Caleb went inside. Lucille was drying the plates and stacking them on the shelf and Bess was sitting at the table tracing the letter on her cup with one finger. Lucille said she is coming back. Caleb said in October. Lucille said good.
She set the last plate on the shelf and climbed down from the stool and said Bess wants to show you something. He sat down at the table across from Bess and the child reached into her canvas sack and pulled out a piece of paper, folded twice, and she unfolded it and set it flat on the table in front of him. It was a drawing. She had done it with the pencil stub he kept on the shelf by the almanac. The drawing showed a house low and flat like his house with two tall figures and two small figures standing in front of it.
The tall figures were a man in a hat and a woman in a dress. The small figures were two girls. One of them was holding a cup. Caleb looked at the drawing for a long time. Lucille said she drew it this morning.
She would not show me who the woman is. Bess looked up at Caleb. She said, "It is the lady who counts us." Caleb picked up the drawing and held it and did not say anything for a minute. Then he said, "We should put this on the wall."
Lucille said, "Which wall?" He said, "The one by the window where the light comes in." So they pinned the drawing to the wall by the window where the last of the August light came through and lit the paper, and the four figures stood in front of their house. The cup in the smallest girl's hand was the size of a fingernail, but she had drawn it carefully. The letter on its side, a B, clear as anything.
Outside, the evening came down on the wheat fields. The creek ran south. The train that had brought seven children to the platform 4 months ago was a thousand miles away, and the two who had stayed were home. Bess set her cup on the windowsill next to the drawing. She looked at it for a moment.