A Surprise for Lily Page 12

  The next Saturday, the Rabers’ new house was finished and ready to be moved into. Lily was nearly as excited as Beth. Papa dropped the family off and drove away on a mysterious errand. When he returned, Jim was pulling the spring wagon instead of the buggy. Lily ran over to see what could be in the back of the spring wagon. Papa had built a table and chair set! Jonas Raber thanked Papa over and over. Papa seemed embarrassed. Pleased, though. Jonas helped him carry the table into the kitchen.

  Beth and Lily ran through the house to explore every room. They both liked it much better than Beth’s old house. When the girls went into Beth’s room, Lily gasped. Beth’s room had been painted a light pink. Soft white curtains hung at the windows. It looked so beautiful that Lily felt a little ping of jealousy. She tried to squish it down, right away, but it was very hard not to feel jealous. It was a wonderful bedroom for an eleven-year-old girl.

  The first thing Beth did was to put Lily’s candy bowl on top of her dresser. “There, now it seems perfect,” Beth said. Lily thought that was a very kind thing to say. She thought it looked perfect even without a candy bowl.

  All afternoon, people bustled around the farm, carrying in furniture and boxes that had been stored in the buggy shed and the barn loft. By evening, the house looked like a real home. People were starting to leave as Mr. Tanner drove up in his station wagon. Papa went over to talk to him and then came back to the house holding a pretty pink bird cage. Inside was a beautiful green parakeet.

  Papa handed the pink bird cage to Beth. “Lily wanted you to have another bird,” he said. “He can’t take the place of Pete, but we hope this one will be a good pet for you.”

  Beth’s eyes filled with tears. She gave Lily a hug and told her she was the best friend anyone could ever have. Jonas Raber started to thank Papa all over again.

  Papa gathered the family together to leave before Jonas could embarrass him again with countless thank-yous. “It’s time to go home now,” Papa said.

  When they reached Whispering Pines, Lily went up to her room to bring down a book to read after supper. It had been fun to have Beth stay with her for the last few weeks and now her room was strangely empty. It was the closest Lily had ever come to having a sister. She wanted a sister now more than ever.

  18

  The Trouble with Harvey Hershberger

  Effie Kauffman thought Harvey Hershberger was cute. Not as cute as Aaron Yoder, she told everyone, but still very, very cute. The attention she gave him only puffed up Harvey’s big head all the more, if it were possible.

  Harvey was cute, Lily had to admit—though she would never admit it out loud. His hair was bleached by the sun and his blue eyes sparkled. But he was every bit as annoying as he was cute. He never knew when to be funny and when to be quiet.

  One of the things Harvey did that irritated Lily was to whistle while the children sang songs in school. It wasn’t that Lily minded whistling—Papa was a champion whistler. But Harvey whistled off-key. Teacher Judith never stopped his terrible whistling.

  On the afternoons when Mama taught English, before she dismissed everyone, she taught the children new songs. It wasn’t long before Harvey’s boldness set in. He whistled along instead of singing. The first time, Mama didn’t stop him, which was a disappointment to Lily. She thought that Harvey’s mother should be sent a note about his off-key whistling. Maybe the new bishop, too.

  The second time Harvey started to whistle instead of sing, Mama did something odd. She reached into her desk and pulled out a lemon and a knife. Right in front of everyone, while the students kept singing, Mama sliced the lemon in half and squeezed the juice into a teacup. Mama was up to something, but what? She took a sip of the lemon juice, watching Harvey the entire time.

  Harvey’s whistle sputtered to a stop.

  On Thursday, Mama had the children finish the day by practicing a new song, just like they did on Tuesday. Harvey started up his horrible whistling. Mama quietly pulled out another lemon from her desk drawer and cut it in half, then squeezed the juice into a cup. She lifted the cup to her lips.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Lily watched Harvey. He got a funny look on his face, like his mouth was puckering up at the very thought of the sour lemon. He kept wiggling his lips like a horse, as if he couldn’t get them to do what he wanted them to do.

  Mama’s sour lemon trick was just the thing to cure Harvey of his off-key whistling.

