A Surprise for Lily Read online

  Joseph and Dannie dropped their chicken sandwiches and bolted over to Papa. Lily joined them. Joseph dropped to his knees to peer into the crack. “Let’s rescue him!”

  “We would need a ladder to get down to him,” Papa said. “I didn’t bring one along.”

  Joseph was horrified. “But we can’t leave the puppy down there! It’ll die.”

  “He does look hungry,” Lily said. Joseph ran back to get the rest of his sandwich and tossed it down to the puppy. Lily was proud of Joseph’s quick thinking. She knew how much he loved to eat. But she knew he loved animals even more than food.

  Papa stroked his beard as he tried to think of what to do. “I’ll drive down the road to the next farm and see if they have a ladder we can borrow.”

  “I’ll go with you, Daniel,” Uncle Ira said.

  Joseph knelt at the edge of the crack and talked to the puppy in a soft, soothing voice. Lily took her sandwich and sat next to Joseph and Dannie by the crack. She felt sorry for the puppy as they waited for Papa to return. She wondered how long it had been trapped down there with no way to get out. Wasn’t it amazing to think that today, of all days, was the day they had decided to drive to the rock bed? Just the day when a puppy needed to be rescued.

  Papa and Uncle Ira came back with a ladder and lowered it carefully into the crack. Papa frowned. “I don’t think this crack is wide enough for both me and the ladder.”

  “What if we turned it sideways?” Uncle Ira asked.

  “There wouldn’t be anything for it to lean against.”

  “I’ll hold it upright,” Uncle Ira said.

  Papa looked doubtful. “You think you’re strong enough?”

  “I might be older than you are,” Uncle Ira said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not just as strong as you are.” To prove his point, Uncle Ira turned the ladder.

  Papa flashed him a nervous look, then laughed, as he carefully stepped on the ladder and headed down into the crack. “Don’t you let go, Brother Ira!”

  Lily had the oddest feeling—Papa and Uncle Ira sounded just like Joseph and Dannie. She wondered if her brothers would still tease each other when they became grown men. Probably.

  Everyone gathered around the crack to watch Papa climb down the ladder. Mama held her breath until Papa got to the bottom safely, then she let out a sigh of relief. Papa picked up the puppy and climbed back up. Before Papa reached the top step, Joseph reached out to get the puppy out of his arms. “Can I keep him?” he asked.

  Over the top of Joseph’s head, Papa and Mama exchanged a look. Lily never did understand what they said to each other in those looks; they had a language all their own. “We’ll take him home with us today,” Papa said. He stroked the puppy’s head. “He certainly needs someone to take care of him. But we’ll have to find out if he belongs to anyone else before we make any plans to keep him.”

  “We could put an ad in the newspaper to see if someone has lost a puppy and wants it back,” Mama said. She sounded as if she hoped the puppy might belong to someone else.

  “If no one wants it, can we keep it?” Joseph asked. Lily knew what was coming. When it came to rescuing stray animals, Joseph wouldn’t give up. He was worse than water wearing on a rock.

  This sad puppy wasn’t a puppy Lily would have picked for their family. It was scrawny and dirty, one ear drooped while the other one stood up in a point, and it had a black patch over one eye that gave it a cockeyed look, like a pirate.

  “If no one claims it, then you get to keep it,” Papa said.

  Joseph hugged the puppy against his chest. “I’m going to call him Dozer.”

  “Wait,” Lily said. “It’s a boy puppy?”

  Papa nodded. “Why Dozer?”

  “Because it sounds strong,” Joseph said. “Like a bulldozer.”

  Lily’s heart sank. The last thing she needed was another strong-minded boy around the house.

  4

  Life with a Crazy Puppy

  Aunt Tillie and Uncle Ira returned to Kentucky and life at Whispering Pines returned to normal. As normal as life could get with a crazy puppy at the farm.

  One morning, Mama tied the apron filled with clothespins around Lily’s waist. This apron was made just for laundry day. “I’ll let you hang the rest of the things up by yourself,” Mama said. “I’ll go get the next load of laundry out of the washing machine.”

