Abe Lincoln at Last!: A Merlin Mission

brought my stepmother home—and my new sisters and brother.”
    “Oh … 
oh
!” said Annie.
    “What?” said Jack.
    “You were Sam!” said Annie.
    “You were
Sam
?” said Jack. He couldn’t believe it.
    The president nodded.
    Annie laughed. “So when we told you we were looking for Abraham Lincoln, you played a prank on us and told us your name was Sam!”
    Abraham Lincoln smiled. “I haven’t seen you since that day so long ago,” he said. “And you haven’t changed at all. I don’t understand. Are you angels? Are you a dream?”
    Jack was too stunned to answer.
It wasn’t long ago, it was today
, he thought.
Or—maybe not
. Time and magic were confusing things.
    “We’re just regular kids, not angels,” said Annie. “But maybe you should think of it all as a dream—a dream with a little magic thrown in.”
    Abraham Lincoln nodded slowly. Then he smiled. “I remember you tried to do my chores,” he said, “and you thought some wild creature was chasing you. And you told me that your interjections were ‘Oh, wow!’ and ‘Oh, man!’ ”
    “Right,” said Jack, smiling.
    “You also said you loved learning and you lovedto read,” said the president. “And you loved to write stories.”
    “And you said you loved to do that, too,” said Annie. “So you gave us these.” She pulled the ink bottle and the quill pen out of her apron pocket. “These were yours once, remember?”
    Abraham Lincoln stared at the ink bottle and feather pen. “Yes,” he said. “I made them from blackberry roots and a goose feather.”
    “Oh, man,” whispered Jack. For the first time it fully dawned on him that Sam—who was really Abraham Lincoln—had given them a feather! The rhyme was starting to make perfect sense!
    “Why have you come back?” asked the president.
    Now Jack knew exactly what to say. “We have to give you a message of hope,” he answered. He reached for the notebook in his pocket.
    “Jack’s right,” said Annie. “Just a second.” She opened the ink bottle and dipped the goose-feather pen into the ink. Then she handed the pen to Jack. “What should we say?” she whispered.
    “Well, the Civil War is going to have a good ending,” Jack whispered back. “All the country will come together.”
    “With freedom for everybody,” whispered Annie.
    “I’ll write something about all that,” said Jack. He thought for a second, and using the goose-feather pen, he scratched a message on a page in his notebook:
    Never lose hope. This land will live
    peacefully as one nation one day,
    with freedom for everyone.
    “You told us to use your quill pen and your blackberry ink to write something special,” Jack said. He tore out the page and handed it to the president of the United States. “This is it.”
    Abraham Lincoln read the words on the paper. When he looked at Jack and Annie, the creases in his face had softened. His eyeshad grown bright. “Oh, wow,” he said softly.
    Jack and Annie laughed.
    “Do you really think so?” the president asked. “Do you promise?”
    “Yes. I need to add something,” said Jack. He took the note back from the president and wrote:
    We give you our word.
    —Jack and Annie
    A shout came from the distance: “Pa! Pa!”
    It was Tad. He was running up the carriageway, with Willie right behind him.
    “Mr. President, we have to leave now,” said Jack.
    “Really?” said Abraham Lincoln. He looked sad for a moment. Then he looked at his boys running toward him. “Yes, of course, I understand,” he said.
    “We’ll never forget our times with you, Sam,” said Annie.
    “Nor will I forget,” said Abraham Lincoln.
    The boys were getting closer.
    “Here, sir,” said Jack. He gave the note back to the president. Then he and Annie started moving away.
    “Good-bye!” they called to Abraham Lincoln.
    The president waved and put their note in his pocket.

    Then Jack and Annie quickly climbed up the ladder. Inside the tree house, they looked out the window. They saw Abraham Lincoln hurrying to meet his boys. When he caught up to them, he wrapped his arms around them both. They were all laughing.
    “Abraham Lincoln’s a good dad,” said Annie.
    “Yeah,” said Jack, smiling. “Well, we’d better go now. Before Tad tries to take the tree house away from us.”
    Annie laughed. “He’ll be pretty surprised when he discovers it’s disappeared,” she said. She picked up the Pennsylvania book and pointed to a picture of the Frog Creek