A Surprise for Lily Read online

“Oh, we’d like that just fine,” Joseph said quickly.

  Teaskoota grinned, pleased. “So when can you come?”

  “Papa is busy in his shop during the week,” Joseph said. “And on Sunday we’ll have to go to church, but the next Sunday we could come over for lunch.”

  Normally, Lily would silence Joseph with a look for speaking first. He needed constant reminding that he was not the eldest in the family and it was not his place to speak up. But this time, she decided to let him do the talking.

  Satisfied, Teaskoota nodded. “I’ll see you a week from this Sunday.”

  Lily wasn’t at all sure what Papa and Mama would think about having them accept a dinner invitation to Teaskoota’s log cabin without talking to them first. But since Joseph was the one who had done all the talking, he would be the only one to get into trouble.

  Two Sundays later, Papa harnessed Jim to the little open buggy. The family was heading out to Teaskoota’s home for a meal. Mama hadn’t been at all cross with Joseph for accepting Teaskoota’s invitation without checking with her first. Lily was happy about that and a little bothered, too. Whenever she had accepted an invitation from Grandma or Beth without permission, she got a talking to. Joseph didn’t even get a stern look, which Lily thought was quite unfair. On the other hand, she was excited to go out to Teaskoota’s house. It was always an adventure and she was sure today wouldn’t disappoint.

  Everyone climbed into the little open buggy. Dannie and Paul sat on Papa and Mama’s laps. Joseph and Lily stood by the front and held onto the dashboard while Papa guided Jim down the road. Before long they turned off onto a path that used to be an old railroad trail. Jim walked slowly as the buggy bumped and swayed. Now and then, Papa would have to duck his head to keep a branch from hitting him. Papa was smart to use the open buggy. The top buggy would never have been able to get through to where they were going. When they got to the tunnel, Papa called to Jim with a long “whoa.” Everyone climbed out of the buggy and waited by the tunnel entrance while Papa tied Jim to a tree. They would walk the rest of the way.

  Mama took a few steps into the tunnel, then stopped and looked at the ceiling and walls, which were dripping with water. “Daniel, are you sure this is safe?”

  “I think it will be fine,” Papa said. “This tunnel has been here for a long, long time. Besides, it’s the shortest way to get to Teaskoota’s cabin—unless you want to climb over the mountain.”

  Lily thought it was fun to have the whole family walk through the dark tunnel together but Mama seemed more and more uncomfortable. “What a spooky place. I didn’t realize how long and dark the tunnel was. I can’t believe how many times Lily and Joseph have walked through this tunnel.”

  “We don’t mind walking through it,” Lily said. “You should have seen it two weeks ago. Icicles hung from the ceiling all the way down to the floor.”

  Mama shuddered. Lily wondered if she shouldn’t have told Mama about the icicles. What if she didn’t let them visit Teaskoota until summer?

  Dannie loved the tunnel. He hunted for every muddy water puddle he could find to stomp in. Lily thought it would be fun to splash in the mud. If only she were a boy or if only she were a little younger and didn’t mind if her dress got dirty. But she would be eleven soon and she did mind.

  Finally, they came to the end of the tunnel and Mama sighed with relief. When they reached the clearing in front of Teaskoota’s log cabin, Mama’s eyes went wide. “It looks just like you said it does, Lily. Like a picture right out of a history book.”

  Like always, Teaskoota sat on a rocking chair at the front of his cabin with his dog, Rufus, at his feet. He rose to meet them and Rufus trotted right behind him. Dannie was all eyes and ears, taking in everything.

  “Welcome, welcome,” Teaskoota said.

  “Something smells good,” Papa said, pumping Teaskoota’s hand.

  Teaskoota couldn’t stop grinning. His teeth were missing and his face reminded Lily of a wrinkled apple doll. “I’m making sourdough biscuits and baked potatoes for lunch. It will be ready before too long.” He told everyone to follow him to his kitchen—the fire pit behind his cabin.

  Mama looked stunned.

  “Nothing beats warm sourdough biscuits,” Teaskoota said. He carefully raked back ashes and red hot embers to uncover some potatoes. “I think these are ready,” he said. Using a rake, he rolled the potatoes out of the ashes and onto the grass.

