"Why, Mamma." Abe looked up with a start. "I was just recollecting some of the words out of the Declaration of Independence. It says all men are created equal."
"You don't mean to tell me!" Sarah was pleased because Abe was.
"I'm going to learn as much of the Declaration as I can by heart, before I take the book back," he said. "That way I can always keep the words."
"I declare," said Sarah, "you grow new ideas inside your head as fast as you add inches on top of it."
7
Abe went right on adding inches. By the time he was fourteen he was as tall as his father. Sally was working as a hired girl that summer for Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Crawford. Abe worked for them off and on. One afternoon he finished his chores early, and Mrs. Crawford sent him home. Abe was glad. Josiah had lent him a new book—a life of George Washington—and he wanted to start reading it.
When he reached the Lincoln cabin, he found Betsy and Mathilda waiting outside for their mother. She stood before the mirror in the cabin putting on her sunbonnet.