od to be true. They quickly learned the names of
their new brother and sisters. The Johnston children were called John,
Sarah and Matilda, so Sarah Lincoln's name was promptly changed to Nancy
for her dead mother, as there were two Sarahs already in the combined
family.

Mrs. Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln lost no time in taking poor Abe and
Nancy Lincoln to her great motherly heart, as if they were her own. They
were dirty, for they had been neglected, ill-used and deserted. She
washed their wasted bodies clean and dressed them in nice warm clothing
provided for her own children, till she, as she expressed it, "made
them look more human."

Dennis Hanks told afterward of the great difference the stepmother made
in their young lives:

"In fact, in a few weeks all had changed; and where everything had been
wanting, all was snug and comfortable. She was a woman of great energy,
of remarkable good sense, very industrious and saving, also very neat
and tidy in her person and manners. She took an especial liking for
young Abe. Her love for him was warmly returned, and continued to the
day of his death. But few children love their parents as he loved his
stepmother. She dressed him up in entire new clothes, and from that time
on he appeared to lead a new life. He was encouraged by her to study,
and a wish on his part was gratified when it could be done. The two sets
of children got along finely together, as if they all had been the
children of the same parents."

Dennis also referred to the "large supply of household goods" the new
mother brought with her:

"One fine bureau (worth $40), one table, one set of chairs, one large
clothes chest, cooking utensils, knives, forks, bedding and other
articles."

It must have been a glorious day when such a splendid array of household
furniture was carried into the rude cabin of Thomas Lincoln. But best of
all, the new wife had sufficient tact and force of will to induce her
good-hearted but shiftless husband to lay a floor, put in a window, and
hang a door to protect his doubled family from the cold. It was about
Christmas time, and the Lincoln children, as they nestled in warm beds
for the first time in their lives, must have thanked their second mother
from the bottoms of their grateful hearts.

CHAPTER VI

SCHOOL DAYS NOW AND THEN

Lincoln once wrote, in a letter to a friend, about his early teachers in
Indiana:

"He (father) removed from Kentucky to what is now Sp