  Dear Cousin Hannah,

  Today was the worst day of my entire life. It started when I took too long to wash and dry the breakfast dishes (but there was the cutest little chipmunk outside the kitchen window), and then I had to rush to get ready for school. I threw on my coat and completely forgot my cape and apron! I didn’t even realize what I’d done until I heard Effie whisper and point and laugh. Of course, that got Harvey and Aaron and Sam laughing at me, too. I wanted to run home during first recess, but I’ve got near-perfect attendance so far for the year and it wasn’t worth jeopardizing my very excellent record. (Teacher Judith says that there will be a special prize for the student who has the best attendance by the end of the term, and so far I am in the lead to win.) So I ended up just wearing my coat all day long.

  By lunchtime, the schoolhouse was warm (Mama calls it moulting season), and I started perspiring and my face turned bright red. Of course, Aaron noticed, and he started calling me LilyBeet. I guess that’s an improvement on calling me Wholly Lily, like he used to call me. But not by much.

  The day just kept getting worse.

  Joseph brought horse chestnuts to school. (You are probably wondering why, but I have no idea.) Harvey insisted they were good to eat. Even Aaron told him he was wrong, but Harvey doesn’t listen to common sense. (That doesn’t mean I think Aaron has common sense. He doesn’t.)

  After a heated discussion that took up most of lunch recess, Harvey tried to roast the horse chestnuts by putting them inside the furnace. After they were nearly burned to a crisp, he took them out and ate several of them. It wasn’t long before he turned green, started to moan, and got sick! His throw-up splattered all over my new shoes. Hannah, it was disgusting. Just disgusting. The room smelled horrible.

  The only good thing was that Harvey went home early.

  But the day got worse! On the way home from school, I made the mistake of complaining to Joseph that my new shoes were spoiled by Harvey. I might have mentioned that I wasn’t terribly disappointed because I wished I’d been able to get shoes with high heels, like I’d seen on an English woman who came into Papa’s shop last Saturday. I liked the pecking sound they made on the floor in the workshop.

  Well, you know how Joseph likes to make things. He decided to surprise me with a pair of high heels. He pounded a spike through the heels of my brand new, stinky (because of Harvey) shoes. Now they are really, truly ruined.

  I should have just stayed in bed.

  Your cousin,

  Lily

  Mama taught English classes to the upper grades on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. On those days, Lily and Joseph stayed to help Mama clean up the schoolhouse after the rest of the children went home. Mama checked all the English lessons while they waited for Papa to come get them in the buggy.

  It was such a beautiful spring day that Lily asked Mama if she could walk home instead of wait for Papa to arrive. Mama looked up from the papers she was grading. “As long as you take Joseph with you, I don’t mind if you want to start for home. Leave your lunch boxes and I’ll take them in the buggy. If Papa comes soon, we’ll pick you up along the way.”

  Joseph and Lily raced up the road. At the top of the first hill, they stopped abruptly. Just up the road were Becky Hershberger and Ephraim Stoltzfus. They were holding hands!

  “Ewww! Look at that,” Joseph said.

  “Sickening,” Lily said. She shuddered at the thought of holding hands with a boy.

  A car turned onto the road and Becky and Ephraim dropped their hands. As soon as the car passed out of sight, they locked hands again.

>   Lily and Joseph walked slowly down the hill behind them. “I don’t think they know we can see them,” Lily said.

  “I don’t think so, either,” Joseph said. Just then, Becky and Ephraim stopped walking and he leaned his face toward hers. “Ewww! I think they’re kissing.”

  Lily felt like gagging. “Let’s run toward them. Stomp your feet as loud as you can!”

  Lily and Joseph charged down the hill. Becky and Ephraim startled, looked at them, then ran off down the road. Lily and Joseph slowed down to a walk again, huffing and puffing, pleased with themselves.

  During recess the next day, Lily was playing in the outfield during a softball game. Harvey ran out to her. “Your brother Joseph is a liar.”

  “That is not true,” Lily said. Actually, sometimes it was true, but Harvey didn’t need to know everything.

  “He said that Becky and Ephraim were holding hands and kissing on the way home from school yesterday.”