  The laundry basket was nearly empty; only a few towels, washcloths, and pairs of socks remained on the bottom. This, to Lily, was the best part of doing laundry. She didn’t mind hanging things on the clothesline. She could be outside in the sunshine while she worked, and listen to the birds sing, and feel the gentle summer breeze.

  Lily reached into the front of the apron, pulled out a clothespin, and bent down to get a towel out of the laundry basket. Dozer had been busy trying to catch his tail, and now he was lying on the grass watching Lily with his big puppy eyes.

  When she lifted the towel, she shook it to flap out the wrinkles before she hung it on the line. Dozer sat up, interested. One of his ears twitched eagerly. He sprang to his feet as Lily lifted the towel to pin it to the clothesline. In the blink of an eye, he snatched the towel out of Lily’s hands and bounded away with it.

  “Hey!” Lily yelled. She chased after him. Dozer would stop, look at her as if to say, “You can’t catch me!” and then dart off. The towel was dragged all over the muddy ground. It was filthy.

  Lily stilled. Slowly, she inched her way toward Dozer and stepped on the edge of the towel. Then she reached down and tried to take it away from him. Dozer growled and wouldn’t let it go. Lily was frustrated. This puppy was nothing but trouble and more trouble! And he was strong. Fast, too. Joseph had thought Dozer would be a good name because it sounded like a bold dog, but Lily could think of other names that would have fit him. Names like Rascal, Scamp, or Pest.

  She walked back to the basement with one end of the towel in her hands. The other end was held by Dozer, still making deep growly sounds in his throat. Joseph tried to distract Dozer by throwing a ball. Dozer dropped the towel and bounded after the ball. Lily picked up the dirty, chewed towel with two fingers. It was disgusting. She took the towel into the basement to show Mama. “Dozer ran away with the towel,” she said. “I think it needs to be washed again.”

  Mama sighed. “That little dog still needs a lot of training.”

  Lily agreed.

  All week long, a heat wave had Cloverdale in its grip. By afternoon, it was too hot to be outside, so garden work needed to get done in the early morning. As soon as breakfast was over, Mama announced that they would be picking cucumbers this morning. “I want to can turmeric pickles,” she told Lily, “so pick every cucumber that is over an inch long.”

  Turmeric pickles were some of Lily’s favorites. She liked them much better than the salty-sour dill pickles that Papa liked so well. Picking cucumbers was always fun, easy work. She hurried to find several five-gallon pails to take out to the garden.

  As Lily reached the garden, she set the pails down. Mama was peering over a cucumber vine, a puzzled look on her face. “How strange,” she said. “I never saw anything like this.”

  Lily parted a cucumber vine to see what Mama was looking at. One bite was taken out of the cucumber. What kind of animal would do such a thing? Raccoons liked to eat sweet corn. Sometimes mice or moles liked to nibble on a few tomatoes and robins always liked strawberries, but she had never heard of any creature that took one bite out of cucumbers.

  Mama and Lily spent the morning picking every single cucumber. They filled one pail with the unbitten ones. The bitten ones filled a second pail. “What a waste,” Mama said sadly as she looked at all the ruined cucumbers.

  It didn’t take long to clean the pail of unbitten cucumbers and pack them into jars. It didn’t take long because there weren’t very many. Mama poured the turmeric spiced brine over the cucumbers and put them into the canner so the lids would seal. They were done by lunchtime, just as the heat of the day w
as in full force.

  During lunch, Mama mentioned the mysterious half-eaten cucumbers. Joseph became very interested in the food on his plate.

  A funny thought crossed Lily’s mind. “Oh no! Was it Dozer?”

  Joseph gave a slight half-shrug of his shoulder.

  Papa saw. “Joseph, do you know anything about this?”

  Joseph looked miserable. “I was hungry the other day, so I went to the garden and ate a cucumber. Dozer saw me eating it so he took a bite out of one, too. I thought it was funny but I didn’t know he was going to take bites out of other cucumbers.”

  Papa finished chewing a slice of apple. “I’ve never known a dog to eat a cucumber.”

  Mama frowned. “That pup is more of a nuisance than any dog I have ever known.”

  Joseph’s eyebrows shot up. He sent a pleading look to Papa. “He’s only a puppy,” Papa said, trying to reassure Mama. “We need to be patient while he learns how to become a good dog.”

