That was the way it had to be—the two of us joined together in our work, doing what our mothers couldn’t bring themselves to do. For there were too many small lives now that depended on us alone. My brothers and my little sister; the sheep and cattle, the horses, the hens. Even the seeds relied on us. It was our work to gather and put by. It was we who would plant when the time came, and we who would tend the crops as they grew.
