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more. And I know how to use a computer.” I was glad I had been to the library and researched my chickens that way. “I know just about everything there is to know about one. Besides which, some things are not all they’re cracked up to be.”
    “Well,
well
. Aren’t you the smart one? Don’t you want to go to school to be with children your own age?”
    “I don’t like children much.” I didn’t know as I exactly meant that—I didn’t really know very many kids—but I thought it might make her go away.
    “Is that so?” She raised her eyebrows. “And tell me, what will you be when you grow up?”
    “I’ll go on raising my hens and selling the eggs, and do like we’ve always done.”
    “Oh goodness,” she said, sounding very amused.
    I looked at her real steady.
    She laughed, and not in a nice way.
    That made me mad. “You have not been raised correctly if you don’t know any better than to laugh at a person. And the way you pull your hair back tight from your face makes your nose look even longer than it is. You ought to think about changing it.”
    Mama said, “Prairie.”
    Before Mama could say anything else, I told the lady, “I beg your pardon, ma’am,” but I didn’t mean it. I wanted to tell her, “You’re as plain as a water spigot and mean as rain in January,” and I only kept quiet out of consideration for Mama’s feelings.
    The lady gave us all a disgusted look. “I can see you don’t remember me, Loren Lynn. I did think about buying one of these birdhouses as a gift for my son, he just got a nice promotion at the bank, but I’m afraid they are just overpriced. And Imust say, it’s a shame a child of this age is not in school, learning to be among other children and learning some manners, too. Obviously she doesn’t know a thing about that if she’ll speak to an adult like she just spoke to me. Mark my words, you’ll be sorry someday.”
    “Who was that?” Daddy asked after she stalked away.
    “That has to be Anne Oliver. I haven’t seen her in fifteen years.”
    “She don’t seem real fond of you.” A grin quirked at the corner of Daddy’s mouth.
    Mama looked upset. “She’s not, she never was. I beat her son in a spelling bee way back in the fifth grade, and I swear it started then. Plus, my mother always got the top prize for canning at the county fair and my dad was elected over her husband as township clerk three years running.”
    Daddy rolled his eyes, and Mama shook her head. “Some people just don’t have enough to keep them occupied, I guess.”
    The next moment, the lady who bought the quilt came back.
    She said to my mama, “I have an idea I’m just too excited to keep to myself. You tell me what you think of it, and if you say no, I’ll understand. But your work is so good. Your use of color, and the patterns— Well, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. But I direct a community arts program in New Paltz, and I just wondered if there’s a chance you’d consider giving some classes this fall. There’s a hole in the curriculum and the minute I bought this quilt I knew just how to fill it.”
    Mama’s eyes had gone wide. “You’re kidding.”
    “I most certainly am not!” The lady had one of those smiles that you couldn’t help grinning back at.
    “We live in New Paltz!” Mama exclaimed.
    “Well, that will work out beautifully, then.”
    I was so proud for my mama right then. I didn’t give any thought to what it might mean to me.

BETRAYAL
    The next morning I rolled out of bed and went to my window. It was sunny and mild and I had the blossoming feeling I get when a day seems full of promise. In the night I’d heard coyotes wailing. It seemed like a good omen, even though I knew I’d have to be extra careful about my chickens and never fail to put them back in the coop at night, or else they’d get eaten. I always loved to hear the coyotes howl back on Peabody Mountain. They sounded so wild and free and mysterious.Hearing