There was talk and chatter, especially once Oldpappy came in to help. He was getting feeble now, but he still had a hand in the kitchen, which was all to the benefit of those who ate here; Old Peg meant well and worked hard, but some folks had the knack and some folks didn’t. But it wasn’t food that Taleswapper came for, nor conversation either, and after a while he realized he’d have to bring it up himself “Where’s your daughter?”

To his surprise, Old Peg stiffened, and her voice went cold and hard. “She ain’t so little no more. She’s got a mind of her own, she’s the first to tell you.”

And you don’t much like it, thought Taleswapper. But his business with the daughter was more important than any family squabbles. “Is she still a—“

“A torch? Oh, yes, she does her duty, but it’s no pleasure for folks to come for her. Snippy and cold, that’s what she is. It’s got her a name for being sharp-tongued.” For a moment Old Peg’s face softened. “She used to be such a soft-hearted child.”

“I’ve never seen a soft heart turn hard,” said Taleswapper. “At least not without good reason.”

“Well, whatever her reason, she’s one whose heart has crusted up like a waterbucket on a winter’s night.”

Taleswapper held his tongue and didn’t sermonize, didn’t talk about how if you chip the ice it’ll freeze up again right away, but if you take it inside, it’ll warm up fresh as you please. No use stepping in the middle of a family squabble. Taleswapper knew enough of the way people lived that he took this particular quarrel as a natural event, like cold winds and short days in autumn, like thunder after lightning. Most parents didn’t have much use for a halfgrown child.

“I have a matter to discuss with her,” said Taleswapper. “I’ll take the risk of having my head bitten off.”

He found her in Dr. Whitley Physicker’s office, working on his accounts. “I didn’t know you were a bookkeeper,” he said.

“I didn’t know you held much with physicking,” she answered. “Or did you just come to see the miracle of a girl who does sums and ciphers?”

Oh, yes, she was as sharp as could be. Taleswapper could see how a wit like that might discommode a few folks who expected a young woman to cast down her eyes and speak softly, glancing upward only now and then under heavy-lidded eyes. There was none of that young ladyness about Peggy. She looked Taleswapper in the face, plain as could be.

“I didn’t come to be healed,” said Taleswapper. “Or to have my future told. Or even to have my accounts added up.”