Page:Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, v1.djvu/43

Rh this forlorn child was reared in the home of an aunt, and her grandfather committed her destiny to the keeping of this uncouth apprentice, who was as ignorant as a cave-man of the duties and responsibilities of civilized life. At this time Nancy was in her twenty-third year. She was narrow-chested, and of consumptive tendencies. Her complexion was sallow, indicative of bad nutrition. Her hair was dark, her eyes were gray, her forehead was high, and her demeanor was reserved and sad. Moreover, in that primitive region, where there were scarcely any schools even for the better order of people, she had somehow picked up considerable education. She was intellectual in her ambition and tendencies, and she had an excellent memory, good judgment, and a fine sense of propriety. Her nature seems to have been conservative rather than aggressive. Although her ambition was above her surroundings and apparent destiny, she seems to have considered her humble lot and condition in life to be inevitable, and to have made no radical effort to change it, resting con- tent in faithfully performing her wifely and motherly duties. While biographers have not hesitated to shake the genealogical tree vigorously, in order to bring down all possible fruit availing in connection with the paternal ancestry of the martyred President, scarcely more than a passing glance has been bestowed upon the pendent boughs which could illustrate the pedigree of the maternal line; the general statement being that the mother's name was Nancy Hanks, a daughter of Lucy Hanks. The President himself states it somewhat differently thus: "My parents were both born in Virginia of