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double doors closed and slid home the bolt that locked them. Then Miriam switched off the overhead lights. She and Leah let themselves out the back door, and Miriam locked up behind them. Even after all these years, it still felt strange to lock the doors, she thought. The doors to the farmhouse were never locked. But the house stood well back from the road and was partly hidden from view by a gentle swell of the rolling hills that were so much a part of the landscape of the area. The farm stand was in plain view, right off the road.
    Daed didn’t like locking up, either,
she thought. But her father was sensible in this, as in so much else, and locking up was the sensible choice.
    Miriam and Leah crossed to the far side of the road and then walked along the pavement, facing in the direction of whatever traffic might come along, as they made their way to the Millers’ farm. Leah had come to live with her
aenti
and
onkel
when she was still a small child. She had originally come only to visit while her parents took a trip to see distant relatives in another part of the country. The driver of the motor coach they were traveling in fell asleep at the wheel, and the coach had gone off the road. It had plunged into a river, and everyone on board had been killed. Leah had lived with Rachel and John Miller ever since.
    â€œWhat do you think we will have to sell tomorrow?” Leah asked as she and Miriam walked along. “I will check with Aenti Rachel, but I think we still have some late-season raspberries we can sell, and the blackberries are coming on.”
    â€œWe have raspberries, too, and so will Amelia Brennemann and several others.” Miriam nodded. “That will be good for the stand. Berries are always popular with the
Englischers
, and the weekend is coming up.”
    â€œHow do you know what to sell?” Leah asked. “How do people know what to bring you? Do they just come to the stand with whatever they have? What if they bring something that you don’t want?”
    â€œSlow down, Leah!” Miriam said with a smile. “One thing at a time. You will understand how things work once you get started. Besides, I like best to learn things by doing them, don’t you?”
    â€œI do,” Leah said, her voice surprised. “How did you know? But I like to plan things, too,” she added, before Miriam could respond.
    â€œSome planning ahead is good,” Miriam agreed. “But we cannot plan too much. The workings of the world are in God’s hands, not ours.”
    â€œOf course.” Leah nodded. They walked in silence for several moments.
    While Miriam and Leah had been setting the farm stand to rights, the day had grown warm. The sun was a great ball of orange in the blue, blue sky.
The color of Daniel’s eyes,
Miriam thought. At the thought of Daniel, a familiar ache settled in the center of Miriam’s chest.
No, not today,
she thought. Not on this morning that had turned out so fine. A breeze had sprung up, ruffling the grass at the side of the road. Miriam took a deep breath, savoring the scents of the world all around her. She would have known the men in the fields were bringing in the wheat just by breathing in. The whole world smelled fresh and green. Beneath her clogs, she could feel the pavement of the road was growing warm.
    â€œSarah and I used to take turns seeing how far down this road we could walk with our shoes off on a summer day,” Miriam mused. “The pavement gets so hot.”
    â€œWho won?” Leah asked, her voice intrigued.
    â€œDo you know,” Miriam said, “I honestly can’t recall. What I remember most is the feel of this road beneath my feet. It seems I have been walking along it my whole life. Probably because I have been!” she added with a quick laugh. “Goodness! I don’t know what’s gotten into me to be thinking of that all of a sudden.”
    It was Sarah, she realized. Sarah came home