與林肯同樂

Abraham Lincoln—the sixteenth President of the U.S.—had no need for comedy writers. He used his natural quick wit to make people laugh， and he used humor to make them stop and think.

The Young Prankster1

When he was a young boy， Abe played a practical joke at home. By that time， Abe was almost six feet four inches tall， and his stepmother， Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln， teased him gently about his height. She is said to have told him he’d better keep his head clean or she’d have to scrub her whitewashed ceiling.

Stories say that one day when his stepmother was away， Abe spotted two barefoot boys playing near a mud puddle2 and remembered what she had said. He decided to play a joke.

Abe asked the children to walk through the puddle， squishing3 the mud between their toes. Then Abe told them his plan and gathered the two on his doorstep. One by one， he picked up the boys and carried them into the house. Abe turned them upside down， telling each child to press his muddy feet onto the whitewashed ceiling. They“walked”across the ceiling， leaving a trail of gooey brown footprints.

According to all accounts， when his stepmother returned， she laughed. Because Abe didn’t intend his prank to be destructive， he covered the ceiling with new whitewash that same day.

Abe’s Quick Wit

All his life， Abe Lincoln also cracked jokes about himself—especially about his awkward4， gangly5 looks. Once when he was asked why he walked so crookedly6， he reportedly replied: “Oh， my nose， you see， is crooked， and I have to follow it!”

Lincoln may have made fun of himself， but he didn’t like using his quick wit to hurt someone else’s feelings. Once， after an author read aloud to Lincoln from his new book， the author asked how he liked it. Abe Lincoln didn’t want to say so. He is said to have told the author: “For people who like that sort of thing， that is about the sort of a thing they would like.”

A Love of Riddles7

Because he enjoyed playing with words and meanings， Lincoln loved to tell riddles， showing how a situation might not be as simple as it appears.

During political arguments， Lincoln sometimes asked one of his favorite riddles: “How many legs will a sheep have if you call the tail a leg?” Everyone guessed that the answer was five. Lincoln always replied that the answer was four， not five， because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg. This answer must have made people smile， then think about what Lincoln was telling them—you can’t solve a problem by simply changing a word or name. Lincoln’s Healing Humor

As President， Lincoln had to deal with two of the worst problems the United States ever faced-the Civil War and slavery. But even as he struggled through years of tough decisions， the gaunt8， sleepless Lincoln never lost his quick wit.

At a White House occasion， Governor Saunders of Nebraska is said to have told President Lincoln about a little settlement in his state near a stream called Weeping Water. Lincoln is reported to have said he thought that if the Indian name for Laughing Water was Minne-haha9 then the name for Weeping Water should be Minne-boohoo.

Americans remember Abraham Lincoln for his wise， solemn leadership during the Civil War and for signing the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves.

Now， over one hundred years later， we also remember him for his humor. Lincoln’s jokes and stories have been passed down through the years and retold in many different ways.

亞伯拉罕·林肯——第16任美國總統，本身就是個喜劇家。他運用與生俱來的敏捷智慧讓人們笑聲不斷，同時也運用自己的幽默讓大家停下來思考。

愛開玩笑的年輕人

當亞伯還是一個孩子的時候，他就在家里搞惡作劇。那時候亞伯身高接近6.4英尺（約1.93米），他的繼母莎拉·布什·約翰斯頓·林肯曾善意地拿他的身高開玩笑。據說她曾告訴林肯最好保持頭部干凈，否則她將不得不擦洗她白色的天花板。

故事里說，有一天他的繼母不在，亞伯看到兩個赤腳男孩在一個泥坑邊上玩，他想起了繼母的話，于是決定開個玩笑。

亞伯讓兩個孩子走過泥坑，把泥巴都擠進腳趾間。接著亞伯說出了他的計劃并讓兩個孩子來到他家的臺階上，他把他們挨個兒抱進屋里。亞伯把他們頭朝下倒轉過來，讓每個孩子把沾滿泥巴的腳都壓到粉刷成白色的天花板上。他們“走過”天花板，留下了一串粘乎乎的棕色足跡。

根據所有的描述證實，當他的繼母回家看到這一切時，她笑了。因為亞伯并不想讓這個玩笑鬧大，所以他在當天用新石灰將天花板又重新刷了一遍。

亞伯敏捷的智慧

亞伯拉罕·林肯在他的一生中，也會開自己的玩笑——特別是關于他那高瘦而笨拙的體形。有一次當他被問及為何走路時會駝背時，據說他的回答是：“噢，你看，我的鼻子是彎的，所以我只得跟隨它！”

林肯也許會取笑自己，但是他從不喜歡利用自己的機智來傷害別人的感情。一次，當一位作家把自己新著里的文字大聲地朗讀給林肯聽后，便問林肯感受如何。亞伯拉罕·林肯不置可否，據說他是這樣回答那位作家的：“對于喜歡某些內容的人來說，這篇文章恰好迎合了他們的口味?！?/p>

對謎語的熱愛

因為林肯喜歡揣摩字里行間的意思，所以他喜歡用謎語來表明有些情況可能并不象它表面上顯露的那么簡單。

在政治辯論中，有時候，林肯會拿其中一條他最喜歡的謎語來問大家：“如果你把羊的尾巴也稱為腿的話，那么羊總共有幾條腿呢？” 每個人都會猜是五條。而林肯總堅持答案是四條，而不是五條，因為把尾巴稱作腿，并不能真的把尾巴變成一條腿。這個答案肯定會讓人們發笑，然而想想林肯告訴了他們什么——不能單靠詞語或名字的替換來解決問題。

林肯的幽默

作為總統，林肯不得不處理美國社會所面臨的最為艱澀的兩大問題——內戰和奴隸制。但是當他這幾年在艱難抉擇中苦苦掙扎時，憔悴的、經常失眠的林肯也沒有失去他敏銳的智慧。

有一次在白宮中，據說內布拉斯加州的州長桑德斯告訴林肯總統，一個小定居點就在他所在州的一條名為“哭河”的小溪附近。據傳林肯說道，我認為如果“笑河”的印第安名字是“明尼哈哈”的話，那么“哭河”的名字應該是“明尼哇哇”。

歷史上的亞伯拉罕·林肯之所以被美國人民銘記，是因為他在內戰期間明智、莊嚴的領導，以及他簽署了讓奴隸們獲得自由的《解放宣言》。

而一百多年后的今天，我們仍然會記得他的幽默。林肯的笑話和故事已經流傳了許多年，現在人們還一直在用各種不同的方式復述著。

注釋

1.prankster n.頑皮的人，愛開玩笑的人；prank：玩賞，惡作劇

2.puddle n.水坑，膠土，污水坑

3.squish vt.壓扁，壓爛

4.awkward adj.難使用的，笨拙的

5.gangly adj.身材瘦長的

6.crookedly adv.彎曲地

7.riddle n.謎，謎語

8.gaunt adj.憔悴的

9.Minne-haha:為密西西比河支流，來自于印第安語，意為laughing river