| I WROTE him a letter asking him for old times’ sake | |
| To discharge my sick boy from the army; | |
| But maybe he couldn’t read it. | |
| Then I went to town and had James Garber, | |
| Who wrote beautifully, write him a letter; | 5 |
| But maybe that was lost in the mails. | |
| So I traveled all the way to Washington. | |
| I was more than an hour finding the White House. | |
| And when I found it they turned me away, | |
| Hiding their smiles. Then I thought: | 10 |
| “Oh, well, he ain’t the same as when I boarded him | |
| And he and my husband worked together | |
| And all of us called him Abe, there in Menard.” | |
| As a last attempt I turned to a guard and said: | |
| “Please say it’s old Aunt Hannah Armstrong | 15 |
| From Illinois, come to see him about her sick boy | |
| In the army.” | |
| Well, just in a moment they let me in! | |
| And when he saw me he broke in a laugh, | |
| And dropped his business as president, | 20 |
| And wrote in his own hand Doug’s discharge, | |
| Talking the while of the early days, | |
| And telling stories. | |
