Excerpt
Many years ago there was a stagecoach robbery along a trail nearby. Among the items stolen this day were two papers that had been written by President Lincoln. No one had ever found the papers and they needed to be discovered.
Grandpa Alex explained to them, in their time a group was researching all of President Lincoln's court cases and private papers. The stolen papers would be an excellent addition to this program. There was one serious problem, however, besides not knowing the location of the papers there was a curse on anyone who found them.
Emma thought to herself, sure, tell me another story. She forgot that Grandpa Alex and Grandma Kate could read her mind. Grandpa Alex explained even though it seemed impossible, there was a curse put on the papers by an Indian Medicine Man as he observed the robbery. The Indian Medicine Man did not want the robbers to profit from their robbery, so he placed a curse on all the items that had been stolen. The robbers soon fell into a streak of bad luck and were captured by the sheriff. Four bars of gold and some letters were recovered. The papers by President Lincoln were never found. The men who did the robbery would not confess and tell the location of the papers.
Wow, thought Jim, that is quite a story. In all these years, no one has ever found those papers, and it is going to be our task to find them. They had both read a great deal about President Lincoln and had visited his home in Springfield, Illinois and the White House in Washington D.C.
“There is one small problem, however,” said Grandpa Alex. “You must be certain the curse has been removed before you find the papers. You don't want to have the same bad luck the robbers had years ago. We don't know how you will choose to have the curse removed but we do know you can do it.” Emma and Jim were very confused but were certain Grandpa Alex knew they would be able to remove the curse.
The next morning the sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly. Emma and Jim were sitting in the garden when all of a sudden the Angel appeared to them.
She said, “There is someone who is very famous I want you to meet. We will need to go through the Time Fog for this visit.” Emma and Jim were too astonished to ask an intelligent question.
Finally Jim said, “Does this have something to do with our finding the Presidential Papers?”
“Yes, it certainly does,” explained the Angel. “We're going to visit with the most important person in this whole adventure.” With that she took Emma and Jim by the hand, and very quickly the Time Fog appeared.
As they walked through the Time Fog the mystery was soon solved. Standing before them was a very tall man, rather slender, dressed in a black suit and a very tall black hat.
Emma looked at Jim and declared, “This must be President Abraham Lincoln!” The tall man in the black suit very quickly corrected her. Abraham Lincoln told them at this time the year was 1850. He was just a simple country lawyer earning a living in the courthouses of Illinois.
The Angel laughed and said, “That's a wonderful story but don't believe the ‘simple’ part of it.”
Then Abraham Lincoln smiled and said, “Sometimes this story works on my adversary in court.” Mr. Lincoln then began to explain he had always wanted someone to discover his two lost papers. It had bothered him that so many of his court papers were well maintained, however these two papers seemed to have been lost forever. He told Emma and Jim the papers were written about “Democracy” and the “Cost of Freedom.” These were two papers expressing concepts very important to Mr. Lincoln.
Emma and Jim were so surprised about being in the presence of Mr. Lincoln that they had difficulty thinking of a question. Finally Emma got up her courage and asked Mr. Lincoln what it was like to be a country lawyer. She was very pleased to see a great kindness come over the face of Mr. Lincoln. He explained the pleasure he enjoyed while helping people who were in difficulty.
As they talked, Emma and Jim both became more comfortable with Mr. Lincoln. He was a very likable gentleman. Mr. Lincoln asked our two adventurers if they would like to look in the courthouse where he was about to try a case that afternoon? They were both excited about the prospects of watching Mr. Lincoln pursue his trade.
Emma said, “It would be a great pleasure to watch the trial!” Mr. Lincoln explained that what he was about to show them was the actual trial of that day.
“One of the privileges we have in this very special place is to relive an occurrence in our past life,” said Mr. Lincoln. He explained that what they were about to see was exactly what happened in the trial. “We will be just like any of the other spectators in court that day.”
As they walked into the courthouse there were many people already inside. Jim could see one of them was Mr. Lincoln. They looked back and standing next to them and whispering in their ear was Mr. Lincoln.
“This is very interesting to watch myself work when I was young and in my prime,” chuckled Mr. Lincoln. It was obvious he knew the outcome of the trial and it was one that he enjoyed very much. As the trial proceeded Emma and Jim had the opportunity to observe this masterful lawyer at work. It was such a pleasure to see how he arrived at the truth of the matter.
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