  Lily reached down to pick up a potato. Just as her hand touched it, she heard Teaskoota, Papa, and Mama yell “Don’t!” but their warning came too late. She dropped the hot potato, but it had already burned her hand.

  Papa and Mama bolted over to examine Lily’s hand, which was angry red. It was terribly painful. She tried hard not to cry, seeing as how she would be eleven now and too grown-up to cry, yet she couldn’t help but let a tear leak down her cheek. First one tear, then another and another.

  Papa ran to get some cold water for her while Teaskoota disappeared into his cabin. He came back outside with a jar of honey and poured some on Lily’s hand. Next he put some leaves on it and wrapped it with a long strip of cloth. Lily’s hand still hurt, but the honey and the leaves made it feel much better.

  “What kind of leaves did you use?” Mama asked.

  “Burdock leaves,” Teaskoota said. “They help soothe and heal burns.” He scraped the ashes off the lid of the cast iron pot. With a metal rod, he lifted the lid off to reveal a pan full of golden brown sourdough biscuits. Despite Lily’s injury, her mouth watered at the sight. Teaskoota took them out of the pot and placed them into wooden bowls, then he poured a generous amount of honey over each one.

  Teaskoota handed the first bowl to Lily. With her unhurt left hand, she carefully touched the biscuit with her finger to make sure it wasn’t too hot before she picked it up. It looked delicious. She took a big bite and started to chew. Then she stopped. The biscuit didn’t taste anything liked it looked. It was sour! She managed to choke down the rest. When Teaskoota asked if she would like another, she smiled sweetly and said, “No, thank you.” Even Joseph and Dannie and Paul didn’t eat more than one bite. Papa and Mama quietly ate everyone’s leftover biscuits and burnt potatoes.

  After lunch, Teaskoota offered to show the family around his property. He led them down a little path through a patch of trees to a meadow. At the edge of the meadow were several hives of bees. “This is where I get all my honey.”

  “They look like little box houses,” Dannie said. He ran closer to get a better look.

  “Dannie!” Papa warned. “Don’t get too close.”

  “Little fella, if you want to see something, let’s go look at my chickens and turkeys,” Teaskoota said. “I put them in the barn so they didn’t disturb our lunch, but I can let them out now.” He opened the barn door and the chickens hurried out. The turkeys strutted around in the barn. They looked so silly—as if they were the bosses of the barn.

  Dannie chased them and waved his arms. “Shoo turkeys, shoo turkeys! Go out and eat grass.” A few turkey hens ran away from him and ducked out the door into the barnyard. The tom turkey stayed put, glaring at Dannie with his beady little eyes. He lowered his head and charged at Dannie, flapping his wings and screeching. Dannie screamed and fell down, then started to cry.

  Teaskoota chased the tom turkey out of the barn. Papa helped Dannie get up and brushed the dirt off his clothes. “I think that turkey scared you more than he hurt you,” Papa said.

  Even as he was wailing, Dannie kept one eye on that tom turkey. “I don’t like turkeys,” he said.

  “They aren’t used to little boys,” Teaskoota said. “Let’s go sit on the porch and visit where no one has to worry about getting hurt.”

  As Teaskoota and Papa talked about the weather and crops and animals, Lily felt disappointment settle over her. She had been so excited about this visit and everything went wrong. Her tummy was rumbling from hunger because the lunch of sour biscuits and burnt potatoes was terrible, her hand was burned,
and Dannie was frightened. And now, all that was left to do was to sit, sit, sit and listen to grown-ups talk. It was no different visiting a Shawnee Indian on a Sunday afternoon than visiting an Amish bishop.

  20

  Dozer’s Nose for Trouble

  Dear Hannah,

  I’m sorry it has been so long since I wrote to you. Ever since Mama started to teach English at school, I don’t have much time for letter writing. I wish you could have had Mama for your English teacher, too. She makes learning fun and all the children like her.

  All except Effie. She keeps telling everyone that Mama is getting fat and should stay at home. Yesterday she said she was sure that soon I will get a baby sister. When I asked her what made her think such a thing, she gave me one of her melting stares, like I was the dumbest thing that ever walked the earth. Then she told me that if I looked very closely at Mama’s face, I could see she was hiding an important secret. I don’t believe Effie. Long ago, I learned my lesson about Effie’s superstitions.