  “Oh that?” Lily said. “I saw them, too.”

  Harvey was outraged. “I don’t believe you, either!”

  Lily shrugged. “Suit yourself. But we know what we saw.”

  The bell rang and Harvey glared at her before he ran to the schoolhouse. Lily wondered why Harvey acted so indignant about Becky’s reputation. Lily wasn’t at all surprised that Becky was only thirteen and was already kissing boys. Becky was a girl who wanted to be older than her years.

  A few days later, Lily and Joseph were walking home from school with Beth and Malinda when Harvey ran up to join them. “I need to talk to you both.” He waited until Beth and Malinda turned down a road before he said, “I asked Becky if she and Ephraim were holding hands and kissing on the way home from school, and she said they weren’t and that now she knows that Lapps are liars.”

  Lily gave Joseph a warning look. There was no point in arguing with someone like Harvey.

  Of course, silence never stopped Harvey. “I want you both to admit you lied and that you’re sorry,” Harvey said. “I’m sure she will forgive you.”

  “But we didn’t lie,” Joseph said.

  “We know what we saw,” Lily said. “Your sister is the one who isn’t telling the truth.”

  “Well, Hershbergers aren’t allowed to lie,” Harvey said.

  “Lapps aren’t, either,” Lily shot back. This was silly. She didn’t really care if Ephraim and Becky were kissing. Her only thought about it was that she would definitely never be caught doing anything like that.

  “I’m going to prove that you are lying,” Harvey said. “I’ll give you until tomorrow at one o’clock to confess. If you don’t admit you’re lying about Becky, God will make your index finger turn black. But if you’re telling the truth, it won’t change color.”

  Lily stared at him in disbelief. Was he crazy? He was! “Then we don’t have anything to worry about,” she said, “because we are not lying! Come on, Joseph. Let’s hurry home.” She started to run. Anything to get away from crazy Harvey.

  The next day at first recess, Harvey came to check Joseph and Lily’s fingers. “If there’s a gray tinge, that means they’re already turning black. You’ll see.”

  Lily and Joseph held out their hands. Their fingers looked pink and healthy, like they always did.

  “Just because I can’t see anything yet doesn’t mean it won’t go black,” Harvey said in a voice filled with warning. “Maybe you should just admit you were lying so you won’t have to worry all day. Once those fingers go black, they’ll stay that way for the rest of your life. Everyone will know that you’re liars.”

  During noon recess, Harvey checked their fingers again and told them they should confess now, before it was too late. Lily and Joseph refused, though they did get a creepy feeling up their spine when he told them. “It was Becky and Ephraim, wasn’t it?” Joseph whispered.

  “Yes! Absolutely!” Lily said, looking at her finger. “I think so, anyway. I’m almost positive it was them. Nearly one hundred percent. Maybe . . . sixty percent positive.”

  After noon recess, Teacher Judith read a chapter from a book. Lily couldn’t concentrate on the story. What if her finger did turn black? She looked over at Joseph. He sat at his desk with his hands spread on the table, staring at his fingers. She had never seen her brother focus so intently on something at school.

  Teacher Judith closed the book, put it away, and asked the third grade to come to the front of the classroom for spelling. Lily stared at the clock. Only two more minutes until it would be one o’clock. The second hand never moved so slowly before. Tick, tock, tick, tock. Finally, it was one o’clock! Lily squeezed her eyes tight, then opened them to look at her finger. Why, it looked just like it always did! She breathed a sigh of relief, turned to Harvey, and held up her hand with a smug smile. Then she went back to work on her math assignment.

  At last recess Harvey checked their fingers one more time. “It’s a mystery to me why your fingers didn’t turn black,” he said, shaking his head. “A pure mystery. Because everybody knows you’re lying.”

  19

  Visiting Teaskoota

  As soon as the last of the snow had melted away, Lily and Joseph started to plan for a visit to Teaskoota, the old Shawnee Indian. Mama said they had to wait until the weather warmed up. Finally, on a sunny afternoon in late March, Mama wrapped a chunk of fresh homemade cheese into a piece of cloth and put it into a brown paper bag. “Lily, you and Joseph can take this cheese and an apple pie over to Teaskoota this afternoon.”

