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anymore. Davy was almost as tall as Eliza, and his voice had changed. Some boys no older than he had joined the army as drummers, a few even as soldiers. With four females living on the farm now, Davy really was the man of the house. Eliza decided that on the next Sunday, her son would take Will’s place at the end of the pew.
    *   *   *
    Eliza had left a banked fire in the house, and when they returned from church, she and Davy added wood to the coals, and before long, the house was warm. She cut up the rooster she’d killed the day before and placed it with winter vegetables in an iron pot, which she hung from a crane over the fire. The children sat at the table, peeling their oranges and sharing them with Nance.
    â€œOne for me and one for you,” Davy said, handing the child a section.
    â€œOne for me and one for you,” Luzena repeated.
    â€œThat’s not right,” Davy said. “She’s getting twice as many as we are.”
    Luzena frowned, not understanding. “Then I won’t give her any more.”
    â€œNo, that doesn’t work out right, either.”
    â€œMore,” Nance said.
    â€œShe’s never ate a orange before,” Missouri Ann told Eliza.
    â€œWhat about you?” Eliza asked.
    Missouri Ann shook her head. “I seen them but never had the cash to buy one.”
    â€œDavy…” Eliza said, but her son had already gotten up from the table, and he gave Missouri Ann an orange section.
    â€œMe, too,” said Luzena, proffering her own bit of orange, but Missouri Ann shook her head, saying one piece was enough.
    Missouri Ann ate her bit of orange slowly. “Tastes like summer,” she said.
    â€œIt does at that,” said Eliza, who was mixing dough for dumplings.
    â€œYou let me do that. You take a resting spell,” Missouri Ann said.
    Eliza shook her head. “We’ll let that old rooster stew. It’s time you saw the soddy. You’ll have to sleep here with us until we get it fixed up. In fact, maybe you ought to stay here altogether.”
    â€œNo, me and Nance can live in the soddy.”
    â€œThen let’s get to it. Maybe you’ll change your mind after you see it,” Eliza told her, removing her shawl from a peg and opening the door. She led the way to a building built of long strips of prairie sod stacked on top of each other. The soddy was small and low to the ground, and there was a hole in the back wall. Eliza thought animals might have sheltered inside. She and Will had loved the little house, but they had been young and newly in love, and the soddy was their first home. It had been a cozy house, cool in summer and so warm in winter that she hadn’t had to sleep with her bowl of yeast to keep it from freezing. Now she saw what a dismal place it really was. Clods of earth had fallen from the ceiling onto the floor. “It’s awful dirty,” Eliza said.
    Missouri Ann laughed. “Of course it is. It’s made of dirt, ain’t it?” She clapped her hands. “Why, it’s as fine a house as I ever lived in! And to think there’s just the two of us. We’ll get lost in here.”
    Eliza blinked at that, because the soddy was not much bigger than a horse stall. “It’s awfully small.”
    â€œJust the right size. I can sit on the bed and flip pancakes.”
    â€œYou can’t stay here yet.”
    â€œI’ll clean it up tomorrow. It don’t need much work at all, just that hole in the side patched. Someday maybe I’ll get me muslin to stretch across the ceiling so’s the dirt don’t fall down. It’s a right fine house, best I ever saw.” She frowned. “I didn’t bring anything with me, not even a cookpot.”
    â€œI got extra,” Eliza told her. “Extra dishes, too.” She frowned and added, “But you won’t need them. We’ll all eat together.”
    â€œâ€™Bliged. I