  Mama didn’t have much patience for mischievous animals, like goats or a bad puppy. Papa had all kinds of patience.

  Lily thought she might be somewhere in between Papa and Mama. At times, Dozer could be fun, but she was getting tired of the trouble he caused. Especially when Mama pointed out that there wouldn’t be many pickles to eat this winter.

  5

  The Magazine Article

  Papa brought the mail into the house and handed a letter to Mama. “What do you think, Rachel?”

  Lily’s ears perked up. Something interesting was in that letter. She watched carefully as Mama’s eyes scanned the letter. She hoped her parents would discuss the letter now and not wait until they were alone.

  Mama put the letter down. “Is it something you’d like to do?”

  Do what? Lily wondered, but she knew she shouldn’t ask. It wasn’t her business.

  “We don’t have to make a decision right away,” Papa said. “But it certainly is an offer to consider. It could help our business to have an article about our little woodworking shop in such a well-known magazine.” He scanned the letter again. “I’m a little surprised Bill never mentioned he was a magazine writer when he was here with Ira and Tillie.”

  Now it made sense to Lily why that driver named Bill kept commenting on Papa’s business. He was thinking about writing an article about it.

  The next day, Lily was happy to hear that Papa had decided to let Bill interview him about the woodworking shop. In the letter Papa wrote to Bill, he reminded him that the family would not pose for any pictures, but he was welcome to take pictures of the furniture Papa built and the workshop.

  A few days later, Bill drove up in his green minivan. A big camera hung around his neck and a pad of paper was in his hand. The family was excited. That morning, Lily helped Mama bake cookies and make a special pudding of whipped Jell-O, cottage cheese, and fruit. The pleasant hum of machinery from Papa’s woodworking shop in the basement filled the kitchen as they worked. Bill said it would take all day to gather information for his article so Mama invited him for lunch.

  Lily placed the bowl of pudding in the refrigerator, floating it in a bigger bowl filled with ice water. Everything was ready for lunch, so Mama said she could watch Papa show Bill around the shop. Lily ran down the basement stairs, through the room filled with shelves of canned goods, and out to the shop. She didn’t want to miss a moment of this special day.

  Lily stood by the doorjamb and watched for a moment. She was surprised to see Bill take pictures of Papa as he cut out chair backs on the band saw. At one point, Papa noticed, too. He stopped his work and reminded Bill to not take pictures of him.

  “Don’t worry,” Bill assured him. “I’m being very careful. All that I’m photographing is your hands while you’re working.”

  Satisfied, Papa pulled the lever to start the band saw up again. Lily liked to watch as he guided the curved chair back. The band saw blade sliced easily through the wood. Somehow, Papa made his work seem as easy and effortless as play.

  But the more Lily watched Bill, the more she was sure he was taking pictures of more than Papa’s hands. She could tell his camera was aimed at Papa’s face. Bill noticed Lily by the door and asked her to stand closer to Papa. Did he think she was dumb? She knew he wanted to take pictures of her, too.

  Lily went upstairs to join Mama in the living room. She was sitting next to the window, sewing patches on Dannie’s trousers in the afternoon sunlight. Dannie was hard on his trousers. His pants’ knees were always needing new patches.

  “Do you have something for me to sew?” Lily asked.

  Mama tried to hide her surprise. Lily never, ever asked to help with sewing. Normally, she avoided sewing, but she’d rather be next to Mama, patching clothes, than be in the shop with Bill and his sneaky camera.

  “There are several shirts that lost a button,” Mama said, pointing to a pile of clothes on the chair next to her. “But I thought you wanted to spend the day in the shop with Papa.”

  Lily got the button basket from Mama’s sewing machine desk and dug through the basket to find buttons that matched the shirt. Then the truth burst over her. “I don’t trust Bill. He is taking pictures of Papa.”

  Mama’s head snapped up in concern. “But Papa told him we don’t want our pictures taken.”

  “I heard Papa tell him that just a little bit ago. Bill said he was only taking pictures of his hands,” Lily said. “But I don’t believe him.”

  “Lily, if Bill said he is only getting Papa’s hands, you should believe him,” Mama said gently. “We should believe the best in others.”

  Yes, it was nice to believe that, Lily thought, but not when your eyes told you to believe something else.

