We all knew that there was only me and Nelson to give our half way reports on our projects left. I really wanted mine to be last, because by then it would be so late in the term that Miss Marble couldn’t tell me that I had to change it. But I did have all the information from the letters from Mrs. Custer which I could use to pad out the middle bit of my essay.

But luck was with me, and Miss Marble did choose Nelson next. His was the subject that we all felt like we already knew enough about. We had Lincoln and his life told to us from birth, so it would be hard for him to find anything new and interesting that we didn’t already know.

I knew that he had access to some things about Lincoln that weren’t public knowledge - like he was talking over with Thomas that day we heard him outside class. I did sincerely hope that he wouldn’t have any more of those sorts of things to reveal to us in his report.

Nelson is pretty full of himself. When he stood up in front of the group, he already knew that he was going to impress us by what he was going to say, and he couldn’t wait.

"You think you all know pretty much all there is to know about Abraham Lincoln. But I am going to tell you today some things that I think you probably didn’t know.

"Did you know that his wife’s family owned slaves? Did you know that he wasn’t really in favor of freeing the slaves, but only wanted to keep more states from being allowed to take on the option of having them?

"Did you know that his wife had lots of fits - and did the most outrageous things?  She stole money from the government - or at least she used money that was supposed to be for use for Presidential things for her own personal use. When Lincoln died, she was $30,000 dollars in debt.

"Lincoln made the Emancipation Proclamation shortly after he had read Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Albertina has already told us that when he met her he said that it was her book that really started the war. But I have read that he didn’t have the power to free the slaves. Only the Congress could do that, and they weren’t in session. So during the war, when he pretended he was doing something so important that it would rock the country, he didn’t have the power to do it - but nobody who knew that let on. And when the Congress did meet, they did ratify the amendment to the constitution to end slavery, so it all got done officially in the end. But it wasn’t him that did it.

"Did you know that when he gave his famous Gettysberg Address it was considered to be a worthless speech, and the newspapers of the day (or at least most of them) rubbished it? Did you know that he considered it a failure, and felt really bad that he had done such a bad job?

"Did you know that his wife, after their son died, actually thought she could talk to him, and to her three brothers who were killed in the war fighting on the Confederate side? She had seances all over the place.

"Did you know that he didn’t really believe in God? He only puts the words “Under God” into the Gettysberg address because he was told by one of his advisers that it would be a good move, and would get him more support.

"Did you know that there were dozens of plots to kill him, and he was expecting to be assassinated? He even dreamed about it only a day or so before it happened. He dreamed that he could see himself lying in state and people were saying that he had been shot. He recorded it in his journal so we know that it was really true. And John Wilkes Booth had tried to kill him once before at the same theatre - and that time, it hadn’t worked because the stupid man had not taken the safety off on the pistol.
 

"Did you know that during the middle of the war, he was really worried about being reelected for a second term? He had always wanted to be president, and he really enjoyed the power he had, and he was so frightened that it would be taken away from him.

"Did you know that they kept their eldest son Robert from joining up in the war at the beginning, even though that was what he really wanted to do? He was sent to Yale, and when people criticized the fact that his son wasn’t fighting, they always said he would do as soon as he finished his education. He really wanted his son to have the educational advantages that he didn’t have and he wanted him to talk with a proper Eastern accent, not in the backwoodsy way that he himself talked, and that people used to mimic.

"Did you know that the rich people could give $200 to keep their sons from being called up? Did you know that Lincoln wanted the war to be fought by volunteers only, but there weren’t enough, so they had a sort of lottery, with all the names of men between 18 and 35 in each of the Northern states, being put into a hat, and the unlucky ones drawn out.

"Did you know that when Mrs. Lincoln’s sister came to visit her after the death of her favourite son, she was not allowed to go back South to her home place unless she signed a form saying that she rejected slavery? And do you know that Lincoln himself filled in the form and forged her signature so she could go back?

"So now, what do you think of Honest Abe? Is he quite the same person as you thought you knew so well? "

We were all in shock when Nelson sat down, and he knew that he had achieved the response he desired.

“How sure are you of your facts, Nelson?” asked Miss Marble.

“I had access to some of his diaries and letters. My dad is rich and he knows people in Washington, and all those things are there. They are facts, and I know a lot more too, but some of them I probably ought not to mention in case people get upset by them.”

"Well, thank you Nelson for your very interesting report. I shall look forward to reading your final essay, which I might remind you, must not just be a bunch of questions, but a properly thought out report on Mr. Lincoln.”

“Yes, Miss,” he said, and then she dismissed the class.