Though he wore his whiskers   only four years, today we can hardly think of Abraham Lincoln without them. He often talked about the little girl in Westfield, New York, who suggested in a letter that he grow the famous whiskers. And he would add, "Sometimes a small thing can change our lives!" Grace Bedell sat in her room looking at a picture of Lincoln. Her little lamp threw shadows on the picture. A frame   of small shadows lay around the thin face and covered the hollow cheeks  . "Whiskers!" she thought. "How nice!" she said to herself. "There will be more people to elect him President if he lets his whiskers grow. Somebody ought to tell him." She reached for a pen and began to write the letter. On February 16 of the following year a special train carried the newly elected President Lincoln to the White House. The train stopped briefly at a station near Grace's town. At the station Lincoln was speaking to a large crowd, among whom were the Bedell family. Lincoln continued his speech, "I have a little friend in this place," he said. "That little lady told me how to improve my appearance, and I want to thank her. If she is present, I would like to speak to her. Her name is Grace Bedell." Grace's father led her forward to Lincoln. She looked and laughed happily, for up there on his face were the whiskers. If you visit Springfield, Illinois, today you will see the house in which Abraham Lincoln used to live. On the wall of a room hangs a piece of paper covered with a child's handwriting: "Dear sir..." Grace's idea that Lincoln should grow whiskers came from   _  .
the lamp Lincoln's hollow cheeks the picture of Lincoln the shadows on the picture