Abe Lincoln at Last!: A Merlin Mission

Abraham Lincoln, but he was also
very
hungry.
    “I’d love it!” said Annie.
    “Me too,” said Jack, relieved. “We’ll eat fast. And then we can look for Abraham Lincoln, okay?”
    “Yes indeed. But first, you-all sit down,” said Sam.
    Jack and Annie sat on small tree stumps that served as stools. Sam lifted the lid on a pothanging over the fire. The delicious smell of corn bread filled the air.

    Sam moved the pot to the wood table. Then he sliced pieces of steaming bread and put them onwooden plates. He smeared butter and dark molasses over the bread and ladled milk from the pail into wooden cups.
    Jack sipped the sweet milk and ate the hot, buttery corn bread. “Yum,” he said. He thought it might be the best meal he’d ever had.
    “You really worked hard after we left,” Annie said to Sam.
    “I like to make things nice for Sarah for when she gets home from school,” the boy said.
    “Do
you
ever go to school?” asked Jack, his mouth full.
    Sam nodded. “Since Pa left, I stay here to watch over things and do chores. But Sarah comes home and shares what she’s learned. I do homework and everything.”
    “Have you lived here a long time?” Jack asked, looking around at the crude cabin.
    “A few years,” said Sam. “We came from Kentucky. Pa and I cut our cabin out of the wilderness. We chopped down trees to make aroad. We rolled fifty logs to this site and put up these walls. Did it all by hand and all without nails.”
    “Whoa,” said Jack. It sounded like work for the strongest men, he thought, but Sam couldn’t have been more than seven or eight at the time.
    “We did as best we could with the furniture,” Sam said with a laugh. “Someday we’ll do better.”
    “It’s not bad,” said Jack. He looked at the cabin with new eyes. It seemed like a miracle now—everything made by hand, without the help of machines or even nails.
    “You make all your own food, too, don’t you?” asked Annie.
    “ ’Course,” said Sam. “We have our crops, and Pa hunts for our meat, or he did when he was here.”
    “I wouldn’t be a good hunter,” said Annie.
    “Me neither,” said Jack.
    “Me neither,” said Sam. “I shot a turkey once. Then I took a good hard look at the bird. I was sotaken with its beauty, I ain’t pulled a trigger on a wild creature since. That’s why we haven’t had any meat since Pa left.”
    “Well, you do a great job making corn bread,” said Annie.
    “You sure do,” said Jack. He took his last bite, finished his milk, and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Okay. Now they had to look for the president. Through the cracks in the cabin, he could see it was getting darker.
    “Did you get all your chores done?” said Annie.
    “Nope. I ain’t worked in my Dilworth speller yet,” said Sam. “But I don’t really consider that a chore. It’s my favorite thing. You could say I have a great thirst for learnin’.”
    “So do we,” said Annie. “What’s your homework for today?”
    “Annie,” said Jack, trying to catch her eye.
    “Hold on, I’ll get the speller that Sarah brought me from school and show you.” Sam crossed the room and scrambled up to the loft. “The lesson Istudied this morning is parts of speech,” he called down.
    “We have to go,” Jack whispered to Annie.
    “We can’t hurt his feelings,” whispered Annie. “Just let him show us the speller.”
    “But we have a mission—” Jack started.
    “Here it is!” said Sam, climbing down from the loft. He grinned at them and held up a tattered book. “Would you mind giving me a little test?”

CHAPTER TEN
Readin’ and Writin’
    “W e don’t mind,” said Annie.
    “Annie,” said Jack.
    But Sam opened the speller and handed it to Annie. “Parts of speech,” he said.
    “Okay,” Annie said. “What is a conjunction?”
    Sam bit his lip. “Let’s see … a conjunction is a part of speech that joins words and sentences together,” he said. “Some conjunctions are
and
,
but
, and
because
.”
    “Perfect!” said Annie.
    “Yes, perfect,” said Jack. “Here’s an example: Jack wants to leave,
but
Annie is ignoring him.”
    “Good example,” said Annie. “What is an interjection?” she asked Sam.
    “That’s a part of speech that expresses a sudden passion of the mind,” said Sam, “such as ‘Alack!’ or ‘Alas!’ or ‘Fie!’ ”
    “Good,” said Annie, laughing, “except Jack and I don’t use interjections like those. We express a passion of the mind