When the coach stops the hill repeats as just the right time, and the rider says, "I could have done more," stopping is not a loss - It's a victory.

Stopping on a small wooden bridge, I look across at the patch of green on the opposite hill. Over there grasses have withered, and only wheats are sprouting on the wintry land.

It worked out exactly as I had planned, except I hadn't planned on her stopping to pick up the neighbour woman and the neighbour woman's infant son on the way down Castle Hill and into town.