Page:Abraham Lincoln, A Story and a Play.djvu/57

 Then came the evening, when with his wife and two friends the President went to the theater. The play had already begun when they entered the box but the band immediately began, "Hail to the Chief," and the audience stood up and cheered.

After that the play went on. Lincoln, cheerful and happy, sat back to enjoy it. He little dreamed that a man, a noted actor, was already drawing near to carry out a deadly plot. The heart of this man was full of hatred for his country and that country's chief. His mind was crazed by liquor. It was almost ten o'clock when, suddenly, a shot was heard in the box where Lincoln was sitting.

A cry rang out through the theater, "He has shot the President," as the great leader's head fell forward and his eyes closed. Those eyes would never look again upon this world, and with the dawn of a new day, the last breath had been drawn by the greatest of all Americans. His work had been done and his country saved.

He might not live to enjoy with his people the peace which he had prayed for so earnestly. He had entered forever into a greater peace where war and hate could have no place. Great was