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The honey I stopped, pursing allons of purified honey, and four large stone jars of honeyco to be rendered and made into beeswax candles It was all kept in the walled cave that served as stable, in order to keep safe from bears It wasn’t safe fros in the stable, though I hadn’t seen any telltale sticky fingers or faces yet, but it ht be as well to take sorain, and the sh no one would starve this winter My concern noas the lesser but still ilanced at the chestnut grove, its branches now coood four h I did have plenty of turnips and cabbage still in the ground

The root cellar was reassuringly well-stocked, heady with the earthy sarlic, and the wholesoe barrels of apples stood at the back--with the prints of several sets of childish feet leading up to thelanced up Enor fro slowly into raisins They were still there, but the lower, more reachable bunches had been reduced to sprays of bare stems Perhaps I needn’t worry about outbreaks of scurvy, then

I wandered back toward the house, trying to calculate how many provisions should be sent with Jamie and his militia, how much left for the consumption of the wives and children Impossible to say; that would depend in part on howwith theh; the responsibility of feeding the iment would be primarily his, with reimbursement--if it ever came--to be paid later by appropriation of the Assembly

Not for the first tiht the Assembly be a functional body?

Brianna was out by the well, walking round and round it with aher brows

"Pipe," she said, without preli now? The Roh, being used to carry rain off roofs," I offered "So it exists I’h If there is any, it will be terribly expensive" Beyond the siery had to be ioods like copper, brass, and lead

"Hmm At least they’ll knohat it is" She narrowed her eyes, calculating the slope of land betell and house, then shook her head and sighed "I canwater into the house is so slightly in the sunlight "God, I’ht and just when he finally conked out, the Muellers showed up--I don’t think I slept at all"

"I recall the feeling," I said, with syrinned

"Was I a very cranky baby?" Brianna asked, grinning back

"Very," I assured her, turning toward the house "And where is yours?"

"He’s with--"

Brianna stopped dead, clutching my arm

"What--" she said "What in the name of God is that?"

I turned to look, and felt a spasm of shock, deep in the pit ofslowly toward it "The question is--why?"

It was a cross Rather a big cross, s and bound together with rope It was planted fir blue spruce that guarded the house

It stood soht, the branches slender, but solid It was not bulky or obtrusive--and yet its quiet presence seemed to dominate the dooryard, much as a tabernacle do seemed neither reverent nor protective In fact, it was bloody sinister

"Are we having a revivalto make a joke of it The cross made her as uneasy as it did me

"Not that I’ve heard of" I walked slowly round it, looking up and down Jamie had made it--I could tell that by the quality of the workhtness and symmetry, carefully trimmed, the ends tapered The cross piece had been neatly notched to fit the upright, the rope binding crisscrossed with a sailor’s neatness