Page 48 of Eleanor’s Earrings

Both stopped.

“I am younger,” Lucy said.

“I am hungrier.”

“You ate two.”

“They were small.”

“They were the same size as mine.”

“That is an accusation against Martha’s baking.”

Martha looked up. “Leave me out of this.”

Lydia and Lucy each took one side of the biscuit.

Eleanor sighed. “Split it.”

“We are trying,” Lucy said.

“You are pulling.”

“That is one method of splitting.”

Nathaniel arrived at exactly the wrong moment.

Lydia looked at him. “Decide.”

He stopped. “No.”

“You are wagon master.”

“Over wagons.”

“This biscuit traveled in a wagon.”

Nathaniel looked at Eleanor. “Your family has used that argument before.”

“They refine their methods.”

Lucy held up the biscuit. “Who gets it?”

Nathaniel studied both sisters with the seriousness of a river crossing.

“Neither.”

He took the biscuit and bit it in half.

Silence.

Lydia stared at him.

Lucy stared at him.

Nathaniel chewed.

Eleanor covered her mouth.