The tall one walked nearest. The one with the dark hair, just graying. He wore a wide straw hat with a spoon through it. She liked him very much. It would be too bold to ask him on only a day’s acquaintance, but she prayed for some sign that she could trust him; her dearest and wildest hope was that this man would be a second father to her. She would need one. He was not a learned man, as her father had been, but goodness shone from him as from an unseen sun.
