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Abraham Lincoln did grow. He seemed to grow bigger every day. By thetime he was seven, he was as tall as his sister, although Sally was twoyears older. That fall their father made a trip up to Indiana.
"Why did Pappy go so far away?" Sally asked one afternoon.
"When is he coming home?" asked Abe.
"Pretty soon, most likely."
Nancy laid down her sewing and tried to explain. Their pa had had a hardtime making a living for them. He was looking for a better farm. Tom wasalso a carpenter. Maybe some of the new settlers who were going toIndiana to live would give him work. Anyway, he thought that poor folkswere better off up there.
Abe looked surprised. He had never thought about being poor. There wereso many things that he liked to do in Kentucky. He liked to go swimmingwith Dennis after his chores were done. There were fish to be caught andcaves to explore. He and Sally had had a chance to go to school for afew weeks. Abe could write his name, just like his father. He could readmuch better. Tom knew a few words, but his children could read wholesentences.
Abe leaned up against his mother. "Tell us the story with our names," hebegged.
Nancy put her arm around him. She often told the children stories fromthe Bible. One of their favorites was about Abraham and Sarah. "Now theLord said unto Abraham," she began--and stopped to listen.
The door opened, and Tom Lincoln stood grinning down at them. "Well,folks," he said, "we're moving to Indiany."
Nancy and the children, taken by surprise, asked questions faster thanTom could answer them. He had staked out a claim about a hundred milesto the north, at a place called Pigeon Creek. He was buying the landfrom the government and could take his time to pay for it. He wanted tostart for Indiana at once, before the weather got any colder.
It did not take long to get ready. A few possessions--a skillet, severalpans, the water buckets, the fire shovel, a few clothes, a homespunblanket, a patchwork quilt, and several bearskins--were packed on theback of one of the horses. Nancy and Sally rode on the other horse. Abeand his father walked. At night they camped along the way.
When at last they reached the Ohio River, Abe stared in surprise. It wasso blue, so wide, so much bigger than the creek where he and Dennis hadgone swimming. There were so many boats. One of them, a long low raft,was called a ferry. The Lincolns went right on board with their packhorses, and it carried them across the shining water to the woodedshores of Indiana.
Indiana was a much wilder place than Kentucky. There was no roadleading to Pigeon Creek; only a path through the forest. It was sonarrow that sometimes Tom had to clear away some underbrush before theycould go on. Or else he had to stop to cut down a tree that stood intheir way. Abe, who was big and strong for his age, had his own littleax. He helped his father all he could.
Fourteen miles north of the river, they came to a cleared place in theforest. Tom called it his "farm." He hastily put up a shelter--a campmade of poles and brush and leaves--where they could stay until he hadtime to build a cabin. It had only three walls. The fourth side was leftopen, and in this open space Tom built a fire. The children helped theirmother to unpack, and she mixed batter for cornbread in a big ironskillet. She cut up a squirrel that Tom had shot earlier in the day, andcooked it over the campfire.
"Now if you will fetch me your plates," she said, "we'll have oursupper."
The plates were only slabs of bark. On each slab Nancy put a piece offried squirrel and a hunk of cornbread. The children sank down on one ofthe bearskins to eat their first meal in their new home. By this time itwas quite dark. They could see only a few feet beyond the circle oflight made by their campfire.
Nancy shivered. She knew that they had neighbors. Tom had told her therewere seven other families living at Pigeon Creek. But the trees were sotall, the night so black, that she had a strange feeling that they werethe only people alive for miles around.
"Don't you like it here, Mammy?" Abe asked. To him this camping out wasan adventure, but he wanted his mother to like it, too.
"I'm just feeling a little cold," she told him.
"I like it," said Sally decidedly. "But it is sort of scary. Are youscared, Abe?"
"Me?" Abe stuck out his chest. "What is there to be scared of?"
At that moment a long-drawn-out howl came from the forest. Anotherseemed to come from just beyond their campfire. Then another andanother--each howl louder and closer. The black curtain of the nightwas pierced by two green spots of light. The children huddled againsttheir mother, but Tom Lincoln laughed.
"I reckon I know what you're scared of. A wolf."
"A wolf?" Sally shrieked.
"Yep. See its green eyes. But it won't come near our fire."
He got up and threw on another log. As the flames blazed higher, thegreen lights disappeared. There was a crashing sound in the underbrush.
"Hear him running away? Cowardly varmint!" Tom sat down again. "No wolfwill hurt us if we keep our fire going."
It was a busy winter. Abe worked side by side with his father. How thatboy can chop! thought Nancy, as she heard the sound of his ax bitinginto wood. Tree after tree had to be cut down before crops could beplanted. With the coming of spring, he helped his father to plow thestumpy ground. He learned to plow a straight furrow. He planted seeds inthe furrows.
In the meantime, some of the neighbors helped Tom build a cabin. It hadone room, with a tiny loft above. The floor was packed-down dirt. Therewere no windows. The only door was a long, up-and-down hole cut in onewall and covered by a bearskin. But Tom had made a table and severalthree-legged stools, and there was a pole bed in one corner. Nancy wasglad to be living in a real house again, and she kept it neat and clean.
She was no longer lonely. Aunt Betsy and her husband, Uncle Thomas,brought Dennis with them from Kentucky to live in the shelter near theLincoln cabin. Several other new settlers arrived, settlers withchildren. A schoolmaster, Andrew Crawford, decided to start a school.
"Maybe you'll have a chance to go, Abe," Nancy told him. "You know whatthe schoolmaster down in Kentucky said. He said you were a learner."
Abe looked up at her and smiled. He was going to like living in Indiana!
Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance Page 2