Caldwell grinned as he watched his boys put down their sacks at the turn-row and climb over the fence to start an eager race toward the house. “I could’ve let them go at the sound of the bell, but it’s good trainin’ to let them know that they’ll not starve for workin’ a few minutes longer. They learn patience, and application to duty.”

The log house, like many James had seen in the colony, showed the rambling effect of several additions as the family had grown. The whole place had a well-tended look, a look that indicated comfort, as comfort was measured in the relative isolation of the Austin colony from the old states back home. It reminded him of Widow Willet’s place some distance east of Michael’s. These people had dug in here to stay.

He found that at least one of the boys had overheard his conversation with Caldwell about his trouble with the soldiers. Caldwell’s wife stood on the narrow porch waiting for her husband and the company her sons had told her was coming. Caldwell said, “Martha, this here is another of the Lewis boys, brother to Andrew. You remember Andrew.”

“Name is James, ma’am. I’m mighty pleased to meet you.”

Her response was to touch his shirt, examining the hole left by the musket ball. “If you’d like to put on one of Marcus’s shirts, I’ll patch this for you right after dinner. The boys didn’t say if you were wounded.”

“Nothin’ to talk about, ma’am. I reckon the ball was purt nigh spent by the time it struck me.”

A girl with red hair stood half a pace behind her mother. James took her to be about fifteen or so, and some plainer than a few girls he had known back in Tennessee. She seemed not impressed by him. “What if the soldiers come lookin’ while he’s here? They won’t take it kindly, us feedin’ him.”

Mrs. Caldwell, a plump woman with gray in her hair and authority in her voice, said, “He’s a brother of Andrew Lewis. If the soldiers are after him, it’s the soldiers who are wrong.”

“But they’re the ones with the guns,” the girl said. “Maybe we’d ought to just give him somethin’ to take with him and let him be on his way. If they catch him, let it be somewhere else.”

Mrs. Caldwell said sternly, “They won’t catch him while he’s here because somebody’s goin’ to watch and give warnin’ if they come. Since you’re the one most worried about it, Libby Caldwell, that’s a fit and proper job for you.”

James protested, “Ma’am, I don’t want to be no trouble. Not to you and not to this little girl here.”

He saw a flash of resentment in Libby’s blue eyes over the little girl reference.

Mrs. Caldwell declared, “There’ll be no trouble. Libby can eat when somebody else is done and can take her place.” Her manner showed that the subject was closed. James shrugged at the girl and went inside at Mrs. Caldwell’s beckoning. The girl’s eyes indicated that he had not made a friend.