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but she had come a long way since she had first arrived in Colorado.
    She had learned that she could deal with most anything now. She wondered what her friend Florence would think if she could see her as she was, living in a barn with animals. She laughed. She decided that the next time James went into town she would ask him to buy her a tablet of paper and a pencil so that she could write a letter her old friend.
    Minnie was preparing a cold lunch when she heard the wagon pull into the yard. She ventured outside of the barn as James pulled the wagon to a halt in front of the small structure, his eyes shining with excitement. He gestured over his shoulder, and she looked at the tall object covered with a tarp that he had strapped down with rope into the back of the wagon.
    “What is it?”
    He hopped down with a grin. “Close your eyes,” he said playfully.
    She laughed and did so. The laugh surprised her. It was the first one that she had allowed herself since the devastating news regarding her barren state. She realized that she was healing emotionally, and God was making her stronger.
    She did as James asked and closed her eyes. She heard him untying the ropes, and then the sound of the canvas tarp being pulled away.
    “Okay, look,” he said.
    She stared in amazement at the small, cast iron, wood-burning stove sitting so prettily in the back of the wagon. “Oh!” She looked to James, saw his prideful grin, and then quickly gave him a hug.
    “It’s got space enough for four skillets and a panel on the side on which you can heat an iron or keep food warm. We can put it at the back of the barn near the tack room, and I can cut a hole in the roof for the smokestack. When we get moved into the big house, I’ll simply patch the roof.”
    Tears brimmed in Minnie’s eyes. Now she didn’t have to worry about freezing to death. The wood-burning stove would be a safe way to heat the barn, as well as cook throughout the winter.
    She glanced from the stove, to the ground, and then back at James. “You’re going to need help getting that down off the wagon bed you know,” she said.
    He laughed and nodded, gesturing toward the hill as another rider topped it. “I know, and that’s why I asked Joe from the Mercantile to come help.”
    Minnie was flabbergasted. James had actually asked for help from someone rather than insisting on doing it alone. She was both impressed and pleased.

Scene 7
    Thanksgiving came and went, and soon winter came in full to the Rockies. Snow fell, then melted, and then, two weeks before Christmas, nearly a foot of snow fell around Golden. Minnie didn’t really mind, as she kept nice and warm inside the barn. Actually, she had gotten quite used to the sights, sounds, and smells of the animals, and she even pitched in whenever James needed help. He had also set up what she called his invention table in the corner of the barn near the wood stove, and at night he used a lantern for light. They were careful to keep the straw or any flammable objects well away from the perimeter of the stove or lantern.
    During those long nights when they listened to the wind blow outside, James and Minnie talked. She finally told him about the fire that had killed her family and consumed the only home she had ever known. He understood now why she was so concerned about fire, and bent over backwards to make sure that she knew that they were safe in the barn, despite their close quarters to the stove.
    James ventured out several times during those weeks to chop enough firewood to last them through the winter. He took the team out in the morning came back in the afternoon, most times frozen nearly solid, trace chains and hooks pulling one log at a time back to the barn. He chopped the wood and stacked it against the side of the charred wall of the house. He spent hours at this, a backbreaking and laborious chore, but by the middle of December he had a good supply gathered. He covered it with a tarp, but brought in at