in't any school since Master Crawford left. Anyhow, Pappy
doesn't set much store by eddication."

[Illustration]

"What do you mean, Abe?"

"He says I know how to read and write and cipher and that's enough for
anyone."

"You can read?" she asked.

"Yes'm, but I haven't any books."

"You can read and you haven't any books. I have books and I can't read."

Abe looked at her, amazed. "You have _books_?"

Sarah nodded, but said nothing more until she had finished cutting his
hair. Then she led him over to the bureau.

"Now see if you don't like yourself better without that brush heap on
top of your head," she asked him.

A boy with short neat hair gazed back at Abe from the mirror.

"I still ain't the prettiest boy in Pigeon Creek," he drawled, "but
there ain't quite so much left to be ugly. I'm right glad, ma'am, you
cleared away the brush heap."

Was he joking? He looked so solemn that Sarah could not be sure. Then he
grinned. It was the first time that she had seen him smile.

"You're a caution, Abe," she said. "Now sit yourself down over there at
the table, and I'll show you my books."

She opened the top drawer of the bureau and took out four worn little
volumes. Although she could not read, she knew the titles: "Here they
are: _Robinson Crusoe_, _Pilgrim's Progress_, _Sinbad the Sailor_, and
_Aesop's Fables_."

"Oh, ma'am, this book by Mr. Aesop is one the schoolmaster had. The
stories are all about some smart talking animals."

He seemed to have forgotten her, as he bent his neat shorn head down
over the pages. He chuckled when he read something that amused him.
Sarah watched him curiously. He was not like her John. He was not like
any boy that she had ever known. But the hungry look in his eyes went
straight to her heart.

[Illustration]

He looked up at her shyly. "Ma'am," he said, "will you let me read these
books sometimes?"

"Why, Abe, you can read them any time you like. I'm giving them to you
to keep."

"Oh, _Mamma_!" The name slipped out as though he were used to saying it.
He had a feeling that Nancy, his own mother, had never gone away.

"You're my boy, now," Sarah told him, "and I aim to help you all I can.
The next time a school keeps in these parts, I'm going to ask your pappy
to let you and the other children go."

"Thank you, ma'am," said Abe. "I mean--thank you, Mamma."

6

[Illustration]

Many changes were taking place in the Lincoln cabin. Sarah persuaded T