By Serenity

 It  is  1856,  Isabell  and  her  sister  lilac  live  in  a  wooden  home  with  their  family  deep  in  the  woods.  Isabell  likes  her  life  with  her  sister  in  the  woods,  It is  full  of  adventure  and  laughter.  She  gets  to  play  in  the  woods  every  day  climbing  trees  and  having  a  blast.

Isabell  likes  running  and  playing  with  lilac,  she  likes  helping  her  pa  and  ma  with  the  chores  and  she  likes  watching  her  father  do  woodwork.  

The  house  was  very  very  snug  and  Isabell  felt  safe  in  their  little  log  cabin  with  plenty  to  eat  and  plenty  to  do  until  one  day. 

 Isabell  woke  to  the  sound  of  wood  being  chopped  but  she  knew  for  a    fact  that  Pa  didn’t  go  out  until  after  breakfast,  ‘Did  new  settlers  move?  she  called  downstairs  panic  in  her  voice.  “I  don’t  know”,  Ma  called  back.  One  thing  to  know  about  Isabel’s  life  is  that  she  did  not  have  much  food  to  spare  and  new  settlers  probably  meant  going  hungry.  Later  that  morning  after  Pa  had  left  to  go  woodworking  she  and  lilac  tramped  across  the  ground  to  see  that  sure  enough  new  settlers  had  moved  in.

Panic  stricken  Isabell  and  lilac  ran  back  to  the  house  “MA,  MA’’  they  called,

  “New  settlers  have  moved  in,  what  will  we  do?”  Ma  said  to  let  it  be  “Maybe  we  won’t  go  hungry,  she said. I’m “maybe  we  can  make  new  friends.”  As  the  days  were  on  Isabell  and  lilac  realized  that  she  might  be  right,  they  weren’t  going  hungry,  though  they  weren’t eating as much as usual. Then one day pa came back from hunting with three pieces of meat instead of four, one person wouldn’t get a piece of meat that night.

         Who would it be? The family couldn’t decide, Lilac, Isabell, Pa and Ma all wanted to eat that night. Finally it was decided that pa would not eat that night as he was the oldest and can survive the longest without food, then ma would not eat the next night then Isabell then lilac then pa then ma then Isabell then lilac and so on. The day past and pa was only bringing back two pieces, then one.

  The desperate family finally decided that it was time to put an end to this, they bundled up and walked shivering towards the new house, as they tramped across the ground to the new house Isabell could see something that made her heart standstill, two people were tamping towards them rips showing through their skin, it was the other family, week, cold and starving, they were coming for the same reason Isabell was.

1 million thoughts raced through Isabel’s head as they all started talking at once,

“No food” 

“Starving”

“One of us”

“We need to move” 

“Stop! Said Pa. “We are all in a bad situation right now, but we will find a good solution, I promise you.” What solution would Pa come up with? The next morning lilac burst into the bedroom Isabell was sleeping in and screamed “wake up“ in her ear, “pa found a solution, we are moving. 

“What? Isabell asked, confused.” Lilac explained. We are moving!

Isabell leapt up, got dressed in raced time, bolted out of the door and ran down stairs saying “is it true Pa, is it true pa are we moving? “Yes, it’s true,” laughed Pa. “I’m going to get packing”. “I’m parking too,” said lsabell.  Come on Lilac. Two minutes later Pa, Isabell, Lilac and Ma (who had decided to go with them at the last minute) stood in the living room and packed box after box.  

The next morning, Pa, Ma, Isabell and lilac climbed into their wagon, said goodbye to the land they knew so well, and set off on a journey that would change their life.