They sat in silence for a time, repeating their decisions, approaching each other. He would go far, to the Beech-grove country or perhaps further.

‘Whatever this country feels to you, why it feels the same to me,’ Ellen murmured. ‘I’d have to go.’

Then they held the thought together in mind, altering it and repeating it until it became a plan. They would load all onto the wagon, as long as it would hold, and leave the rest behind. ‘I’d want my plough and my axe, Jasper said, ‘but the balance of the wagon room could be for the house plunder. The team is strong and we can load on as long as e’er thing more can stick. We’d take the pigs and the chickens. It wouldn’t be right nohow to leave them here to starve.’ The plan lost its strangeness as they talked of it, mellowed it, and presently it became inevitable. They would lie down awhile to sleep but when the moon rose they would awaken and prepare to go quickly.

Jasper awakened when, at midnight, the moonlight began to pale the air outside. He brought the wagon near the door, hitched for the departure, and Ellen called Hen and Nannie and Joe to help. Then the furniture was loaded onto the wagon, set snugly together, and as many of the utensils as could be taken, but the rest were left behind. Joe put the hens and the pigs into a coop together and this was secured. Then Ellen gathered all the food that she had and all the foodstuffs, murmuring, ‘They did me harm, those men with the black rags on their faces,’ for the food was in no great quantity and there were seven to feed. Jasper made a warm seat of the feather beds and quilts near the front of the wagon, a place for the smaller children and Nannie to ride, but Hen and Joe sat near. By the time the moon was well above the trees they were on the road, the horses stepping briskly, for they must be far from the reach of this country before the night was done. They hurried down hillroads and over mire, or they turned at crossings without waiting to dispute of ways or to talk of destinations. The damp of the frost arose from the ploughed fields that had been set in readiness before the spring. The stony fields and the rough hills lying around Rock Creek began to recede but they did not slacken the pace of their journey.

‘Where are we a-goen, Mammy?’ Nan said.

‘I don’t know. Somewheres…’

‘Some better place,’ Hen said. ‘Rock Creek is a poor country to settle in.’

‘A hard country, not gentle like you’d want,’ Ellen said.

Then Nannie began to talk about the sky, looking out upon the stars. ‘They are wide apart tonight, the stars, and they’re a few, only bright ones.’

‘It’s the moon sets the stars off and away like that, if you ever noticed,’ another said.