“But, ma’am.” “It’s windy hell you boys are lookin’ for. Take my word. Don’t be soft in your heart toward me.” After supper the woman leaned over the rough plank table that stood at the side of the room, near a pallet she had made herself to sleep on. She pulled the lamp close and blew out the flame. “I’ll have to be beggin’ some oil from Buck the next time I go down. I can pay him with animal skins.” Red scratched his beard. “Why don’t you spend the winters in the village, ma’am? Slim and I are worried about you being alone up here.” The wind whistled at the corner of the cabin and the fire blazed up, filling the room with pumpkin light and jagged shadows. “I spent last winter in the village,” she said, “but I figured to spend this winter here. Nate and I, we made this place with our own two hands and a few odd tools. We lived in the village once and Nate used to hunt. But everyone else was a hunter, too, so we couldn’t make out that way. One day he says, ‘We’re cuttin’ loose from this village, little girl. We’ll build a cabin in the mountains where no man can tie a string on me.’” She faltered. “But you may be right.” Her eyes grew fierce in the flickering light and her hand went pale where it gripped the table. “Jus’ last fall I was out by the shed when two wild men came hoopin’ and hollerin’ out of the mountain, Rebel guerillas they was. They wanted more than food and drink, it didn’t take much to see. I had my musket and I yelled loud and clear for them to turn away but they jus’ kep comin’, laughin’ and hollerin’, so I picked them off, the one behind and then the other. I buried them in the ravine over yonder.” The woman gave Red and Tim a desperate look. “Did I do right? I never told another soul.” Red nodded. “You gave them their chance to turn away.” “I didn’t want to keep their horses, and I buried their rifles with them. I slapped the horses off down the trail toward the village.” She turned to the fire. “I’m a one-man woman. There’s no changin’ that.” Tim said quietly, “Spend the winter in the village. Don’t be too proud for that.” * * * * * Next morning all three woke just after dawn. They went about their chores as if they might have lived together in the cabin for a month or two. Tim fetched wood and built a fire. Red pumped up water and set a kettle on the hearth, hung the covered pot of mush on the crane, put on logs and stirred the fire to life. The woman put on her doeskin jacket and went outside. When she came back she said, “Laws, it’s nippy outside.”