Read Abe Lincoln at Last!: A Merlin Mission for Free Online

cabin.
    Inside the shed, a cow was eating hay and swishing her tail. A three-legged stool and a tin pail stood in the corner.
    “You try first,” said Annie.
    “Me?” said Jack.
    “I tried the ax first,” said Annie.
    Jack put the pail under the cow and moved the stool close to her. Then he sat down.
    The cow gave Jack a look. Then she whipped him in the face with her tail.
    “Oww!” said Jack. He leaned forward and stared at the cow’s udder.
    Jack looked up at Annie. “I have no idea what to do,” he said.
    Annie laughed again. “Me neither,” she said. “We’ll come back to this, too. What’s next?”
    Jack jumped up from the stool and looked attheir list. “Get water from the spring,” he said.
    “I saw two jugs by the door,” said Annie. “I’ll get them.” She ran to the cabin and came back a moment later with two brown jugs.
    “Heavy,” Annie warned. She gave one to Jack.
    The jug
was
surprisingly heavy. “They’ll be heavier with water,” said Jack. “This isn’t going to be easy, since the spring is a mile away, ‘through the rough.’ Whatever that means.”
    “I’ll bet that’s the rough over there,” said Annie. She pointed to the woods on the other side of the clearing.
    Jack and Annie wound their way through the stumps and stone piles until they came to the woodsy area, thick with underbrush. Wild grapevines twisted through bushes and around bare branches of small trees, binding it all together.
    “It looks rough all right,” said Jack.
    Annie pointed to a narrow path. “I’ll bet that’s how to get to the spring,” she said. “Want to give it a try?”
    “Sure,” said Jack. “Let’s go.”

    Carrying the jugs, Jack and Annie started down the path. They pushed aside tangled vines and branches. Crows, sparrows, and woodpeckers swooped overhead. Squirrels ran up and down the small, bare trees.
    Down the path, the rough got rougher. The path nearly disappeared. The tangle of undergrowth was so thick that Jack began to lose what little hope he had.
    “I can’t see pushing our way through this stuff for a whole mile,” he said.
    “Me neither,” said Annie. “Let’s go just a little further and see if it opens up again.”
    Jack and Annie pushed past more brambles and vines. “This whole journey is leading nowhere,” Jack grumbled. “No spring water, no split wood, no cow’s milk. Worst of all, no Abraham Lincoln. We’ve missed our only chance to use the magic to have a private meeting with him.”
    “I know,” said Annie. “But we couldn’t just leave Sam to try to do his chores. Offering to help him was the right thing to do.”
    “I know,” said Jack.
    “It’s weird,” said Annie. “Even though helping Sam isn’t part of our mission, I feel like doing one good thing is somehow connected to doing anothergood thing. If we’re helping Sam, we’re also helping Penny.”
    “Yeah …,” said Jack. Despite his worries, he agreed with what Annie said. “There’s only one problem: we have to get this feather from—”
    “Yikes!” said Annie.
    Jack looked back at her. “Yikes, what? You forgot we had to get a feather?”
    “No. Yikes, did you hear that?” she whispered.
    “Hear what?” whispered Jack. He held his breath and listened.
    “A growl,” whispered Annie.
    Jack looked around, his heart pounding. “Like, uh—a wildcat growl? Or a wolf growl?” he asked.
    “Like—
that
growl,” said Annie.
    Jack heard the long, low growl. He heard twigs breaking. The hair went up on the back of his neck.

CHAPTER NINE
Corn Bread and Molasses
    “T urn around slowly,” Jack said to Annie.
    Clutching the water jugs, Jack and Annie turned around and started back the way they’d come. They tried not to make noise, but sticks and branches cracked and snapped.
    The growl came again.
Louder
.
    “Forget slow!” said Jack. “Run!”
    Annie bolted ahead through the brush. Jack ran after her. His heart pounded. Brambles and vines blocked their way.