Anna sat herself down, and took the spoon Aunt Jinny handed to her. She couldn’t identify what it was made of, until it dawned on her that it was cow horn.

She waited for her aunt to say grace, but Jinny just sat down and dug straight into her food. After a moment, so did Anna.

The plate held a thick, fried-cornmeal hoecake. The bowl held soup virtually identical to the one Missus Sawyer had served her last night, except that there was less pepper and more things she couldn’t identify in it. The liquid was an herb tea of some sort, and there was honey to spoon into it to sweeten it. There was blackberry jam as well, and a horn knife she and Jinny shared to spread it on the hoecake. She ate carefully, so as not to get a crumb or a drop on the white gown she wore, and she felt—well, she felt a little like Pharoah’s daughter in her white shift with naught underneath, feasting on fine vittles. Jinny didn’t say much, except to ask when her plates were empty if she wanted more of anything. She hesitated, and Jinny sighed with exasperation. “This ain’t Lew Jones’s house,” she said crossly, and waved her hand at all the food. “I could feed three more of y’all and niver notice the lack. Are y’all hungry, or not?”

Anna allowed as how she was hungry, and got another helping of soup. There didn’t appear to be any more hoecake batter, but Jinny went to the nearest cupboard and opened it, and came back with a square of cornbread for her to crumble into the soup.

When the meal was over, Jinny showed Anna that the privy was, as she had hoped, in a little shed attached to that side door, was made of logs, and smelled not at all, except of dried peppermint and spearmint, from the bunches tied to nails along the inside. So—in bad weather you didn’t even have to go through the rain or snow to go to the privy!

Her aunt got warm water from another big metal pitcher in the niches along the fireplace, and wordlessly washed the dishes while Anna dried and stacked them on the counter.

“Now, lessee what we kin do about close,” Jinny said when the chore was done. She went over to the tall log bed and pulled a wooden chest out from under it.

The first things to come out were a couple of sets of drawers, a petticoat, and a couple chemises. Jinny held them up and examined them critically, then turned to Anna.

“C’n y’all mend?” she demanded.

“Yes’m,” she said obediently.

“Take thet there stool an’ go outside fer the last light,” Jinny ordered. Once Anna had set herself down beside the front door, Jinny put the underthings in Anna’s hand along with a woven willow workbasket full of spools of thread, a needle-flannel, a pincushion, and a pair of scissors and let her go to work.