Swiftcurrent Creek when emma falls in love

”Oh?” she asked, noticing the change in the child’s demeanor, ”How’re you helping?” Maybe that’d been too big of a question to address such big feelings—she cringed at her mistake.

”I‘m collecting reed fluff,” she explained, reigning it in a bit. ”And I was going to use that leaf to bring it back to my den.” Then, an idea: ”Do you want to help me carry it?” Children benefitted from doing jobs—especially when they were the ones to decide to help.