“Just a minute, there,” Dan says. Both men head for the kitchen, but Sarah Paddyfoot has slipped out the back door and is going across the dunes.
J.L., seeing what is happening, leap to follow the men, but are jerked back suddenly by their father and sent, with Bo, to gather some berries for supper. The sheriff rises. “Must be getting on,” he mutters. “Work to do, ticker tape to check. You boys give me a hand—think I’ve got a bad tire, may have to pump it a bit.”
Later, in the loft, Tom finds J.L., berry stained, leaning over the window sill, arms around each other, giggling. “What’s going on?” he asks, coming up behind them.
“Shhh,” says Jana, quiet for once. “Look!” Tom leans over the sill, then turns around and marches the twins away from the window. “Bad as the crow, for spying!” he tells them.
“What’s this?” asks John, coming up the stairs.
The twins grab him, dancing around him. “They’re arguing,” says Lisa. “Arguing over Sarah Paddyfoot!”
And sure enough, in the yard below, by the willow tree, Roland and Dan Elber stand toe to toe, speaking very harshly.
John grabs the twins, pulling them away. “Go look out the back window!” he says, dragging them along the loft, laughing.
But Tom is there before them, waving a hand to hush them. The twins swarm around him, peering out; then Jana gasps, giggles, and runs down the stairs, shouting loudly, “Papa’s kissing Teacher!” And this is the end of privacy for everyone.
“Looks like somebody’s going to adopt you,” says John. “Only thing I can’t figure out is, Who? Sarah Paddyfoot’s holding out against both, but I bet Roland wins; then there’s only to decide whether it will be Dad and Miss McCamley, or … well, it’s all too complicated for me. Just think, Lisa, real live teacher all your own!” He picks her up and twirls her around. Tom is staring at him.
Suddenly John is quiet, looking at Tom. “You’re thinking I should be, well …”
“Yes, I think I would. I don’t know …”
“It’s been a long time, Tom. And Mamma was sick a long time. I used to go to the hospital to see her every day. We talked a lot, then. She used to tell me how she would feel, knowing Dad might spend the rest of his life alone. It was hard to understand. I thought she was kind of, well, funny because she was sick. But I’ve thought about it, since. I think now I see what she meant.”
The crow is screaming in the front yard, and Karen has ridden up and is looking with amazement at the scene before her. Kippy, reins loose, is sniffing noses with Bo, and at the table two quiet men sit, while Sarah Paddyfoot, standing before them, gives them a tirade that outmatches the crow’s. Mr. Tillman and Mary stand in the doorway, laughing, and the twins have piled out beside them, wide-eyed.
“And that is all I have to say!” says Sarah Paddyfoot, seeing her audience and turning away, angry, to march into the kitchen.
“What did she say?” asks John, coming out with Tom.
“She said,” says Mr. Tillman, “that if anyone is going to marry her, they’ll have to court her first, with all the trimmings! That’s what she said!” He pauses and looks down at Mary. “And what about you, Mary McCamley, does that go for you, too?”
“Not me,” says Mary McCamley, smiling. “Doesn’t take me long to make up my mind! That right, Abbey?”
Abbey looks at her and blinks.
A breeze stirs the willow branches, and from the roof the crow scolds. A lone puff of cloud casts its shadow on the shore where sandpipers run, and far out on the waves a seal plays. Kippy shakes his head and stamps his foot. The sun shines brightly down on the barn and the willow tree.
Late that night, as Karen and Tom walk on the beach, he takes her hand and smiles at her. “I guess wishes really do come true sometimes.”
Karen looks at him. “Did you wish to be adopted, too?”
“Of course. But it’s not the kind of wish you tell, you know.”
“Of course.” They grin at each other. Overhead a late gull wings home, and the children turn and head toward home, too, leaving the surf to sing in the darkness behind them. Away in the hills, peacefully grazing, the Sand Ponies stir a little, and some lift their heads for a moment to gaze at the sea.