Lou was very shy when she came back to the school house with Cody. The classroom was quiet as everyone read silently after their recess. Cody was grinning as he slipped into his seat and pulled his book out of his desk. He didn't even look at her. Just kept smiling. The schoolhouse door was open a crack and Elizabeth saw Lou peeking around the corner. She motioned for her to enter. Lou's face disappeared and just as Elizabeth was about to go to the door, it suddenly swung wider and the little girl strode into the school room. She made her way up the center aisle and slipped into her seat next to Opal. She folded her hands on her desk and stared straight ahead, seemingly oblivious to the whispers and open mouthed stares that surrounded her. Elizabeth smiled. The dress was a perfect fit. Clean, dark socks were folded over the tops of her worn ankle boots. Her still damp springy curls were pulled back and held off her face with a ribbon over her ear. She was as bright and as shiny as a new penny. Opal couldn't take her eyes off her seat mate.

"Oh….Lou," she sighed quietly as she hugged Brownie close. "You look so beautiful. Just like a princess"

"Indeed you do, sweetheart," Elizabeth whispered as she knelt down next to Lou. "We are reading right now so why don't you go choose a book that you like from the shelf and bring it to my desk for your first reading lesson?" Lou nodded and made her way back up the aisle toward the back of the room where the book shelves were. Ruby watched as she passed and nodded with a satisfied smile before bending back to her book. Elizabeth went back to her desk and her eyes widened as she saw the big, heavy book Lou was clutching to her chest. She dropped it on the desk in front of Elizabeth.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

Elizabeth's mouth dropped open. She looked up at Lou's expectant face.

"This one might be a little difficult right now, Lou," she said softly. "Maybe we should save this for another time."

"Pap has this book at home," Lou said as she caressed the tooled leather cover. "It's not as nice as this one but the words inside are the same, right? I can read his so I can read this." Her fingers worked open the book and she flipped pages until she found the one she was looking for.

"Mr. Shakespeare was a playwright," Lou explained. "Pap says he is a writer for actors and actresses so they can tell stories on a stage for people to watch. This is my favorite. It's called A Midsummer Night's Dream." Elizabeth was incredulous as Lou explained the rudiments of the story - about royalty and weddings and fairies and magic potions.

"This is my favorite part," she said as she tipped her curly head over the page and followed the lines with her finger. "If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended, that you have but slumbered here, while these visions did appear…" She raised her head and looked at her teacher with a slight frown.

"That's old English talk for falling asleep and dreaming everything," she explained. Lou went back to the book and continued through the rest of Puck's monologue without missing a word, with perfect diction and inflection. The words were actually coming to life in her voice. Elizabeth looked up and the rest of the class was watching and listening intently as well. Lou finished the last line and looked up with a pleased smile. There was silence and then the class began to clap. Elizabeth wrapped an arm around the little girl and hugged her.

"That was beautiful," she said. Lou started flipping pages.

"There are other things I like too," she said. "Romeo and Juliet was my granny's favorite. I don't remember her because she died when I was really small but I like to story because Pap says she did. Pap's favorite is…" Her hands were flipping through pages and Elizabeth finally reached over and took her hand in her own.

"You are very excited about reading, Lou," Elizabeth said. "This book would be too heavy to carry back and forth from school. How about if we find a smaller book for you? And you can read aloud from this one to the class now and then?"

"Yeah….that would be great…." The boys and girls all sat up and nodded. A few of the younger ones clapped. Lou shrugged.

"In the meantime…" Elizabeth looked around in thought.

"I just finished this one, Miss Thatcher," Ruby offered as she held up her book. "It's called The Secret Garden. You would like it, Lou."

"Yes, you would. It's a perfect choice," Elizabeth said brightly. "Thank you so much, Ruby." Lou moved to take the slim book from the older girl and slid back into her seat. She continued to look longingly at the big book on Elizabeth's desk for a moment and then opened to the first page of her new book. Elizabeth watched her and then straightened with resolve. She was going to talk to Lou's grandfather…today.

They walked home from school together, first stopping at the café to collect Lou's now clean overalls and long underwear. They were still damp and Abigail told her to hang them up in the house to finish drying. She also gave her a shortened night dress that had belonged to Becky with firm instructions to wear it when she slept. The little girl was fairly bouncing as they walked the board walks of town toward the old row houses where they lived. She chattered on about about everything she was seeing. She greeted everyone she met with a bright, contagious smile.

"I'm looking forward to meeting your grandfather, Lou," Elizabeth said as they turned on the road at the other end of town. Lou stopped in her tracks.

"Pap can be grouchy sometimes," she said. "But it don't mean nothing toward you. He's just hurting." Elizabeth's steps slowed as Lou began walking with her again.

"Does he hurt a lot?" she asked. Lou shrugged.

"I guess," she shrugged. "Sometimes he doesn't want to get out of bed. He feels better when he's all warm."

"But who takes care of you when that happens?" Elizabeth frowned.

