McGraw©Hill/Focus/Sarah Lincoln Comes to Pigeon Creek p. 475////R7N29/ ***** Down in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, folks had called her the

Widow Johnson, but shw was the second Mrs. Lincoln now. She and

her three children©©John, just a little shaver asleep on her lap,

and Betsy and Mathilda, in the back of the wagon©©were on their

way to pigeon Creek to live. "Tell me, Tom, before we git thar," she said to the man on

the high wagon seat beside her, "what are your two young©uns

like?" "Wall..." Tom hesitated, glancing at Sarah, his new wife.

He liked the way her yellow hair curled in neat little ringlets

under the knitted brown hood. Everything about her was so neat.

Her children were so neat. She was looking at him steadily,

waiting for him to answer her question. "Wall," Tom repeated in his slow drawl, "Sally's 'bout the

age of your Betsy. Abe was ten last February, two or three years

older than your Tilda. Then thar's Dennis..." But what are your young©uns like?" Sarah insisted. "When a

mother hen's about to take two new chicks under her wing, she

likes to know." "Sally's a good gal. She's done her best to keep things aªgoin' since her mammy died. But, Abe©©I reckon Denny hit the

naiil on the head when he sais that Abe was sorta peculiarsome." Sarah looked uneasy. During the long ride up from Kentucky,

she had had plenty of time to think about her hasty marriage to

Tom Lincoln. He certainly hadn't given her much time to decide

when he had suddenly appeared in Elizabethtown a few days before.