"I've been meaning to tell you,
Tom, what a good pa you've been to my young ones."
She saw that he was pleased. "I've tried to be a good mother to Abe and
Sally, too," she went on.
"You have been, Sairy. They took to you right off."
"I'm right glad, but there's something else I want to talk to you about,
Tom." He was nodding again in his chair, and she paused to make sure
that he was listening. "Abe's a smart boy. I told him the next time a
school keeps in these parts, I'd ask you to let him and the other
children go."
"Humph!" Tom grunted. "There ain't any school for him to go to. Anyway,
he wastes enough time as 'tis. He's always got his nose buried in those
books you brought."
"That bothers me, too. I saw you cuff him the other day because he was
reading."
"I had to, Sairy. I told him to come out and chop some wood, but he up
and laughed in my face."
"He wasn't laughing at you, Tom. He was laughing at Sinbad."
"Who in tarnation is Sinbad?"
"A fellow in one of his books. Abe said that Sinbad sailed his flatboat
up to a rock, and the rock was magnetized and pulled all the nails out
of his boat.
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