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"If I go get apples, will you move the fallen tree in the back

yard?"

"Yes, of course."

"Are you certain? Because you've been telling me such for over
a week now."

"Yes, yes, yes:' muffled, as he had covered his head with his
pillow.

This, Lizbeth knew, was a lie. At twenty-two years old, her
brother should have been taking into his uncallused hands a hoe, work-
ing the small farm, helping provide for the household-but instead he
was prone the majority of the day, or in the tavern! once his eyes had
adjusted to the light of the moon. Despite this, Lizbeth still felt a sting-
ing obligation to keep his happiness intact-perhaps because of how
difficult their parents' death had been for him. So, to the apple orchard
she decided to stroll.

Flash Jones's alert ears honed in on the opening door, the sigh
of weariness, the footsteps of the girl, basket on her arm, striding off into
the woods. He decided to follow. "Oh, if only you had thumbs so you

could help me with the housework too:' Lizberh told him, leaning over

and scratching his head.

The two kept a brisk pace, Flash Jones pausing mid-stride once
in a while, scanning the scenery, then resuming his step. "What gives
my brother such a sense of entitlement?" Lizberh asked the beast, who
responded only by glancing up at the inquirer's face. "Does it stem from
mother's and father's deaths? Does he feel that, since sorrow fell Onto
his lap, he is now due recompense? Where else in Nature does such an
expectant attitude occur? The only example of which Ican think is the
grizzly, who simply waits at the top of a fall for wriggling salmon to

jump into his mouth. But that grizzly must still snag a slimy fish using
only his jaws! No simple task, is it, Flash Jones ?" Flash Jones's legs were
moving so quickly that they appeared to be a blur, an orange and white

mist with the mystical upper body of a feline floating on top. "And here
Iam, fileting, frying, and feeding the fish to the grizzly, using a golden

fork."

Presently, Lizberh and Flash reached a small field of black-

berry bushes, on the other side of which awaited the apple orchard. The

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