Even Selma accepted her and acted to please her, guiding her into the woods to her secret places. There was a bend of the creek where a narrow branching of water ran shallow and swift and cold over white pebbles. To hold one’s hands in it calmed the blood and reconciled the spirit, Selma told her. There was a trellis of scuppernong vines that fell in one place near to the ground and was strong enough to climb and swing upon. Both were still child enough to enjoy that. There was her private blackberry patch known to no one else. She was certain of this, because when the berries were ripe, they rotted and fell or made food for the birds if she did not herself pick and eat them. Now they were hard and green. She told Sarah how every year at the same time she found the shedded skin of a snake there. She had never seen him, and yet she felt she knew him, because they shared the patch without strife or formal treaty. They walked through the woods and recited the Sonnets to each other, and returned to the house arm in arm, tired and content.

When they came to the door of Selma’s room, Selma always took her guest’s hand in a friendly but formal way, indicating by the gesture that their adventure was over, for the time being at any rate, and that she would go into her room alone. There she always found Pauline waiting, and Pauline was almost not jealous of these excursions, which was her tribute to Sarah. Pauline had observed Sarah closely when she first came to Beulah Land and understood that Sarah was one who gave trust and affection without demanding tribute.

Leon knew every day in a surer way that she was “the best girl in all the world.” He took her with him to watch Floyd work, and Floyd made a ring for her out of a horseshoe nail, just as he did for the children. When the ring cooled, he handed it to Leon, who polished it on his trouser leg before slipping it on her finger. She declared that she would always wear it. Floyd warned her that it would turn and rust. She said that if it did, she would ask him to make her another, and the three laughed at that companionably together.