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.

"Well, Abe," he said slowly, "I won't be hard on you. If you want to
pull fodder three days for me, that ought to pay for the book."

"Starting right now?"

"Yep, starting right now." Josiah was actually smiling. "Then you can
have the book to keep."

Abe caught his breath. What a lucky boy he was! Three days' work and he
could keep the book! He would have a chance to read about George
Washington any time he wanted to.

Never had he worked harder or faster than he did that morning. When the
n