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Dat hissed softly as it bathed the great room in bright light and cast shadows over the adjoining kitchen. Arm in arm, Miriam and Susie walked into the room and stood facing their parents in a show of unity. Susie shook with anxiety. Miriam was only slightly calmer. What if their parents would not give their permission? What other plan could they possibly come up with?
    Mamm and Dat looked up simultaneously. Dat lowered his paper, and Mamm glanced curiously at Dat.
    Miriam knew that the longer she waited, the more tongue-tied she would be. “Mamm, do you remember your cousin Katie Martins?”
    Mamm raised an eyebrow. “Do you mean my cousin Katie Martins Stutzman or second cousin Katie Ann Martins?”
    “Katie Ann in Ontario.”
    “She is a bit older than me. Lost three babies but had six that lived. Why do you ask? Do you remember her?”
    “She and cousin Hannah Weaver keep in touch,” Miriam said.
    “Okay,” Mamm prompted, looking from Miriam to Susie.
    Miriam took a deep breath. “Their children have grown and are tending farms of their own, and Hannah said Katie and her husband need help this summer and fall with the gardening. And the canning.”
    “I want to go stay with them in Canada,” Susie blurted out— not exactly as they had planned, but she sounded sincere.
    The declaration rendered Mamm momentarily speechless. She looked at her daughter as if they had dragged a dead horse into the house. “Why would you want to do a thing like that?” she finally said.
    “They need help, and I want to go somewhere new and exciting,” Susie said.
    Mamm shook her head. “This doesn’t sound like you at all, Suz. You don’t even like to sleep over at the cousins’.”
    Susie’s voice cracked. “I know. That is why I need to go to Canada. To get away. To learn to be strong. I can’t be a proper wife always longing for home. What would my husband think?”
    “You can cross that bridge when you come to it,” Mamm said. “A trip to Canada is deerich, foolish. You’d be homesick within a week and they would have to put you on the first bus back to Apple Lake.”
    “Nae, Mamm,” Miriam said. “She really wants to go. It will be so much fun.”
    Mamm dropped her crochet in her lap. “I won’t allow it. You are only seventeen.”
    Dat motioned for Miriam and Susie to sit on the sofa across from him. “Cum, let us talk about it.” He laced his fingers together and looked over his glasses at Susie. “How long have you been considering a trip to Canada?”
    “A…awhile.”
    “What inspired this idea? Canada is very far away.”
    “Hollow Davey Herschberger apprenticed in Ohio last year. And Esther Rose stayed with her aunt in Tennessee all winter. Hollow says it is good to see the world, to have new experiences.”
    “But that is Hollow’s opinion. You have never liked change. Help me understand why you want to go.”
    Susie started to cry—a common occurrence these days. Miriam hoped her parents hadn’t noticed the frequency. “I’m not brave. Miriam is always brave for me. I want to do something on my own. Without anyone’s help.”
    Miriam put her arm around her sister. They hadn’t rehearsed that. She sensed that Susie had revealed her deepest fear and her deepest desire at the same time.
    “Come here, little one.” Dat held out his hand.
    Susie went to him and sat on his lap, and he wrapped her in his arms as he had when she was a very little girl. She put her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. “There, there,” he said, patting her on the head and pulling her closer.
    “I really want to go, Dat.”
    Dat reached over and took Mamm’s hand. “Can we spare her until winter, Lisa?”
    Mamm sighed and shook her head. “I can never spare my Susie, but you decide what is best.”
    “I’ll not give my permission if you do not approve.” Dat and Mamm exchanged a look that did not escape Miriam’s notice. “But maybe it is what our Susie needs.”
    “We have noticed the