  But . . . it would be fun to have a baby sister.

  Grandma Miller and Aunt Susie come over on Saturdays to help with the housecleaning since Mama is teaching. It makes the Saturday work go much more quickly.

  Speaking of our Aunt Susie . . . here’s another story for you. Do you remember that Aunt Susie is afraid of Band-Aids? Harvey and Aaron found out, so they covered their hands with Band-Aids at church and chased her after church was over. They’ve done it twice now. Last Sunday, I was holding Aunt Susie’s hand to help her run away from the boys. It had been raining so we both slipped and fell in the mud. Aunt Susie hurt her wrist and cried. I was so mad at the boys! When Grandma asked what happened, I told her, in a very loud voice. So loud that I hoped those boys’ parents would hear. I hoped they would get into big trouble.

  But would you believe that Harvey’s father, Abe Hershberger, who acts like he’s the bishop over everybody, only laughed? No wonder Harvey is insufferable.

  Your cousin,

  Lily

  P.S. The hired boy, Tom, does sound very charming, and I’m glad he’s so nice to you and Levi. Just how old is he, anyway?

  Early one morning, Papa came in from the barn after doing the chores, smiling from ear to ear. “There’s a surprise out in the barn,” he said. “Anybody want to go see what it is?”

  “We do!” Joseph and Dannie said. Lily was already at the door, getting her coat on. Joseph and Dannie started outside without their coats, but Papa put his hands on their shoulders. “The surprise isn’t going anywhere. Let’s slow down, get coats on, and walk along with Paul so he can enjoy the surprise, too.”

  When they reached the barn, Papa slid open the door and waited until everyone was inside. He pointed to Pansy’s stall. Curled up in the straw was a beautiful little calf. Pansy was so proud. She licked her calf all over. The calf tried to rise and stand on its wobbly legs. Pansy nudged it with her nose and licked it some more and the calf tumbled down again.

  “Is something wrong with the calf?” Dannie said.

  “No, it’s fine,” Papa said. “It just needs a little time to figure out how to use its legs. I think we should probably leave them alone for now.” He held the barn door open and shooed everyone up to the house. Lily couldn’t wait to tell Beth and Malinda about the little calf. Effie would act as if calves were born every day at her house, but Beth and Malinda would want to hear all about it.

  Pansy’s beautiful calf grew quickly. It liked to bounce around the pen and run in circles around Pansy. She was a good mama and didn’t mind. She just kept on chewing her cud, slow and lazy. Lily liked to pet the calf. When she was alone with Pansy and the calf, she called the calf Princess. Her real name was Nelly, which Lily thought was much too ordinary for such a pretty calf. Papa said he wasn’t planning to sell Nelly. In a few years, Nelly would be old enough to provide milk. He thought they could use another cow to make all the cheese and butter a growing family needs.

  Growing boys, Papa meant. Those little brothers ate twice as much as Lily. They had bottomless pits for tummies.

  Lily was sweeping the front porch when she heard Dozer bark and bark. Then she heard someone yell. She ran down the porch steps and around the corner of the house to see what was causing the commotion. Dozer was barking at Mr. Beal’s cows over in the field. Mr. Beal yelled at him to get away, but Dozer paid him no mind. One of Mr. Beal’s sons rode up to Dozer in his four-wheeler. He revved the engine and chased Dozer off.

  Mr. Beal saw Lily and climbed through the fence. “Is your father at home?” He was an interesting-looking man to Lily: short and bent, and he wore bib overalls with an old wool jacket that seemed almost to reach the ground, even in the summer. He had a blue work shirt buttoned up to the collar, a straw hat with a green see-through visor, and plain glasses so thick his eyes expanded when he looked directly at them. Normally, he was very nice. Right now, he looked mad.

  “Yes,” Lily said. “He’s working in the shop.”

  Mr. Beal marched through the yard to Papa’s shop. He was holding his fist tightly, but Lily couldn’t make out what was in his hand. She ran inside. “Mama, Dozer is in trouble again. He was chasing Mr. Beal’s cows and now Mr. Beal has come over to talk to Papa.”

  “That dog!” Mama said. “I have never known a dog with such a nose for making trouble.”

  Lily agreed. Dozer was nothing but a nuisance.

