‘I heared it said one time that all stars have names. Wouldn’t it be a thing to do now, to walk out of a night and to say, “there’s this one and there’s that”, a-callen by name?’

‘You could learn that in books,’ Dick said, ‘and that I’m sure. You could learn the names of all the stars maybe.’

‘Where are any books? We got no books,’ Hen said.

‘And all the sky and how deep it goes, and whe’r it’s got an end or not?’

‘You could learn that too in books, it’s said. I got a heap of books to read and ne’er a one have I read yet but two or maybe three. You could never read all the books in the world, I reckon, if you read all your days until you’re old.’

‘I don’t aim to get old. I wouldn’t. Grow up is all I aim.’

‘But the wisdom of the world is the dearest thing in life, learnen is, and it’s my wish to get a hold onto some of that-there. It’s found in books, is said, and that’s what I know. I couldn’t bear to settle down in life withouten I had it. It means as much as all the balance of life, seems like. Books is what I want. In books, it’s said, you’d find the wisdom of all the ages.’

‘Another year and I aim to have a crop all my own, share and share on some good land. I’m big enough to set out for my own self by now.’

‘Where do we think we’ll go now, Mammy, and where will we stay tonight?’ one asked.

‘I don’t know. A far piece from here.’

‘God knows!’

‘Some better country. Our own place maybe. Our trees in the orchard. Our own land sometime. Our place to keep…’

‘In them you’d find the answers to all the questions you’d ever ask and why it’s so…’

‘I wonder how deep it goes and whe’r it’s got an end and what the end is like…’

‘And nohow I couldn’t bear to settle down and not…’

‘How blue it is, even of a night, and a little whiter round the moon, but deep in, as far as you can see…’

They went a long way while the moon was still high above the trees, stopping only at some creek to water the beasts. They asked no questions of the way but took their own turnings.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Elizabeth Madox Roberts (1881–1941) was the second of eight children born to Simpson Roberts, an engineer, and Elizabeth Roberts, a teacher. She was raised in Springfield, and after leaving school spent most of her twenties teaching elementary school. She first began writing poetry after moving to Colorado in 1910, and enrolled at the University of Chicago in 1917, at the age of thirty-six, to study literature.

After graduating Roberts returned to Springfield. Her first novel, The Time of Man, was published to widespread acclaim in 1926, and she went on to publish a further seven novels, as well as poetry and two volumes of short stories. In 1936 she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, but continued to write during her last few years. She died in Florida in 1941, and is buried in Springfield.