"I take of me," Lou giggled. "And I take care of Pap."

"That's a big job for a little girl." Lou shrugged and then looked ahead at the row houses. She broke into a huge grin and danced ahead of her teacher. She stopped in front of an old man sitting on a wooden stool in front of the last row house. Elizabeth stopped and watched as Lou held out the skirt of her dress and chattered a mile a minute. It was when she pointed in Elizabeth's direction that her teacher moved forward again.

"Mr. Mackenzie," she said. "I am Elizabeth Thatch…' Her voice caught as the old man looked up at her. He was as dirty and as unkempt as Louisa had been. His hair was just as curly and longer but tied back with a leather thong. A heavy graying beard covered his chin and cheeks. But what had stopped her was the angry looking scar that raked in three lines from his eyebrow to his cheek. Only one blue eye scowled back at her.

"Elizabeth Thatcher," she repeated firmly and offered her hand. Mackenzie looked down at her hand and then back up at her face. Elizabeth brought her hand back and gave Louisa's bundle of clothes to her.

"Remember what Mrs. Stanton said about hanging them up to finish drying," she reminded the girl and then turned back to her grandfather. "Lou is very self-sufficient for a ten year old. And I found out today that she is also a wonderful reader.

"She's eight," the old man growled.

"I'm nine," Lou insisted in exasperation. "It says so in Gran's Bible. Louisa Sorcha Mackenzie, born January 24, 1905."

"Yep, somewhere around in there," the old man said never taking his gaze from Elizabeth. "Your gran would know."

"And is that the Bible she learned to read from?" Elizabeth continued brightly. "I did not know that she could read so beautifully."

"You didn't tell her that you could read?" he snarled at the little girl.

"She didn't ask," Lou insisted.

"You don't talk to your students?" Elizabeth' mouth dropped and she started to speak and then stopped.

"There were…other issues," she said quickly. "It was very nice meeting you…"

"There's a stew in the pot on the stove," he interrupted as he turned to his granddaughter and tipped his head toward the door of the house. Lou grinned at Elizabeth and then climbed up the steps and disappeared into the house.

"Where did she get the clothes?" Mackenzie asked.

"Well, one of my students had outgrown it…." Elizabeth explained. "And since she fell in the mud toda…."

"Where can she get more?" he interrupted. Elizabeth was taken aback and straightened her shoulders.

"I..um…" she stammered. Mackenzie adjusted the wooden cane in his hands and stared up at her.

"If she is living in town she needs town clothes," he stated firmly.

"Clara is a wonderful seamstress," Elizabeth offered. "And there's a new dress shop in town but that…"

"There's money in the bank," the man said as he stood up from the stool and leaned heavily on his cane. "Jack can take care of that for you." Elizabeth stepped back as he moved toward her to get to the steps and watched as he eased himself slowly up the steps and followed Lou into the house. She sighed deeply and then scowled slightly before heading toward her own front door. She'd be having a stern talk with him at dinner.

"You should have warned me, Jack," Elizabeth dropped the ladle in the pot of with a splash. He leaned back quickly but still wiped soup drops from his face. He suppressed a grin as Elizabeth attacked the loaf of bread with a slicing knife.

"I thought I did," he shrugged. Elizabeth frowned at him.

"You asked me if I'd met him yet," she said as she slapped a ragged slice of bread on his plate. "Well, I did today. He is the most exasperating…"

"Not like Lou at all," she finished. She sighed heavily and dropped her hands into her lap. Jack studied her as he lifted a spoonful of soup to his lips.

"What do you know about him, Jack?" she asked. "Where did he come from? How did they end up in the mountains?" His spoon dropped back into his bowl.

"I have no idea," he said. "I just happened on them in the woods one day. They were hunting turkeys, if I remember right. Almost caught an axe in the back of my head."

"Jack!" Elizabeth gasped. "An axe?" He nodded and lifted his spoon again.

"They were hunting with snares and the axe was for the uh…." His spoon dropped again at her horrified face. "It was just a small Scottish fighting axe." The horrified look changed to one of deep thought. He filled his spoon and tried again.

"Do you think he emigrated from Scotland?" she asked as her forehead puckered. "But, I don't recall hearing a brogue when he was snarling at me. Its kind of hard to lose an accent unless you are trying to." Jack sighed and put his spoon back in his soup. "And why would he move to the mountains? Most emigrants stay close to the cities for work…." Her eyes dropped to his bowl and then back to his face.

"Why aren't you eating?" she frowned. "Is something wrong with the soup?" She leaned down to sniff her bowl. "It smells fine." Jack took her hand and pressed a kiss to her fingers.

"I love that you worry about your students so much," he said. She smiled and shook her head slightly.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "Dinner…" She tasted her soup.

"Do I need to reheat it?" she asked. Jack laughed and shook his head. She looked down at his mangled slice of bread and grimaced. Her eyes met his and they both laughed.