ell you, I won't have it."

"But I promised him."

It was the first time that Tom had ever heard a quaver in his wife's
voice. He looked away uneasily. "If you made a promise you can't keep,
that's your lookout. You might as well stop nagging me, Sairy. My mind
is made up."

To make sure that there would be no more conversation on the subject, he
got up and stalked across the grass. He lay down under another tree, out
of hearing distance. Sarah sat on the log for a long time. Abe came back
and sat down beside her. He could tell, by looking at her, that she had
been talking to his father about letting him go to school. He knew,
without asking any questions, that his father had said no.

Sarah laid her hand on his knee. "Your pa is a good man," she said
loyally. "Maybe he will change his mind."

10

[Illustration]

"Hurry up and eat your breakfast, Abe," said Tom the next morning. "We're
going to cut corn for that skinflint, John Carter."

Sarah passed her husband a plate of hot cornbread. "Why, Tom, it ain't
fitting to talk that way about a neighbor. Before the children, too."

Tom poured a generous helping of sorghum molasses over his bread. "I'm
an honest man. It's fitting that I call Carter what he is, and he's a
skinflint. He is only paying Abe and me ten cents a day."

"Other folks pay you two-bits."

"I ain't got any other work right now. Carter knows I need all the money
I can lay my hands on. The way he beat me down on the price for my south
field."

"I wish you didn't have to sell."

"Wishing won't do any good. I need cash money mighty bad. Remember, this
farm ain't paid for yet."

He got up and walked over to the chest. He picked up the sharp knife he
used for cutting corn. "Get your knife, Abe, and come along."

Abe walked behind his father along the path through the woods. "That Mr.
Swaney was right nice," he said.

Tom grunted.

"He is waiting to start his school until after harvest," Abe went on.
"Nat Grigsby is going. Allen Gentry is going, and he is two years older
than me."

"Allen's pa is a rich man," said Tom gruffly. "Maybe he's got money to
burn, but poor folks like us have to earn our keep."

"But, Pa--"

"I declare, your tongue is loose at both ends today. Can't you stop
plaguing me? First your ma, then you. You ought to see I'm worried."

Abe said nothing more. He pulled a book out of the front of his shirt
and began to read as he strode along the path. Tom look