zunzumi did not return the Amishman's salute. "I return your gifts,
Lightless One," he announced. "They are tainted with your blasphemy." He
nodded, and his servants dismounted to stack at the side of the road
Aaron's guest-gifts of months before. The bale of tobacco was set down,
the bolt of scarlet silk, the chains of candy, the silver-filigreed
saddle. "Now that I owe you naught, Bearded One, we have no further
business with one another." He reined his horse around. "I go in
sadness, Haruna," he said.

"What did I do, Kazunzumi?" Aaron asked. "What am I to make of your
displeasure?"

"You have failed us, who was my friend," the Sarki said. "You will leave
this place, taking your woman and your beasts and your sharp-shod
horses."

"Sir, where am I to go?"

"Whence came you, Haruna?" the Sarki asked. "Return to your own
black-garbed folk, and injure the Mother no longer with your lack of
understanding."

"Sarki Kazunzumi, I know not how I erred," Stoltzfoos said. "As for
returning to my own country, that I cannot. The off-world vessel that
brought us here is star-far away; and it will not return until we are
all five summers older. My Martha is besides with child, and cannot
safely travel. My land is ripe for seeding. How can I go now?"

"There is wilderness to the south, where no son of the Mother lives,"
the Sarki said. "Go there. I care not for heathen who are out of my
sight."

"Sir, show us mercy," Aaron said.

Kazunzumi danced his shoeless horse around to face Aaron. "Haruna, who
was my friend, whom I thought to stand with me in Mother's light, I
would be merciful; but I cannot be weak. It is not me whom you must
beseech, but the Mother who feeds us all. Make amends to Her, then Sarki
Kazunzumi will give his ear to your pleas. Without amends, Haruna, you
must go from here within the week." Kazunzumi waved his arm and galloped
off toward Datura. His servants followed quickly. On the roadside lay
the gifts, dusted from the dirt raised by the horses.

* * * * *

The Amishman turned toward the house. Martha's face was at the parlor
window, quizzical under her prayer-covering, impatient to hear what had
happened. Aaron plodded back to the house with the evil news, stumbling
over a clod of earth in the new-turned furrows near the road. Martha met
him at the door. "_Waas will er?_" she demanded.

"He says we must leave our farm."

"Why for?" she asked.

"Somehow, I have o