A few days later, Ethan began to hear the sound of an ax east of his farm. It was not his nature to take the initiative in an encounter and he refrained from investigating, but he found himself glancing down the trail each day, wondering when Kindred would appear. Fairly early one morning, he was under the lean-to astride his shaving horse, carefully fashioning staves that, after drying and planing, would go into the sides of a churn. He and Epsey already had one, and he was planning to make this one as a gift to the Morrises. He heard voices on the trail, young voices full of laughter, and looked expectantly toward the deep woods beyond his field of winter wheat, on which a few cattle were grazing for a few days before being moved off to let the crop mature. There were no leaves to impede his view, as the pine tree foliage began at least fifty feet up the trunk and the hardwoods were bare. Here on the high ground, only the beeches still carried last year’s silvery brown leaves, not to be shed until the new leaves pushed them off the stems. The small limbs and leaves of all kinds had long ago been eaten as high as cattle could reach. Ethan finally glimpsed two figures moving toward his cabin and turned away, pretending a lack of interest in their approach. Only when they emerged into the clearing did he look up, express surprise, and move to his front door. He opened it and called softly to his wife, “Epsey, we’ve got company.” She rose from her chair and joined him on the small porch, holding little Henry in her arms.

The first thing both of them noticed was that the young woman’s bonnet was decorated with an elaborate pattern of lace, which would have aroused mild attention at a social affair when everyone put on their best, but was startling when worn in the woods or fields during the working week. She came forward without hesitation, almost skipping instead of walking, and greeted the Pratts.

“Hello, my name is Mavis. I guess you know that we’ll be settling not too far up the trail toward Wrightsborough. I’ve really been wanting to meet our future neighbors, and especially since Kindred told me about Mr. Pratt’s interest in trees and the things that live in creeks. We’ll have a lot to talk about, won’t we?”

She walked steadily toward Epsey and reached out for the baby, whom she was soon cuddling.

Ethan was somewhat disconcerted by her taking the initiative in the conversation, not giving her husband a chance to speak first, and looking directly into his eyes as she spoke, which was an almost unprecedented experience for him. After a few seconds, he turned to greet Kindred with a nod and a murmured welcome, while the two women began to exchange some polite words, mostly about little Henry.