to change the lot of all the desolate little family very much for the
better. Sarah Bush had been an acquaintance of Thomas Lincoln before
his first marriage; she had, it is said, rejected him to marry one
Johnston, the jailer at Elizabethtown, who had died, leaving her with
three children, a boy and two girls. When Lincoln's widowhood had
lasted a year, he went down to Elizabethtown to begin again the wooing
broken off so many years before. He wasted no time in preliminaries,
but promptly made his wishes known, and the next morning they were
married. It was growing late in the autumn, and the pioneer probably
dreaded another lonely winter on Pigeon Creek. Mrs. Johnston was not
altogether portionless. She had a store of household goods which
filled a four-horse wagon borrowed of Ralph Grume, Thomas Lincoln's
brother-in-law, to transport the bride to Indiana. It took little time
for this energetic and honest Christian woman to make her influence
felt, even in those discouraging surroundings, and Thomas Lincoln and
the children were the better for her coming all the rest of their
lives. The lack of doors and floors was at once corrected. Her honest
pride inspired her husband to greater thrift and industry. The goods
she brought with her compelled some effort at harmony in the other
fittings of the house. She dressed the children in warmer clothing and
put them to sleep in comfortable beds. With this slight addition to
their resources the family were much improved in appearance, behavior,
and self-respect.

[Illustration: SARAH BUSH LINCOLN AT THE AGE OF SEVENTY-SIX.]

Thomas Lincoln joined the Baptist church at Little Pigeon in 1823; his
oldest child, Sarah, followed his example three years later. They were
known as active and consistent members of that communion. Lincoln was
himself a good carpenter when he chose to work at his trade; a walnut