“I wasn’t meaning to tell you just yet,” she said.  “Leastways until I had a chance to talk to your pa.”

“What is it, Mamma?”

“There’s a new neighbor come to Pigeon Creek,” she said.  “Man by the name of James Swaney.  He is farming now, but he is fixing to keep a school next winter.”

Abe jumped up and stood looking down at her.  “Do you reckon that Pa—­”

“Your pa is worried,” Sarah interrupted.  “Money-worried.  He may have to sell some of his land.  That’s why he gets riled so easy—­like yesterday.”

Abe flushed.

“I want you to be careful,” said Sarah.  “Try not to get his dander up.”

“I’ll try not to.”

“Maybe you recollect what I promised you when I first came.  I said I’d ask your pa to let you go to school again.  Now I’m a body that believes in keeping my promises.  I just want to wait till he feels good.”

Sarah’s sewing basket spilled to the floor, as Abe pulled her to her feet.  He put his long arms around her waist and gave her a good bear hug.

“Abe Lincoln, you’re most choking me,” she said breathlessly.  “Here I was thinking how grown up you were getting to be.  Now you be acting like a young one again.”

Abe kissed her on the cheek.

8

[Illustration]

Abe sat up late, holding his book close to the flickering flames in the fireplace.  As the rain drummed on the roof, his thoughts were far away.  He was with General Washington in a small boat crossing the Delaware River on a cold Christmas night many years before.  He was fighting the battle of Trenton with a handful of brave American soldiers.  They must have wanted very much to be free, he decided, to be willing to fight so hard and suffer so much.

“Isn’t it getting too dark for you to see?” Sarah called sleepily.

“Yes, Mamma.”

Carefully Abe placed the precious little volume between two logs in the wall of the cabin.  This was his bookcase.  As he climbed into the loft he wondered if the book told about the time George Washington became President.  He would have to wait until morning to find out.

He was up early.  But his face grew pale when he reached for the book.  During the night the rain had leaked in on it through a crack in the logs.  The pages were wet and stuck together.  The binding was warped.  Sally was starting down the path toward the Crawford cabin when Abe called after her.

“Wait!  I’m coming with you.”

He thrust the book inside his buckskin shirt.  Sally tried to comfort him, but Abe kept wondering what Mr. Crawford was going to say.  He was a little scared of Josiah.  Some of the boys called him “Old Bluenose” because of the large purple vein on the side of his nose.  It made him look rather cross.  He probably would want Abe to pay for the book, and Abe had no money.

He opened the Crawford gate and marched up to the kitchen door.  Josiah, his wife Elizabeth, and Sammy, their little boy, were having breakfast.  When Abe explained what had happened, Mrs. Crawford patted his shoulder.  He liked her.  She was always nice to him, but he knew that her husband was the one who would decide about the book.  Josiah took it in his big hands and looked at the stained pages.