ars whenever he had the game of war to play, he played it in such a
masterly manner that his name has come down to us as the most famous
warrior of his age. And he won his spurs, remember, at the battle of
Crecy, when only a boy of sixteen years!

TYRANT TAD:

The Boy in the White House

At the time when the Civil War was at its height, and Abraham Lincoln,
who was then President of the United States, was staggering under an
almost crushing load of responsibility, because of his great anxiety
for the future of his beloved country, there were many of his enemies,
who were bitterly opposed to the continuance of the struggle between
the North and the South for the freeing of the slaves, who used to call
the good and great president "tyrant" a most unjust word to use in
reference to the big-souled, tender-hearted Lincoln.

One day an eminent politician who was leaving the White House, met an
acquaintance and in passing him said with a quizzical smile: "I have
just had an interview with the tyrant of the White House."

Then noticing his companion's surprise at his making such a speech, he
added: "_Tad!_" and passed on, chuckling over his little joke.

And to Tad the title really belonged--to President Lincoln's youngest
son--who was a small whirlwind of impetuous despotism; and woe to the
man, woman or child who resisted his tempestuous tyranny.

Few did, and the most willing of all his subjects was the great
President, whom tyrant Tad ruled despotically.

Before President Lincoln's day there had been a succession of
administrations when no children's voices rang through the stately
rooms and corridors of the White House, so it was indeed a change when
the three Lincoln boys arrived, in March of 1861, bringing with them
all the clatter and chatter which belongs to normal healthy boyhood.
Robert, who was then eighteen years old only stayed in the White House
for his father's inauguration, then went back to Harvard to finish his
education, and Willie, and Theodore or "Tad" as he was always called,
from his own pronunciation of his name, (the little fellow had a
serious defect in his speech which made it hard for him to pronounce
words clearly) were left to make the dignified White House echo with
their merry laughter and conversations, as they romped through its long
passages, careless of the fact that they were on historic ground, as
they scattered their balls, bats, kites and other treasures wherever
they ch