“The Boys Literally Crawled All Over Him”
After dinner he sometimes stared into the fireplace for half an hour at a time, saying nothing. The boys literally crawled all over him and pulled his hair and talked to him, but he seemed unconscious of their existence. Then suddenly he would come to and tell a joke or recite one of his favorite verses: “Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, He passes from life to his rest in the grave.”
Mrs. Lincoln criticized him for never correcting the children. But he so adored them that “he was blind and deaf to their faults.” “He never neglected to praise them for any of their good acts,” said Mrs. Lincoln, “and declared: Tt is my pleasure that my children are free and happy, and unrestrained by parental tyranny. Love is the chain whereby to bind a child to its parents.’ ”
By Dale Carnegie，“Lincoln, the Unknown” ，Carnegie-070-13