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Page 18
strange, shared feelings ceased. Such a wonderful vision, she thought, despite the anger and despair. But what could it mean?
She stared after the bird for a long while. When she finally thought of returning to her wagon, she felt impelled instead to hurry in a different direction from the way she had come. Having learned from experience to obey such urges, she found herself moments later in the area where the livestock were herded.
The oxen, cattle, and horses were dark silhouettes against the faint glow of impending dawn, their restless stamping punctuating soft lows and nickers. Abby trod surely toward her right. There, on the ground, lay two oxen. She bent down. They were dead. She could not tell in the faint light whose they were, but she was nevertheless sure her family had just lost two of the six precious beasts that were to have pulled their belongings through this desert.
She stood looking at the motionless hulks on the ground, cursing herself for the futility of her visions. Why could they not give her the ability to be of use?
That wasn't fair. Several weeks ago, she had saved little Mary Woolcott when she envisioned the four-year-old being crushed by her family's wagon. The next day, her alerted mother, Cora, had snatched Mary from beneath the wheels.
Of course, Cora and Jem, her husband, now suspected Abby of somehow having caused the near-accident, perhaps by witchcraft. And Abby had not foreseen little Jimmy Danziger's deadly

 
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