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demanded, breaking into her aunt’s unwanted thoughts.
    “Be patient, we’ll go in a few minutes.”
    “All right!” she squealed with delight, so satisfied that her burden would soon be lifted that she began to run ahead, with
     Jasper playfully bounding along at her side.
    “Charlotte!” Rachel called, but her niece wasn’t listening.
    Not for the first time since that fateful day eight years earlier, Rachel wondered if she had somehow failed her sister. Heartbroken
     by Alice’s death, she had taken the burden of raising the newborn infant willingly, feeling that it was what her sister would
     have wanted; but even with her mother and Uncle Otis’s help, she’d felt overwhelmed from the start. Raising a child had proven
     far harder than she could imagine. Certainly, she’d done her best, but she wondered if that was enough. She couldn’t help
     but believe that Alice would have done far better.
    If only she’d had the will to live…
    Carlson’s cemetery lay just to the south of town, atop a low hill dotted with a pair of majestic trees that stood silent watch
     over the somber gray tombstones. A black wrought-iron fence encircled the sacred grounds, its gate hanging open on squeaking
     hinges. Flowers were scattered across the graves, the remainders of previous visits from other mourners. From inside the fence,
     one could see most of town, along with a spectacular view of the far side of Lake Carlson and the pine trees beyond. But Rachel
     rarely took the time to marvel at the vista; the thought of her sister lying asleep forever in the black earth was too overwhelming.
    “Oh, Alice, I’m doing the best I can with your daughter.” She sighed before pushing open the gate.
    On the day Mason Tucker left Carlson to head off to war, Rachel had stood next to her sister on the train depot platform.
     The weather had been beautiful, unseasonably warm with only a scattering of clouds to mar the sky. The red, white, and blue
     of the American flag had been draped everywhere.
    Although tears streamed down both her and her sister’s cheeks, pride had filled their hearts at the sight of the town’s men
     marching off to fight for their country. In the middle of the first row of marchers, Mason had stood out; his new uniform
     was crisply pressed and impressive as it spread across his broad shoulders, and the brilliant brass buttons shone in the spring
     sun. It was as if he had stepped right out of one of the many recruiting posters plastered around town. With his military
     cap perched atop his head, he had turned back to them and smiled so warmly at Alice that Rachel knew no one could doubt their
     love for each other.
    “Don’t worry,” she’d consoled Alice. “He’ll come home safe and sound.”
    Alice had tried to put on a brave face to her ever-growing loneliness and worry. To be separated from her new husband so quickly
     was a difficult burden to bear. Every day she wrote Mason, telling him all about her daily life but not including anything
     she thought might worry him; then, little more than a month after the train carried Mason from her, she found out that she
     was pregnant.
    “We are a newly married couple,” she’d said, beaming, the day she told Rachel. “It’s to be expected!”
    Just a few days later, it seemed as if every person in Carlson knew the good news. But even as she accepted all of the warm
     congratulations, Alice remained uncertain as to whether she should write and tell Mason.
    “Why in heaven’s name would you keep it from him?” Rachel had asked.
    “Because he doesn’t need anything else to worry about,” Alice replied with as much conviction as she could muster. “If anything
     were to happen to him because he was distracted, I don’t know if I would be able to live with myself!”
    “Don’t you think that if he knew there was about to be another Tucker in the world he’d be even more careful?”
    “Well… but…” Alice had stammered.
    In the end,