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almost touched the back of the tent.
    “ Deborah teased them again,” Io said. “She was flirting, the hussy.”
    “ Io! I don’t want you talking like that about your cousin. Slander is evil in Jehovah’s eyes.”
    “ But it’s true, Mother. The way Deborah laughs and tosses back her head, letting her curls flounce. She bats her eyes at Gomer or smiles slyly at Kush, and she praises one or the other. She told Gomer today what a huge catfish he caught.”
    “ It was nice of her to compliment him,” Rahab said.
    “ You should have seen what a pitiful little fish Kush had just caught,” Io said. “The others made fun of him, and he called everybody names.”
    “ I’ll have to talk to your father about that.”
    “ Deborah laughed louder than any of them, Mother. She teased Kush, saying that if his fish was small, other things of his must be small, too.”
    “ She said that?”
    “ Uh-huh. And that’s when she told Gomer he was a great fisherman. Kush clenched his jaws so his cheeks bunched up like they always do.”
    Rahab sighed.
    “Then, Gomer started telling us his secret to fishing, how to pick the right deep spot and how to jiggle your line just so. Kush said that had nothing to do with it, that everyone knew it was just dumb luck. Gomer swung his catfish near Kush’s face, asking if maybe he did know what he was talking about.”
    “ What happened then?”
    “ Kush pushed him so hard that Gomer almost fell.”
    Outside the tent, Ham grinned.
    “Then Gomer told Kush he was jealous,” Io said. “But Gomer told him not to worry. He’d teach him how to fish. Deborah clapped her hands and slid down from her rock where she’d been tossing her curls and batting her eyes. She put her hand on Gomer’s forearm, pretending to study his catfish. But I saw her, Mother. She glanced at Kush sideways, to see if he was getting mad.”
    “ Quiet, Io. I hear your brothers coming. Your father probably isn’t too far behind. I don’t want you talking about this during supper. We need to let Kush cool off. Do you hear me?”
    “ Yes, Mother.”
    “ I mean it, Io.”
    “ I said yes.”
    “ You remember that, too, unless you want a switching.”
    “ Oh, Mother, please.”
     

8.
     
    The next morning, Noah quizzed several children. Then the white-bearded preacher—who hadn’t had anyone to preach to for a long time—hitched oxen to his wagon and lumbered to the woods, returning with pines and heavy branches. Perhaps he had baggier eyes and deeper lines in his face than before, but he still possessed raw-boned strength. Splintering the logs and heaving them into a crude teepee, he pitched mats around them and set a tree-stump chair to the side. He washed his hands and face in a basin outside his tent, changed into clean clothes and marched to each dwelling, there informing his sons’ wives that after supper, after sunset, he wanted everyone at his fire.
    “ Did he give a reason why?” Ham asked later.
    Rahab shook her head.
    Ham peered out his tent. Gaea marched with a plate to Noah, who sat on the tree stump and drummed his fingers on the staff across his knees. They whispered as he ate, and then mother hurried away with the empty plate. Noah got on his hands and knees, using tongs to extract coals from a bronze cage. He set the glowing coals under the logs. As the log teepee began to burn, Noah resumed his station on the tree-stump chair.
    “ Don’t fuss while we’re there,” Rahab told her eight children. She nudged Ham.
    “ That’s right,” Ham said. “Or…” He slapped the back of his hand against his palm.
    The children bobbed their heads in understanding. Then they marched out to the fire, sitting on mats and listening to the crackling flames.
    After everyone had found a place, Noah said, “ Tonight, I will tell the children a tale.”
    Ham sat straighter, while Rahab soothed their youngest child . Ham hadn’t heard Noah’s preaching voice since he’d last used it on Kedorlaomer,