roke. I wouldn't have done it, if I had thought they'd
a broke."

The other scholars thought that Abe would get a licking. Instead, Master
Crawford told him to stay in after school. They had a long talk. He
liked Abe's honesty in owning up to what he had done. He knew how much
he missed his mother. Perhaps he understood that sometimes a boy "cuts
up" to try to forget how sad he feels.

Abe felt sadder than ever after Master Crawford moved away from Pigeon
Creek. Then Tom Lincoln left. One morning he rode off on horseback
without telling anyone where he was going. Several days went by. Even
easy-going Dennis was worried when Tom did not return.

Abe did most of the chores. In the evening he practiced his sums. Master
Crawford had taught him to do easy problems in arithmetic, and he did
not want to forget what he had learned. He had no pen, no ink, not even
a piece of paper. He took a burnt stick from the fireplace and worked
his sums on a flat board.

He wished that he had a book to read. Instead, he tried to remember the
stories that the schoolmaster had told. He repeated them to Sally and
Dennis, as they huddled close to the fire to keep warm. He said them
again to himself after he went to bed in the loft.

There were words in some of the stories that Abe did not understand. He
tried to figure out what the words meant. He thought about the people in
the stories. He thought about the places mentioned and wondered what
they were like.

There were thoughts inside Abraham Lincoln's head that even Sally did
not know anything about.

4

[Illustration]

Abe took another bite of cornbread and swallowed hard. "Don't you like
it?" asked Sally anxiously. "I know it doesn't taste like the cornbread
Mammy used to make."

She looked around the room. The furniture was the same as their mother
had used--a homemade table and a few three-legged stools. The same
bearskin hung before the hole in the wall that was their only door. But
Nancy had kept the cabin clean. She had known how to build a fire that
didn't smoke. Sally glanced down at her faded linsey-woolsey dress,
soiled with soot. The dirt floor felt cold to her bare feet. Her last
pair of moccasins had worn out weeks ago.

"I don't mind the cornbread--at least, not much." Abe finished his
piece, down to the last crumb. "If I seem down in the mouth, Sally, it
is just because--"

[Illustration]

He walked over to the fireplace, where he stood with his back