"We welcome the gifts of thy bounty," says Laertes, moving to help her unload her wagon (because he is certainly not going to make her drag it all the way back to the mansion!). "The sausages and preserves are especially welcome, and we'll never have enough coffee. But Susan--it was not upon thy shoulders to feed us. See, we've prepared well for the season."

Indeed, if Susan steps in a little further, she'll see the shelves that she'd helped to assemble all those months ago are now filled with glass jars and burlap sacks; there's cereal and dried pasta, flour and yeast and sugar (white and brown), olive oil and vinegar, beans and peas and lentils of eight or nine different varieties, dried fruits and nuts, powdered milk, and even a capacious canister of kibble for Szarka. Preserved meats and dried herbs hang from the ceiling, along with waxed cheeses roped in little nets.