Page:Behind the scenes, or, Thirty years a slave and four years in the White House.djvu/183

Rh "See, Madam Elizabeth," exclaimed the President in a tone of enthusiasm," my pets recognize me. How earnestly they look! There they go again; what jolly fun!" and he laughed outright as the goats bounded swiftly to the other side of the yard. Just then Mrs. Lincoln called out," Come, Lizabeth; if I get ready to go down this evening I must finish dressing myself, or you must stop staring at those silly goats."

Mrs. Lincoln was not fond of pets, and she could not understand how Mr. Lincoln could take so much delight in his goats. After Willie's death, she could not bear the sight of anything he loved, not even a flower. Costly bouquets were presented to her, but she turned from them with a shudder, and either placed them in a room where she could not see them, or threw them out of the window. She gave all of us Willie's toys—everything connected with him—away, as she said she could not look upon them without thinking of her poor dead boy, and to