The morning was quite ordinary. The lessons proceeded as usual. No, better than usual. Sadie, small for her age and pale and shy, clearly relished having her big sister, Bess, seated next to her. Miss Walters was able to devote all her attention to just the two classes—Sadie in the Third Reader and the big girls in the Fifth. The room was quieter, too, because of fewer students or no boys or both.

Hanna especially enjoyed the history hour, where she and Bess took turns answering the questions Miss Walters put to them. Dolly faltered after just one question and confessed that she did not know the lesson.

At the noon hour, Bess and Sadie went home for their dinner. Dolly’s family lived on a claim, too far out of town for her to go home. But she never stayed in the schoolhouse. Instead, she always walked through town, stopping to look in the shops.

“Would you like to walk with me?” Dolly asked.

She was looking at Hanna, who was so astonished that she almost glanced over her shoulder to see who Dolly might be addressing. But of course, no one else was there.

“I—I was going to go over the spelling lesson,” Hanna replied.

“I’ve heard you spell,” Dolly said, with a friendly smile. “You’re the best in the class, you and Bess. You don’t need to go over it. Come for a walk instead.”

The unexpected invitation left Hanna flustered. “Maybe—but I don’t know—I’d rather not go into town . . .”

“That’s all right, then. We’ll just take a turn around the schoolyard, and then you can walk me as far as Main Street.”

The yard was nothing but bare prairie, with the well in the middle and the privy in one corner. It actually wasn’t a yard at all, just the space between the school building and the street corner. The town most likely had plans for a path and plantings and maybe even trees next year, but for now the schoolyard, like LaForge itself, was raw and unfinished.

Hanna and Dolly strolled around the edge of the lot.

“It’s so strange, isn’t it?” Dolly said, with a giggle. “Just the four of us all morning.”

“So . . . your parents don’t mind that you’re in school with me?”

“Oh, they don’t know. They only come to town once or twice a month, so they haven’t heard anything about you yet, and I haven’t told them.”

Hanna considered this. “What do you think they’ll say when they find out?”

“Why, they’ll make me stop coming, of course,” Dolly replied.

Hanna said nothing. It was clear that Dolly had no notion that what she had just said was hurtful. Hanna was annoyed at herself for not anticipating the answer. And the hurt.

Dolly put her arm through Hanna’s, which startled her so much that she instinctively pulled away.