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me out—”
    “You’re not talking sense. There’s no way we could stay here!”
    She looked up at me then and scarcely seemed to be the same woman who’d followed me across so many miles. “There’s no way I’m leaving without giving this a chance.”
    Her words were like a slap in the face. She’d follow me no more. I’d failed her, and she wasn’t having any more of it. No way she was leaving? Did that mean I could go or stay, and it wouldn’t matter to her? That she’d rather have me gone than spend another day following me anywhere? I couldn’t bear to think what her answer might be.
    “What’s wrong with askin’ around a little, Sam?” she asked, taking my other hand. “How can it hurt just to ask the owner? Maybe he’d like somebody out here.”
    “Juli, honey, we’ve got no way of knowing where they are. And there wouldn’t anybody just give away their land if we did find them. We’ve got nothing to offer them for rent, nothing to offer them at all. It seems like a nice idea, but it’s useless. The longer we’re here, the harder it’ll be on the kids to leave.”
    She looked up at me, and her pretty green eyes were deep and stormy. “They need to rest. And you know Dewey’s got problems of his own right now with his job gone. We’ve got nowhere else. Not a decent soul would blame us for staying a couple of days.”
    “And then what?” I couldn’t believe that she wouldn’t let the matter drop. “What good will it do sitting on this farm, getting hope up in these kids?”
    She sighed. “Hope’s all we’ve got. I’m not leaving, Sam, till I’ve had a chance to try.”
    I’d never known her to be so stubborn, and it made me furious. But more than that, it made me scared. Like she was already miles away, and I hadn’t taken a single step. “Try what?” I countered. “Getting thrown off of here by the law, maybe? Seeing the hurt in Rob and Sarah when we’re made to leave? You can’t just have whatever you come upon! Lord knows it don’t happen that way!”
    She shook her head. “We won’t harm anything. I’ll clean up, leave things better than we found it. All we need is a chance to talk to the owner. They’re not using it. Maybe we could find some terms.”
    She walked away from me.
    “Julia.”
    She turned, only for a moment, with a look strong as stone about her. “I mean to go look for mushrooms now, Sam. You and the kids are welcome to join me. We’ll take an extra bowl, in case the Lord would bless us with something else while we’re over there. I don’t want to have to go anywhere else today. We need a rest. We can find the town tomorrow if it doesn’t rain.”
    I stood for a moment, just looking at her. Had poverty made her irrational, or my failure? She’d decided to make her own way; that was plain. She didn’t trust me anymore. Had no use for me, more than likely.
    “Robert John!” she hollered. “Sarah Jean!” She turned away from me to watch our daughter amble toward her, flowers in hand.
    Robert descended effortlessly from his perch in the apple tree and came running. “Mom!” he yelled. “There’s tiny apples in that tree. Lots of them. They’ll grow, won’t they?”
    “Yes,” Julia answered him quietly. “But it’ll take months.”
    “I wish we could stay that long,” he said wistfully. “It’d be fine, picking ’em. I could take a bucket up with me and lower it down to you with a rope.”
    He didn’t seem to notice me standing there. Right then, none of them did.
    “We’ll have us an apple tree of our own one day,” Julia told him. “Lots of space and a real big garden.”
    “Flowers too?” Sarah asked, holding up her haphazard bouquet.
    “Sure enough. And those are lovely,” Julia answered. “But right now, I’m going to take a walk in that timber over there and see if I can find some of those little morel mushrooms Grandma fried up for us once. Do you remember, Robert?”
    “I think I do,” he said hesitantly.