HomeMy WebLinkAboutRead Aloud Book Gr. 2-Lesson 30Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States. You have
probably seen Lincoln’s face on a penny. You may also have seen it on a fi ve-dollar
bill. In those places, his face has a beard. But Lincoln didn’t actually have a beard
until just before he became the President. He decided to grow one because of a girl
named Grace Bedell.
Grace Bedell wrote a letter to Lincoln on October 15, 1860. This was just a few
weeks before American citizens went to the polls, or voting places, to elect a new
President. In her letter, Grace told Lincoln that he would look better with a beard.
She promised that if he let his whiskers, or beard hairs, grow, she would tell her
brothers to vote for him.
At that time, Lincoln was busy trying to defeat the other candidates for President,
but he found time to answer Grace’s letter. He told her he was worried that people
would think a beard was “silly,” since he had never grown a beard before. But
Lincoln took her advice anyway. He began to grow a beard. Then he won the
election! Maybe the beard helped him win. Sometimes little things like that can make
a difference in politics.
A few months after he won the election, Lincoln got on a train in Illinois. The train
was going to take him to Washington, D.C. and the White House. The train made
several stops on the way. One of the stops was Westfi eld, New York. Westfi eld
was the town where Grace Bedell lived. The people of Westfi eld held a rally at the
station to cheer for Lincoln. Lincoln went out and stood on a platform at the back of
the train, and everyone applauded. Then he asked if young Grace Bedell, who had
written him the letter, was among the crowd. If she was, he said, he wanted very
much to meet her.
Grace was there, along with her two sisters. When she came forward, Lincoln
kissed her on the cheek and told her that he had taken her advice.
Later on, Grace Bedell married, and she and her husband moved to Delphos,
Kansas. When she passed away at the age of 87, the town of Delphos built a
memorial to her. The memorial carries the words she wrote in her letter and the
words of Lincoln’s reply. It calls her “Lincoln’s little correspondent.”
COMPREHENSION What did Grace Bedell promise to do if Lincoln let his
whiskers grow? What words about politics did you hear in this passage?
Mr. Lincoln and Miss Bedell
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Wilbur and Orville Wright were inseparable for most of their lives. They did
everything together. They loved tinkering with machines. They wanted to build a fl ying
machine someday. So far, nobody had made a fl ying machine with an engine. They
wanted to build a fl ying machine that would bring them anywhere they wanted to go.
As lifelong companions, the Wright brothers had several businesses together. Most
of their businesses were in Dayton, Ohio, where they grew up. With the money they
earned from their businesses, they began to fi gure out how to build a fl ying machine.
First, the brothers built gliders. A glider is a plane powered only by wind. It is kind of
like a kite, except a person can ride in it. To fl y the gliders, the brothers went to Kitty
Hawk, North Carolina. They took turns fl ying it off from a sand dune. Then they kept
building better gliders. They fl ew one for six hundred feet—a world record. But their
gliders still relied on the wind to keep them in the air. The gliders did not have engines
to push them forward. They had not yet built a fl ying machine.
The Wright brothers struggled to build an engine to put on a glider. The engine
could not be heavy, or it would weigh the glider down and keep it on the ground. But
the engine also had to be strong enough to push the glider into the air and keep it up
there. Finally, they built just the right engine and attached it to a glider. The moment
had come. They were ready to try to their fl ying machine.
Both brothers wanted to be the fi rst to fl y the new fl ying machine, but they decided
to compromise and take turns. On December 17, 1903, Wilbur escorted Orville to the
machine. The brothers shook hands and Orville lay down on the wing. The machine
rolled along—and then rose into the air. It fl ew for 120 feet. It was the fi rst time
anyone had fl own on a machine with an engine. Later that day, it was Orville’s turn to
accompany Wilbur to the machine. Wilbur fl ew it 852 feet!
After that day, the Wright brothers kept improving their fl ying machine. In
1908, they made one that could fl y twenty-fi ve miles and stay in the air for half an
hour. Their dream had come true.
COMPREHENSION What makes a fl ying machine different from a glider?
What words in the passage tell about doing things together?
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