om
to cut two holes in the walls for windows, and she covered them with
greased paper to let in the light. He made a wooden door that could be
shut against the cold winter winds. Abe and Dennis gave the walls and
low ceiling a coat of whitewash, and Sarah spread her bright rag rugs on
the new wooden floor.

"Aunt Sairy," Dennis told her, "you're some punkins. One just naturally
has to be somebody when you're around."

Abe smiled up at her shyly. "It is sort of like the magic in that story
of Sinbad you gave me."

The other children were asleep. Abe sprawled on the floor, making marks
on a wooden shovel with a pointed stick. Tom, seated in one of his
wife's chairs, was dozing on one side of the fireplace.

Sarah put down her knitting and looked around the cabin. "The place
does look right cozy," she replied. "What is that you're doing, Abe?"

"Working my sums."

Tom opened his eyes. "You know how to figure enough already. Put that
shovel up and go to bed."

Abe took a knife and scraped the figures from the wooden shovel. He
placed it against one side of the fireplace. "Good night, Mamma," he
said.

"Good night, Abe."

Sarah's eyes were troubled. She waited until Dennis had joined Abe in
the loft, then turned to her husband. "I've been meaning to tell you,
Tom, what a good pa you've been to my young ones."

She saw that he was pleased. "I've tried to be a good mother to Abe and
Sally, too," she went on.

"You have been, Sairy. They took to you right off."

"I'm right glad, but there's something else I want to talk to you about,
Tom." He was nodding again in his chair, and she paused to make sure
that he was listening. "Abe's a smart boy. I told him the next time a
school keeps in these parts, I'd ask you to let him and the other
children go."

"Humph!" Tom grunted. "There ain't any school for him to go to. Anyway,
he wastes enough time as 'tis. He's always got his nose buried in those
books you brought."

"That bothers me, too. I saw you cuff him the other day because he was
reading."

"I had to, Sairy. I told him to come out and chop some wood, but he up
and laughed in my face."

"He wasn't laughing at you, Tom. He was laughing at Sinbad."

"Who in tarnation is Sinbad?"

"A fellow in one of his books. Abe said that Sinbad sailed his flatboat
up to a rock, and the rock was magnetized and pulled all the nails out
of his boat. Then Sinbad fell into the water."

"That's what I mean," Tom exploded.