  Teaskoota was almost one hundred years old. He lived off the land in a little log cabin, just like a pioneer. No roads led to his home. Lily and Joseph set off to follow a dim trail in the woods and travel through a long, dark abandoned train tunnel to reach the clearing where Teaskoota lived.

  Last summer, after Lily and Joseph had discovered Teaskoota, Papa had gone with them to meet him. Teaskoota liked having visitors. During autumn, on Saturday afternoons, Mama had sent Lily and Joseph to visit with him and bring him gifts from the kitchen. Teaskoota was always happy to see them.

  He showed Lily and Joseph how to do all kinds of interesting things, like how he made a wooden yoke for his team of oxen. He taught them the names of different types of plants and how they could be used for medicine or food. Lily liked learning about plants. He showed her how the leaves of mallow plants could be used for tea and the funny little button-like flowers on the mallow plants could be eaten.

  Other days, Teaskoota sat on his front porch and showed Joseph how to carve and whittle wood while Lily petted Rufus, his big white dog. Joseph liked to whittle, even though the things he made turned out thick and clumsy. Nothing like Teaskoota’s delicate carvings.

  But when winter came, Lily and Joseph’s visits to Teaskoota came to an end. Lily worried about how he would manage through the winter, but Papa assured her that Teaskoota had survived plenty of winters. He had promised that when spring arrived, they could start visiting him again. And today was that day.

  As Lily and Joseph walked along the trail, Joseph said, “When I grow up, I’m going to live just like Teaskoota.”

  Lily rolled her eyes. Joseph was one for cooking up ridiculous ideas. “You’d get tired of living like a pioneer by the end of a month. By the end of the first week.” Lily snapped her fingers. “By the end of the first day!”

  “That’s not true,” Joseph said. “I’d never, ever get tired of it. I would have lots of animals. I could walk around in the woods all day long. I could make everything I need and live in a log cabin. It’d be fun!”

  “Well, you can live the way you want to, but I think it would be too lonely and hard to live in the middle of the woods far away from Mama and Papa.”

  “They could come visit,” Joseph said.

  Lily decided there was no point in telling him that Mama and Papa wouldn’t be visiting him off in the deep woods. Or that he would starve if he had to cook for himself. One thing she had learned about Joseph, if she argued with him, he’d act only more stubborn. He’d
probably move out to the barn and try to live like a pioneer right now, just to prove her wrong. Boys just weren’t reasonable.

  Fortunately, before any more words could be exchanged about living like pioneers, they came to the tunnel. There were still thick icicles hanging down from the ceiling, and they had to walk carefully around big chunks of rock that had fallen down during the winter.

  Carefully they made their way through to the other side of the tunnel, and soon they reached the little log cabin. Teaskoota was sitting on the porch, as if he’d been hoping they might just mosey over today from Whispering Pines. He was happy to see them, and even happier to see Mama’s treats.

  He pulled the cheese out of Mama’s bag and took a knife out of the pocket of his dirty overalls. He flicked the knife open, sliced a slab of cheese, and promptly started to eat it—using the knife as a fork. Lily tried not to shudder at the thought of everything else that knife had touched before it was used on Mama’s fresh cheese. Disgusting!

  After Teaskoota sampled a generous portion of the cheese, he disappeared into the cabin with it, along with Mama’s apple pie. “I’m baking sourdough biscuits today,” he called to them. His gray head popped out of the cabin door. “Well, come on, then!”

  Behind the cabin, Teaskoota had built a fire pit with stones. A small smoldering fire was burning in it. A cast iron tripod stood over the fire. It held a pot that was covered in red embers and ashes. “This is where I do my baking,” he said. As he poked at the pieces of burning wood, the fire popped and crackled. Sparks flew into the air and then settled back to gently licking flames. “Seeing as how your mama has sent me plenty of good food, I got to thinking that it might be nice to feed all of you for a change.” He straightened up and stretched, one hand on his back. “How would your family like to come over for a meal some fine spring day?”