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While sometimes it might seem that Abe didn't obey his father all the time it still seemed like he held his dad higher than anybody else. In any event young Abe would always think was his dad said was correct no matter what. When the visit Uncle Mordecai, Abe is a little surprised in how his Uncle talks to his dad. " It was like Uncle Mordecai had cut Pap down, just talking words. Abe had always thought of his Pap as the strongest man, and he was sure a thicker man than Uncle Mordecai. But Uncle Mordecai was like a steel-head ax and Pap like a block of wood." [Abe p.29] .
Another characteristic that young Abe had was his curiosity, which he satisfied by reading books. When Mr. Riney gave Abe's mom The Fables of Aesop, and Abe gets them he becomes very excited about reading showing his willingness to learn. When Abe starts to read the fables he has to teach himself. "At first he had to spell his way into it slow, but after a couple of days the words broke loose like crick-ice letting go in a thaw and started to run together, then he was off to Aesop-country inside his head, and lived there the better part of a month." [Abe p. 32].
As he continues to read the fables there is one story that keeps sticking in his head, "The Wolf and the Lamb." It's a story about the wolf telling the lamb he is going to eat him for doing wrong things but it turns out the lamb is always right and in the end the wolf ends up eating the lamb by making up a lame excuse. The story really bothered Abe but he couldn't stop reading it. Abe realized there was a hidden meaning to it and he couldn't figure it out. While laying in bed at night it came to him that Uncle Mordecai was a wolf. "There wasn't a thing you could say, right or wrong, that could stop him grinning his long bony too-many-teeth grin, or tearing you to pieces with his words or his skinning knife." [Abe p. 32].
When the hidden meaning finally came to Abe he got a huge rush and wanted to go tell his mom his figured it out.
