Anna waved back.

“Toss me them things so’s y’all don’t hev t’ carry ’em down,” Missus Sawyer said, in tones that suggested this was probably a good idea. Anna tossed down the folded canvas, then the shawl, then her own bundle, and went back down the ladder.

“Go wash up at th’ pump,” Missus Sawyer told her when she emerged from the barn. Since this was not framed as a suggestion, Anna obeyed her. Jeb’s wife seemed to set a high store by cleanliness, and Anna was not about to disobey her.

The table was already set, and almost as soon as she had finished washing up, Jeb came in, followed by Hal, followed by the two younger children. They all took their turns at the pump, while Anna took the seat she had been given last night and waited for Missus Sawyer to come in from her chores. The kitchen was already full of wonderful scents.

Missus Sawyer had not been exaggerating when she had said that breakfast was one of the two big meals of the day. There were biscuits again, and tomato gravy to dip them in. Everyone got an egg from the batch Missus Sawyer had brought in from the henhouse. There was fried bread and jelly, and pickled okra, and if you wanted it, the leftovers of last night’s soup. And cornmeal mush and blackberries to stir into it.

And somehow, even after all of the food she had eaten yesterday, she was starving, as if her body was trying to make up for all the years of cabbage soup and plain grits.

Just as she finished helping to clear the dishes, there was a jingle of harness, the sound of many hooves, and the rolling of wheels out at the front of the house. She and Jeb and his wife went to the front to see what the noise was. There, atop a very tall wagon pulled by six mules, was someone she was certain was Caleb Strong, the man who was to take her to Aunt Jinny.

“Hello th’ house!” the man called out, then spotted them coming around the side. “Hope I ain’t afore time.”

“Jest in time, Caleb,” Jeb said heartily, and reached up to shake Caleb’s hand. Anna, meanwhile, could only gape at his rig-out.

It was a truly enormous wagon, with a deep, deep bed, tall wheels, and six mules to pull it! What must he be hauling to need that many mules?

Caleb himself was slightly older than Jeb, with a smooth-shaven, open face, much tanned by sun and wind, and weather-bleached yellow hair. He was wearing something very similar to Jeb: flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and denim overalls, with stout boots. He peered down at Anna from the vast height of the box and smiled. “This’d be Miz Jinny’s gal?” He handed Jeb down a woven willow basket without waiting for an answer. “This’d be her pay for bringin’ her t’Cleveland, then.”