  After Mr. Beal left, Papa came inside to talk to Mama. “Dozer ripped some tags off the ears of some of Mr. Beal’s calves. He’s not very happy about it. He said he had wanted to sell some of his heifers once they’re five hundred pounds but since their ears are torn, their price will drop.” Papa took off his hat and turned it in a circle in his hands. “I thought we could give Nelly to him. We’ll have to keep Dozer in the shop until he learns to stay at home where he belongs.”

  NO! Papa was giving away the beautiful Princess calf. It was all that awful dog’s fault. Lily was furious with Dozer! She wished someone else had found him on that rock bed last summer.

  That afternoon Papa and Joseph led the calf over to the Beals’. Lily sat on the porch steps and watched, still fuming at Dozer. When they returned, Papa sat next to Lily on the porch. “It’s much better to give up our calf and keep a good neighbor than to keep our calf and have troubles with our neighbor.”

  Lily thought it would be better still to give away Dozer and keep the calf.

  He was a horrible dog, Dozer was.

  21

  Jim

  The minute Lily and Joseph turned up the driveway after school, Dannie bolted out of the house with a look on his face like he was about to burst with a secret. “There’s a surprise out in the barn!”

  “What kind of surprise?” Lily asked. She had learned from experience to be wary of Dannie’s surprises. His last surprise involved a mouse in Lily’s desk drawer.

  “Come look for yourself!” Dannie said and ran to the barn. Lily and Joseph looked at each other and shrugged. They set their lunch boxes on the porch steps and hurried behind Dannie.

  Inside the barn was a new horse, standing in a stall next to Jim. This horse was taller than Jim, with a burnt-orange-colored coat. Its ears were pointed forward and the whites of its eyes showed. Lily didn’t like this horse, and she was pretty sure he didn’t like her. She wondered why Papa would have bothered with a horse like that. She hadn’t even known he’d been thinking about getting another horse.

  Papa walked up the barn aisle. “Well, what do you think?”

  “He’s the ugliest horse I’ve ever seen,” Lily said.

  Papa nodded. “He may not be pretty, but I hope by the time I’m done training him, he’ll be one of the best horses we’ve ever had.”

  “What are you going to do with him?” Lily asked.

  “I want to train him to be our buggy horse,” Papa said.

  “But Jim is our buggy horse,” Joseph said.

  “Jim is getting old.” Papa crouched down beside Joseph and Lily. “There are a l
ot of hills in Cloverdale. It’s getting harder and harder for him to pull our buggy up and down all those hills. It’s time we had a young, strong horse for all that pulling.”

  “What’s this one’s name?” Lily asked. She reached out to stroke the horse’s nose, but he jumped back and snorted air through his nostrils. That was one nervous horse. She hoped Papa knew what he was doing.

  “He doesn’t have a name yet,” Papa said. “We’ll have to decide on one. But in the meantime, I don’t want you to get too close to him. He’s not used to children. He’s not at all trained. I need time to work with him and gentle him.”

  Dozer had sneaked into the barn and sniffed near the new horse’s stall, which made the horse panic and dance. Papa grabbed Dozer by the collar. “Joseph, you’ll need to keep Dozer away from the barn for a while.”

  “I think we should call that horse Nervous Ned,” Lily said.

  Papa laughed. “Just give me some time, Lily. I think you’ll grow as fond of him as you are of Jim.”

  Lily knew that would never happen. She loved Jim. He had been her buggy horse for as long as she could remember.

  When she went into the house, she asked Mama if she knew there was a strange, ugly horse in the barn.

  Mama looked up from cutting cabbage for coleslaw and smiled. “Papa has felt that Jim is showing his age. He’s been looking for a young horse for a while now and finally found what he was looking for.”

  “When did we get Jim?” Lily asked.

  “Grandpa Lapp gave Jim to Papa a few weeks before we got married,” Mama said. “I still remember how happy Papa was to get him. We both thought he was one of the most beautiful horses we had ever seen.”

  “Jim’s such a gentle horse,” Lily said. “Not like that Nervous Ned out in the barn.”

  “He’s just young and unbroken.” Mama put the chopped cabbage into a big bowl. She sliced off the tops of some bright orange carrots and rinsed them under the sink. “Papa can work wonders with a horse. You watch and see. He won’t be nervous for long. Papa will use Jim to help train him.”