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Jeff? You don’t like Ezra just because he’s a Yankee? Is there something else?”
Jeff was flustered. He said finally, “I think Leah’s making too much of him. She’s too young to be interested in boys like that. She doesn’t know how Ezra might be feeling toward her.”
    â€œWell, they’re pretty good friends, but you two have been friends a lot longer. Are you feeling a different way toward her now too?”
    â€œI told her we went back a lot further than her and Ezra,” Jeff said eagerly. “But she wouldn’t even go fishing with me. She was out hunting birds’ eggs with him. That’s what we always did together. If she wanted someone to go hunting birds’ eggs with her, why didn’t she ask me?”
    â€œI don’t know. Why didn’t she? Maybe you were busy.”
    Jeff remembered how he’d insisted on going off to hunt rabbits by himself, and he gnawed his lip in a worried fashion. “She could have asked me,” he said stubbornly.
    Silas, perhaps figuring he’d gotten about as much out of the young man as he was going to during this conversation, merely responded, “You’ll work it out, Jeff. You two always have. Now pay for your supper by chopping me some wood!”
    Later, at the window, as he watched Jeff swinging the ax with a vengeance under the old oak tree, Silas said to himself,
That boy’s got himself tangled up in his own harness. I don’t think I can talk to him
right now. When a boy’s stubborn like that, he’s got to get himself out of it
.
    Jeff was tired and knew he could spend the night with Silas without having to do anything else, but he also knew the old man appreciated any help he got. There were plenty of chores to be done, and he worked hard for the rest of the day.
    Late that afternoon he took a break, slumped down on the dirt by the front porch, and then looked up when he heard the jingle of harness and whisper of wheels spinning down the road. A familiar buggy was approaching.
    It stopped in front of the house.
    He scrambled to his feet and wiped his sweaty face on his sleeve as Lucy Driscoll jumped down and ran toward him.
    Her voice nearly screeched his name. “Jeff! Jeff!” She launched herself toward him and grabbed him around the neck.
    â€œHello, Lucy,” Jeff said awkwardly as he untangled her arms and set her away from his dusty, sweat-soaked clothes. He still disliked the girl. She had always treated Leah badly. Just because Leah’s family wasn’t like hers—Lucy’s parents were two of the most important social leaders in the Richmond area—didn’t mean Lucy could treat her like trash.
    Lucy Driscoll was a pretty girl, small and well-shaped, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Her father was a prominent, wealthy planter.
    Lucy saw Jeff’s frown and bit her lip. “When the lieutenant told me you were back, I just couldn’t wait to talk to you, Jeff,” she said timidly.
    â€œAbout what?” he responded roughly. It was not Lucy’s social snub of Leah that disturbed him the most. What seemed unforgivable was that Lucy hadinformed Captain Wesley Lyons that Leah was trying to sneak away with an escaped prisoner. It had been Lucy’s spite that had almost gotten Leah and Ezra captured. Jeff and Leah had talked a lot about Lucy’s betrayal, and neither of them had any warm feelings for the girl. He looked at her sternly.
    Lucy looked down at the ground. “You’re mad at me, aren’t you, Jeff?”
    â€œDon’t know why you should think that,” Jeff said shortly.
    Lucy looked up, and Jeff saw how worry creased her forehead. Her eyes almost teared. Her lips were trembling. “I was wrong to do what I did,” she offered as she plucked hesitantly at his sleeve. She waited, and when he didn’t speak she added, “I shouldn’t have told on Leah like I did. It was wrong of me. Friends