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and awkward for both. “This must be your home,” Sam volunteered.
    â€œYes,” Anna answered, a little amused; it was so obvious, after all.  
    â€œâ€™Tis a—a fine home indeed,” added Sam, not entirely sincere, but eager to compliment her.  
    â€œâ€™Tis much improved now,” Anna replied, examining the work he had done to the clapboards.  She understood all too well the reasons for the cottage’s state of disrepair.  
    â€œI’ve spoken with your mother,” Sam began to explain. Words were not forthcoming, so he used the Captain’s words again, hoping for a moment’s reprieve for his brain.  “I am the ship’s carpenter, and it is my pleasure to assist you and your family on behalf of the USS Louisiana and the United States Navy.”   The young woman smiled.   Such a tidy speech!  
    â€œYou have my deep gratitude, and that of my mother and my brother,” she replied.  
    â€œPerhaps not your brother, Miss Daisey,” Sam added wryly.  Her face fell.  “A temporary misunderstanding,” he added hastily.  She was relieved.  This Union sailor must be different from all other Yankees if he had made peace with her brother Beau already.
    â€œPlease excuse me while I go to see my mother, Mr. Dreher,” she said, adding a small curtsy.  “No doubt you must want to complete your work.”  
    â€œThank you, ma’am,” nodded Sam, and replaced his cap.  She turned towards the door of the house and left him, a small trail of pink petals fluttering to the ground after her.
    He did want to complete his work, but for a time after she had gone he stood as if in a trance, hammer useless in his grip.  The scent of the wildflowers underfoot was intoxicating, and the heat of the sun overwhelmed him.  
    Eventually, he stooped to retrieve the nails that he had dropped.  With the slowness of a man just roused from bed, he climbed back up on the log and began to work again.  He felt differently about the task before him.  This was Anna Daisey’s home now.
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    Just before sundown, Ethan came to retrieve Sam.  His work so far had not been too taxing.  Reverend Carter had sent him to see an elderly widow called Lovey Copes.  How old she was exactly, the Reverend had not revealed, but she was very, very old.  She did not mind telling everyone, including him.  “She has some recollections of the Revolution,” Ethan began, as they walked back to the wharf.  “She remembers the day that the new U.S. Constitution circulated through Virginia.  The way she tells the story, it was brought to the Accomack County Courthouse, so that everyone around here could see it.  The delegate who was carrying it was about to leave for another county when someone asked if he had been to Chincoteague.  He hadn’t, so he rowed the Constitution over here in a boat, rolled up in an oilcloth, and Lovey saw it with her own eyes!”  That, Ethan reckoned, was old.  
    â€œWhat did she want you to do?” asked Sam.
    â€œWell, she’s kept pigs and chickens all her life, but her arthritis is so troubling to her, and her eyesight is so poor, that it’s too difficult now.  The neighbors send children to her house from time to time to help with feeding and so forth, but the chicken coops and pigpen are in very poor condition.  She was happy that the Captain sent us.”  Ethan went on to describe the henhouse and the pigpen, the latter built around a row of holly bushes that the pigs had begun to uproot.  “Those pigs would have been running wild all over the town soon,” said Ethan.  “I patched it up today, and I’m going to put in some cedar posts for a proper fence with split railings.  It’s no trouble to find cedar on this island, Sam.”  Sam nodded.  “The henhouses are going to be a lot