-mother once scolded him, "Just look, can't you ever remember to wipe your feet?" He quickly stepped back, cleaned his boots and cleaned the floor too. Sarah Lincoln smiled at her step-son and said, "At least you don't track up my ceiling". That very after­noon he made one of the boys who was playing in the street walk on the ceiling by holding him up side down in" the air, his muddy bare feet making tracks across the white washed ceiling. When Sarah saw the joke she laughingly said. "You will be playing jokes till your dying day". He owed his love for reading and learn­ing to his step-mother. Educating him­self he studied law and at thirty he ­became a qualified lawyer. He fought against slavery. In 1861 he was elected President of the United States. Just as Sarah Lincoln had said Abe had amounted to something. Wherever he­ went people remembered his kindness and wisdom. They remembered his jokes and funny stories too. And most of all they remembered his honesty.

President Lincoln was shot by an assas­sin and died the next day, 15th April 1865.