After the Rain: My America 2 (6 page)

Jed is so happy. For the first time since the President's death, he is moving about briskly and talking and making plans. He says we'll all name the baby tomorrow. Jane Ellen is too weary to think of a name today.

April 26, 1865

We have named the baby.

Pa, Jed, Jane Ellen, and I each wrote down on a piece of paper the name we most wanted. When we held up our papers, we saw that
everyone had written the very same name: Abraham Lincoln Dickens.

What a big name for a tiny boy. He has a funny little face that makes silly expressions. His eyes stay closed, but his small hands grasp my finger and hold on tightly.

I am in love with him.

April 27, 1865

Jed just came home and told us that yesterday the Union cavalry trapped John Wilkes Booth in a barn. He was shot in the head and died. Other conspirators are being sought.

When I look at our tiny baby, I think about the day President Lincoln was born. It is hard to imagine that he was once such a tiny baby as ours. Did his mother ever dream he would be a great man?

May 1, 1865

I don't have much time to write in my journal now. I am always helping with the baby.

May 4, 1865

The baby is sleeping. For a quick moment, I am free to write.

Today the President was buried in Springfield,
Illinois. His funeral train passed thousands of weeping mourners along the way.

I feel great sorrow for our whole nation. But most of all, I feel sorrow for Tad Lincoln. Just a few months ago, I thought he was the luckiest boy in the world. Now I think he must be the saddest.

I thought Madame Masha was an amazing fortune-teller. When she said, "Great change is coming," I thought she had special knowledge about the future.

The truth is Madame Masha only told me what is always true. Great change is
always
taking place. One day we envy someone. The next day, we pity the same person. One day a great man dies. The next, a tiny baby is born. One day there's rain. The next, the sun shines brightly.

If change is always taking place, how can
we live a happy life? How can we not be fearful all the time?

Maybe all we can do is try to keep hope in our hearts -- try to trust "the better angels of our nature" to hold us together.

I must close now, as Jane Ellen needs my help. Abraham Lincoln Dickens has just woken up.

Mary Pope Osborne says, "I have a strong personal connection to Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., the theater where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. Many years ago, I first saw my husband, Will, when he was starring in a play there. We later met and were married. Working on this book, I had the opportunity to revisit the theater that held such good memories for me, and such tragic memories for our nation."

Mary Pope Osborne is the award-winning author of many books for children, including the best-selling Magic Tree House series;