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Show 53 her earlier actions, but still I was disappointed. As we had raced back to Canyon City that evening, I had envisioned packing twice as much, reaching the gold fields twice as fast, and getting double the gold. Because I had a partner. The next morning when I put a fifty-pound pack on her back, she collapsed to the ground, "How old are you?" I asked. "Twelve." I took off twenty-five pounds. She s t i l l could not stand up. "And I'm a g i r l , " she said, and burst into t e a r s. She was a green-eyed, undersized girl with black hair cut Dutch l i k e a boy's. Named Tzipporah. "I am named a f t e r my grandmother," she explained, "so I will grow up to be l i k e her." "What's your grandmother l i k e ? " I asked, hoping for an amazon. "I don't know," she said. "I have never met her." "Can you talk l e s s and walk faster?" I asked. "Oh, s u r e . " She broke into a run, stumbled, and l o s t her pack. I was beginning to see my dream of gold fading. Now she was t e l l i n g me the song and dance routines of the Flower Girls, which did not i n t e r e s t me i n the l e a s t. "My mother wouldn't l e t me go on stage with the group," she chattered on. "She was saving money so we could both go into |
