Chapters 9 and 10 Summary

Uncle John is a physician and his attention, combined with adequate food, soon slows the death rate dramatically in the village. A woman brings her ailing child to John who promises that the child isn't going to die. The woman says she's buried, "four, no five" children. Julia is struck by the fact that she doesn't immediately remember how many of her children have died. Meanwhile, Celia is holding school for the village children. While John wants her to teach reading and arithmetic, she is first teaching personal hygiene and cooking - skills that they need to survive.

Julia agrees to oversee the planting of an apple orchard. She wakes the next morning to a drizzling rain but knows that it's not too wet to plant. She carefully measures the field and plans the planting, but when they've finished, there's one...