ha admitted,
speaking in the dialect they'd both been reared to. "While you had only
the alien speech to study, I spent my time learning to grow the buglets
and tell the various sorts apart. Besides, _unser guutie Deitschie
Schproech, asz unser Erlayser schwetzt, iss guut genunk fa mier_." (Our
honest German tongue, that our Saviour spoke, is good enough for me).

Aaron laughed. "So _altfashuned_ a _Maedel_ I married," he said. "Woman,
you must learn the Hausa, too. We must be friends to these _Schwotzers_,
as we were friends with the English-speakers back in the United
Schtayts." He pushed aside the bolt of Murnan cloth to sit beside his
wife, and leafed through the pages of their _Familien-Bibel_, pages
lovingly worn by his father's fingers, and his grandfather's. "Listen,"
he commanded:

"_For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks
of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates;
a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread
without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose
stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou
hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord they God for the
good land which He hath given thee._" Aaron closed the big book
reverently. "Awmen," he said.

"Awmen," the woman echoed. "Aaron, with you beside me, I am not
fretful."

"And with the Lord above us, I fear not in a strange land," Aaron said.
He bent to scrape a handful of earth from beneath Martha's pine-twig
carpet. "_Guuter Gruundt_," he said. "This will grow tall corn. Tobacco,
too; the folk here relish our leaf. There will be deep grasses for the
beasts when the snow melts. We will prosper here, wife."

The next morning was cold, but the snowfall had ceased for a spell. The
Stoltzfooses had risen well before the dawn; Martha to feed herself, her
husband, and the chickens; Aaron to ready the horse and wagon for a trip
into Datura. He counted out the hoard of golden cowries he'd been loaned
as grubstake, did some arithmetic, and allowed his wife to pour him a
second cup of coffee for the road. "You may expect the Sarki's wives to
visit while I'm gone," he remarked.

"I'd be scared half to death!" Martha Stoltzfoos said. Her hands went to
the back of her head, behind the lace prayer covering. "My hair's all
strooby, this place is unti