a clever and lovably mischievous child,
"the chartered libertine of the White House" for a little while, had died
at the age of twelve in the early days of 1862, when his father was
getting so impatient to stir McClellan into action. These and a son who
had long before died in infancy were the only children of Mr. and Mrs.
Lincoln. Little has been made public concerning them, but enough to
convey the impression of a wise and tender father, trusted by his
children and delighting in them. John Nicolay, his loyal and capable
secretary, and the delightful John Hay must be reckoned on the cheerful
side--for there was one--of Lincoln's daily life. The life of the home
at the White House, and sometimes in summer at the "Soldiers' Home" near
Washington, was simple, and in his own case (not in that of his guests)
regardless of the time, sufficiency, or quality of meals. He cannot have
given people much trouble, but he gave some to the guard who watched him,
themselves keenly watched by Stanton; for he loved, if he could, to walk
alone from his midnight conferences at the War Department to the White
House or the Soldiers' Home. The barest history of the events with which
he dealt is proof enough of long and hard and anxious working days, which
continued with hardly a break through four years. In that history many a
complication has here been barely glanced at or clean left out; in this
year, for example, the difficulty about France and Mexico and the failure
of the very estimable Banks in Texas have been but briefly noted. And
there must be remembered, in addition, the duty of a President to be
accessible to all people, a duty which Lincoln especially strove to
fulfil.

Apart from formal receptions, the stream of callers on him must have
given Lincoln many compensations for its huge monotony. Very odd, and
sometimes attractive, samples of human nature would come under his keen
eye. Now and then a visitor came neither with a troublesome request, nor
for form's sake or for curiosity, but in simple honesty to pay a tribute
of loyalty or speak a word of good cheer which Lincoln received with
unfeigned gratitude. Farmers and back-country folk, of the type he could
best talk with, came and had more time than he ought to have spared
bestowed on them. At long intervals there came a friend of very
different days. Some ingenious men, for instance, fitted out Dennis
Hanks in a new suit of clothes and sent him as their ambassador