Later, as he and Mae rolled out of Treegap, Mae said softly, without looking at him, “She’s gone?”

Tuck nodded. “She’s gone,” he answered.

There was a long moment of silence between them, and then Mae said, “Poor Jesse.”

“He knowed it, though,” said Tuck. “At least, he knowed she wasn’t coming. We all knowed that, long time ago.”

“Just the same,” said Mae. She sighed. And then she sat up a little straighter. “Well, where to now, Tuck? No need to come back here no more.”

“That’s so,” said Tuck. “Let’s just head on out this way. We’ll locate something.”

“All right,” said Mae. And then she put a hand on his arm and pointed. “Look out for that toad.”

Tuck had seen it, too. He reined in the horse and climbed down from the wagon. The toad was squatting in the middle of the road, quite unconcerned. In the other lane, a pickup truck rattled by, and against the breeze it made, the toad shut its eyes tightly. But it did not move. Tuck waited till the truck had passed, and then he picked up the toad and carried it to the weeds along the road’s edge. “Durn fool thing must think it’s going to live forever,” he said to Mae.

And soon they were rolling on again, leaving Treegap behind, and as they went, the tinkling little melody of a music box drifted out behind them and was lost at last far down the road.

Go Fish

Questions for the Author

What did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was a preschooler, I wanted to be a pirate, and then when I started school, I wanted to be a librarian. But in the fourth grade, I got my copy of Alice in Wonderland / Alice Through the Looking-Class and decided once and for all that I wanted to be an illustrator of stories for children.

When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?

I didn’t even think about writing. My husband wrote the story for the first book. But then he didn’t want to do it anymore, so I had to start writing my own stories. After all, you can’t make pictures for stories unless you have stories to make pictures for.

What’s your first childhood memory?

I have a lot of preschool memories, all from when we lived in a little town just south of Columbus, Ohio. I kind of remember sitting in a high chair. And when I was a little older, I remember seeing Jack Frost looking in through the kitchen window. That was pretty surprising.

What’s your most embarrassing childhood memory?

I don’t remember any. I’m probably just suppressing them all.

What’s your favorite childhood memory?

I think I liked best the times when my sister and I would curl up next to our mother while she read aloud to us.