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river.
    “ Horace! ” screamed Mrs. Taylor. “Horace, can you hear me? Answer me! ”
    The only sound was the rushing water and the thump of footsteps as others in the wagon train ran up to join them.
    “What happened?” Matthew demanded breathlessly.
    “The Taylors’ wagon!” Elizabeth gasped, pointing down to the wreckage. “Mr. Taylor…his wagon… they fell! ”
    “Help him,” pleaded Mrs. Taylor. “Please, send someone down to help him. Hurry! ”
    “Take her to your wagon,” Matthew instructed Elizabeth.
    “Come on,” Elizabeth said gently to Mrs. Taylor.
    “ No! ” Mrs. Taylor said. “I can’t go.”
    Matthew began shouting orders at the other men now, telling them to get ropes and winches and horses. Suddenly everyone was scrambling.
    “Come on,” Elizabeth urged her again, this time wrapping her arm around Mrs. Taylor’s shoulders and moving her away.
    “I can’t leave him,” Mrs. Taylor muttered.
    “Get her out of here,” Asa shouted at Elizabeth.
    “We need to get out of their way.” Now Elizabeth firmly guided her away from the edge of the precipice. “So they can rescue Mr. Taylor.”
    Mrs. Taylor looked at Elizabeth with frightened eyes. “They will rescue him?”
    “Of course,” Elizabeth said soothingly as she led her to the wagon. “Come with me…we can pray together.”
    “Yes, yes…we will pray.” Mrs. Taylor was shaking now. By the time they reached the wagon, the old woman’s face was as white as chalk, and Elizabeth could tell she was close to fainting. Leaning her against the wagon to steady herself, Elizabeth lifted down one of the chairs, helping Mrs. Taylor to sit. Then she got a tin cup and filled it with water. “Here, drink this.”
    Clearly in shock, Mrs. Taylor said nothing as she slowly sipped the water. Elizabeth could hear the men’s voices yelling back and forth as they tried to figure out what to do and how to do it. Matthew sent one of the boys to get Elizabeth’s riding horse, Molly. It wasn’t long until Elizabeth’s mother, worried that something had happened to her daughter, joined them as well. Elizabeth quietly explained to her about what had happened.
    “Oh, you poor dear,” Clara said to Mrs. Taylor.
    Elizabeth pulled down another chair for her mother. “Here, you sit with her. You can both pray while I go find out how they are doing.”
    “Yes,” Mrs. Taylor said eagerly. “Go and see if Horace is all right.”
    Elizabeth just nodded, but it seemed unlikely that anyone could survive such a fall. Even so, she prayed as she walked over to the crowd of women and children who were watching as their men used ropes and teams.
    “Your brother is at the end of that rope,” Flo Flanders informed Elizabeth.
    “Oh, dear!” Elizabeth didn’t like to think of Matthew dangling over the edge of that precipice. But seeing her father and Bert Flanders managing the horses that they were using to lower her brother, she felt a little more confident.
    “Matthew is so brave,” Mahala said.
    “I sent Walter to get the captain,” Flo told Elizabeth.
    “Good thinking.”
    “Do you think he survived?” Flo quietly asked her.
    Elizabeth just shook her head.
    “It’s because of Mrs. Taylor and that stupid piano,” Mahala said bitterly. “If her husband is dead, it’s her own fault.”
    “Mahala!” Flo frowned at her eldest daughter.
    “It’s true.” Mahala pointed at Elizabeth. “Hannah said she heard you and Asa talking to them earlier. But they wouldn’t listen.”
    “We did encourage them to leave the piano behind,” Elizabeth admitted. “Many times. But it’s unkind to blame Mrs. Taylor for this…especially considering she has lost everything…perhaps even her husband.”
    “Even if he survived that fall, which seems unlikely, he’ll be severely injured.” Flo shook her head. “Too bad they didn’t dump that piano when they had the chance.”
    Belinda and Amelia Bramford joined them now. Mahala filled them in on the