Chapter 16 The Acceptance Of Drowning

• *Isabella*
• Ma ain’t playin’ as she drives the horses across the river. Our wagon is probably the lightest of all of ‘em except for maybe Sanders’s which he emptied into other folks’s wagons to prove a point of how easy it is. Even with his luggage in the back, we are floatin across pretty easy. We don’t use the guide rope neither. Ma just keeps drivin’ until the horses can touch the ground again, and then it’s easy to drive them up the other bank, despite the steepness and the ruts in the ground.
• My pa has a distinct clap I can hear all the way across the river. Loud, booming, and methodical, it hits my ears, and I turn to see him standin’ near the cattle watchin’ Ma take the wagon up to join the other six that have already made it across. I let out a sigh of relief and hop down as soon as she pulls it to a stop.