  A few weeks later, when the mail arrived, Lily carried it to Mama. In it was Bill’s magazine. Lily stood right next to Mama as she looked at the cover of the magazine. Mama opened the magazine, looked at the index, and gasped. There was a picture of Papa working in his shop and a short caption underneath it: Discover the simple way craftsman Daniel Lapp builds beautiful furniture on page 43.

  Mama skimmed through the pages till she reached the article. Above the article was a big picture of the sign Papa had painted for their business. Behind the sign was a big white barn with red trim and a horse and buggy. Lily had never seen such a barn. It certainly wasn’t the barn at Whispering Pines.

  This hand-stenciled sign leads you to a hidden gem nestled in the mountains of Cloverdale, Pennsylvania, where an Amish family, Daniel and Rachel Lapp, have a woodworking shop in the basement of their rambling home.

  They don’t drive a car because their religion forbids the use of engines of any kind. When asked how he powered the machinery in his shop, Daniel took me outside where four draft horses were plodding in a circle, turning a handmade apparatus of gears and pulleys.

  Daniel and his family have only recently moved to the Cloverdale area, but already he has built up a very successful business. “People like good, honest businesses,” Daniel said, grinning ear-to-ear. “They like to know everything is made by hand.” Like the chair seats. Each is made to fit perfectly as Daniel painstakingly whittles each seat to perfection with a draw knife.

  Lies, lies! All lies. And Bill had, indeed, lied about taking pictures of Papa’s hands. There were five pictures of Papa and one of Joseph and Dannie.

  Mama tossed the magazine on the kitchen table. Her face looked drawn and tight. “Well, what do you think of that, Lily?”

  “I wish Bill would never have come,” Lily said. “He lied about everything.”

  Mama nodded. “He didn’t get much right besides our names.”

  “Do you want me to go show it to Papa?”

  “No,” Mama said. “It’s not worth interrupting his work. Let’s put it aside for now and get supper ready. We’ll talk about the article with Papa before bedtime.”

  As Lily peeled potatoes for supper, she felt sick to her stomach. She wasn’t at all hungry. She wanted to run down to the shop and give Papa a big
hug. He would feel awful about all the lies Bill had written about him.

  Later that night, Papa sat in his chair with the magazine. He flipped through the pages until he came to the article and read it aloud so everyone could hear it.

  The more Papa read, the more uneasy Lily felt—almost as if bugs were crawling all over her. Bill made the Lapp family sound silly and stupid. Imagine having draft horses walk in a circle to power a band saw! Ridiculous! She wondered how Papa could stay so calm as he read all of the lies.

  “For more information about Daniel’s furniture, write to: Daniel Lapp, Cloverdale Route 2, Whispering Pines, PA.”

  Joseph snorted. “Even the address is wrong!”

  Papa paged through the magazine. “Makes me wonder how much of this entire magazine is true,” he said to no one in particular. He closed the magazine and looked at Lily and Joseph, gathered around his chair. “Bill wrote a lot of lies. We need to forgive him for what he did and pray for him. What I’d like to do is to toss this magazine in the woodstove and burn the article. I’d like to forget that Bill was ever here.” He looked down at it for a long while, then stabbed it a few times with his finger. “But I think we’ll keep it. It will be a good reminder to us whenever we’re tempted to try to grow our business on our own instead of trusting God.”

  6

  Saying Goodbye to Grandpa Lapp

  Sunlight flooded Lily’s room and woke her. She jumped out of bed and crossed the room to open the window. She propped her elbows on the windowsill and rested her chin in her hands, gazing at Mama’s flower bed next to the soft green grass of the yard. It was a beautiful Sunday morning in late August. Tomorrow, a new school term would start. She wondered what it would be like to have a new teacher.

  Mama kept reassuring Lily that the new teacher was very nice, and that Lily would learn to love her just as much as she had loved Teacher Rhoda. Lily wasn’t convinced. She still couldn’t puzzle out why Teacher Rhoda wanted to up and marry Samuel Yoder, Aaron Yoder’s oldest brother. Aaron was the worst boy in the entire world. The very thought of being permanently tied to any Yoder made her shudder. She had wanted to be like Teacher Rhoda in every way but that one. Never that.