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present.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI want to help,” Leah said once more. “I want to learn everything I can about how to run a farm stand so that, maybe someday, I can have one of my own. You will need help now, won’t you, now that your father is gone? I’ll do any job you like. I’m a hard worker, you can ask my
aenti
Rachel. She’ll tell you.”
    â€œWhoa,” Miriam said, holding up her hands. “Slow down. Give me a moment to think, Leah.”
    Leah swallowed hard. For several humming moments, neither woman spoke. Leah’s hands were clasped tightly in front of her, her eyes fixed on the ground. Gazing at her unexpected visitor, trying to assemble her scattered thoughts, Miriam realized suddenly that Leah was wearing a pair of plastic clogs the exact same shade of green as her own. For no reason she could account for, this tipped the scales.
    â€œTell me something, Leah,” she said. “How do you feel about dusting?”
    Leah’s gaze shot to Miriam’s face. In her blue eyes, Miriam saw surprise. And also, she thought, just the faintest hint of dismay.
    â€œI will be happy to dust, if that will help, Miriam,” Leah answered solemnly.
    Miriam smiled.
Surely the hand of God is in this,
she thought. Hadn’t she been considering going to see Bishop John to discuss the farm stand just this morning? And now here was the bishop’s niece, offering to help.
    â€œI will tell you a secret, Leah,” she said. “I have never cared for dusting, myself. It is tedious work, but it goes much better when there are extra hands to help. What do you say we work together for a while? After that, if you still want to help, we can walk to your
aenti
and
onkel
’s house and I will speak with Rachel.”
    â€œOh,
thank you
, Miriam!” Leah said, her eyes shining. “What shall we dust first? Where do you keep the dust cloths?”
    Miriam got the cleaning supplies from the broom closet her
daed
had built. She set Leah to her first task, dusting the shelves of jams and preserves. Leah went to work with such a serious, determined expression that Miriam realized she had hardly stopped smiling since Leah arrived. Oh, yes, Miriam thought, Leah might be exactly what she needed.

Four

    I just don’t understand it,” Leah said. She stepped out the front doors of the farm stand and gave her rag a brisk snap that sent the dust flying. Her tone was filled with such exasperation and outrage that Miriam bit back a smile.
    The two had worked steadily all morning, dusting and sweeping and generally putting the farm stand to rights. Miriam had kept one ear cocked for Sarah, thinking her sister might come down to the farm stand once she was up. But so far, she had not arrived. Now it was almost time for the midday meal.
    â€œThe farm stand has only been closed for just over a week,” Leah went on as she came back inside. “How can things have gotten so dusty in so short a time?”
    â€œDust is a mystery,” Miriam admitted. “I think that’s why it’s such a trial.” She gave her own rag a snap, then returned it to the basket where it was kept. Later she would take the rags they had used today up to the farmhouse to be washed.
    â€œBut I think that is enough dusting for one day,” she went on. “Come, put your rag in the basket and let’s get the tables back inside. Then we can go and see Rachel.”
    Leah added her rag to the basket and followed Miriam outside. Miriam took the near end of the table, and Leah the far end. That meant that Miriam would be the one walking backward.
    â€œWatch your feet,” Miriam said as they maneuvered the first of the big display tables back inside the farm stand and prepared to set it down.
    Leah smiled. “These tables will not get the better of me,” she said. “I have my eye on them.”
    Once both the tables were back inside the stand, Miriam swung the big