The Believer by Ann H. Gabhart Page B

hair!" Elizabeth laughed and hugged her. "Father said the Shakers brought order to all things. We'll see what they can do with your hair"
    "Father liked my hair" Hannah pulled back to stare into Elizabeth's face.
    "And so did Mother." Elizabeth raked her fingers through Hannah's curls. "She brushed it for you every night before you went to bed and every morning when you got up. She said it was like cotton flax"
    "I remember."
    "Do you? You were so young:'
    "I remember," Hannah said again. "Sometimes she comes still to brush my hair in my dreams"
    The sun was high in the sky before they had their packs assembled. The first time they tried to choose what to take with them, they gathered far more than they could carry. In the end Elizabeth left everything behind except her father's Bible and her mother's Sunday handkerchiefs. With her nose buried in the lacy fabric of the handkerchiefs, she imagined she could even yet breathe in a hint of her mother's perfume. The rest of her pack she filled with what food they had, a skillet, her mother's scissors, and the tinderbox.
    She told Hannah to choose one stone from her collection from the river and the woods before she helped the child carry the rest to arrange on their parents' graves. She didn't check what else Hannah packed other than to be sure she brought their mother's brush and comb, or what Payton had inside the quilt he'd wrapped around his pack although she could see the edges of books. It didn't matter. If the books got too heavy, he could leave them beside the road.
    They hadn't gone more than a mile through the woods when Payton stopped and said he had to go back.
    "We can't go back;" Elizabeth told him. She had been almost holding her breath fearing Hannah might run off into the trees, but she thought Payton had accepted their new path.
    "I forgot something. You and Hannah go ahead and I'll catch up with you. It won't take me long' He would not meet her eyes as they stood on the trace through the trees. He was taller than Elizabeth but so slim that their father used to joke he could tell the direction of the wind by which way Payton was leaning.
    Elizabeth gave him a long look. "I don't want to go on without you'
    "I promise to come back, Elizabeth, but this is something I must do:' His brown eyes darted up to hers and then away just as quickly.
    She didn't like the look on his face. It was furtive somehow, as if he carried a secret he didn't want Elizabeth to guess. But what else could she do but trust him to keep his word? She couldn't hold him on the path beside her.
    "Very well;' she said. "But make haste. I wish to be far from here before night falls:"
    "I'll hurry." Payton turned and loped off through the trees with Aristotle on his heels.
    Elizabeth watched until he disappeared and then kept staring after him for minutes longer.
    Hannah pulled on her hand and asked, "Will we be to the town where the Shakers live by night?"
    "No:" Elizabeth picked up her pack. "It's a long walk. We'll have to sleep among the trees if we don't find a barn nearby before dark:" Elizabeth turned toward the northeast. She needed to keep the directions clear in her head. Once they were farther away from the cabin, she would find a road for them to walk, and then the way would be easier. But now she wanted the trees to hide her from Colton should he come back sooner than he said.
    "I hope there is no barn. I want to sleep among the trees;" Hannah said, as if Elizabeth had just promised her a special treat.
    "That might turn out not to be as much fun as you think. The ground is hard and the air will be chilly once the sun goes down, but at least the sky shows no sign of rain:" Elizabeth had prayed about that as she held the seed package in her hand the night before. Rain might be more than they could bear.
    The trace of the path they were following got fainter and fainter until there was no sure sign of the way to continue. Elizabeth stopped.
    "We'd better wait here for Payton. He might