I got dressed. Ate my porridge in a few big bites. Packed a fresh jar for gathering honey. Made sure I had my work gloves. My flint. My knife.

My mother watched me. “Does she have any food up there?”

“Some. I don’t know. But I saw grain. Some dried apples. And there’s the bread and jerky I took up yesterday, if they haven’t eaten it all. She must have more, stored somewhere.”

I thought of the shed behind the cabin and what might be in it. Larkin bringing her what he could. That garden, and what might have grown there. The snares she set.

“Even so, put the last of that porridge in a crock.”

There. That was what I needed. To hear her say such things.

I packed everything in my pack and hung it from my shoulder.

I looked at Samuel, who had come back in from the woodshed and was humming and swinging his feet as he finished his breakfast.

“Keep Daddy company while I’m gone.”

“I will,” he said solemnly.

“And don’t forget to check on the puppies, too, and give Maisie plenty of water.”

He shook his head. “I won’t.”

“And don’t go wandering off anywhere.”

“Ellie, stop being so bossy,” he said, glaring at me. “You sound like Esther.”

Which set me back a step or two.

“I have to go now,” I said slowly, my mind already on its way. I started to say Be good but stopped myself and said, “Goodbye,” instead.

“I’m going to bring Frank in to visit with Daddy.” Samuel scraped the last bit of porridge up and into his mouth.

“Who’s Frank?”

“The puppy with the white paw,” Samuel said.

I opened my mouth to ask why he had chosen Frank, but instead I said, “It’s not a good idea to name puppies we have to give up.”

At which he gave me his usual scowl. “You got to name Quiet.”

I nodded. “Yes, I did. That’s how I know.”

And my mother turned to look at me before I went out the door.

—

I had intended to stay away from Quiet, since spending time with him would just make it harder to let him go, but I stopped in the woodshed before heading up the mountain again.

“Hey, little one,” I said as I picked him up and held his nose against mine.

Maisie had licked the skillet clean and was grooming her paws, the other puppies staggering around the nest in search of her. She looked at them fondly but stayed right where she was.

I didn’t know how she managed to be such a good mother with no one to teach her how.

“Go on out for a bit,” I told her. “Go on. Go have a run. They’ll be all right.”

I opened the door and coaxed her outside, where the sunlight made her sneeze and yawn.