Read Online Last Bride, The (Home to Hickory Hollow Book #5) by Beverly Lewis - Free Book Online
Authors: Beverly Lewis
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added.
Tessie and Mandy gasped in unison, and Mandy shook her head.
“ Gut thing the community comes together like this.”
Tessie agreed and was glad to be able to spend a good part of the day setting up the serving tables for more than four hundred men and dozens of younger boys. Some families would come from as far away as Strasburg and Nickel Mines. She quickly settled into the work, enjoying the fun-loving banter and talk among the womenfolk.
“I hear there’s a local Amish farmer who’s raisin’ camels for their milk,” Rebecca Lapp said presently, catching Tessie’s attention.
“Jah, Miller’s Organic Farm is shipping it all over the country,” Rhoda Kurtz answered. “Ten dollars a pint.”
“Guess it tastes like skim milk, only a little saltier,” Rebecca said. “S’posed to be mighty gut for folks with diabetes and other illnesses.”
“Word has it, it’s even helped some of the autistic children round Bird-in-Hand,” Lillianne Hostetler chimed in.
“Well, not so quick,” Rebecca said. “No one’s stating outright that camel’s milk will cure anything. Let’s just be real clear on that.”
Tessie smiled, wondering about all this camel talk as she, Mamma, and Mandy set out three dozen snitz pies. By midafternoon, the new barn would be pretty much closed in, if all went as usual. A good number of folk would stay on till closer to supper, making vents to place in the eaves, and taking time to build grain bins, too. She envisioned sledgehammers and long ropes, chalk lines and measuring tapes, and pry bars. A head carpenter had been appointed days before. The eight-by-eight timbers had already arrived, and sill planks were laid out on the vast foundation. The older men would build the animal stalls inside the towering barn walls, amidst what might seem to an outsider like mass disorder, yet was anything but.
With everything Tessie Ann had to do to help with the meals for the male workers, she didn’t know exactly when she might whisper her startling discovery to Marcus. How might he respond? Still, it was only fair that she told him the probablesource of the lingering tension between him and Dat, even though it would add a new burden to their young marriage.
Perhaps they could take a short walk after the noon meal, right before Marcus returned to his high perch on the barn’s roof. She prayed the Lord might make it possible to do so privately.
———
Marcus paused to wipe his brow with the back of his arm, there high on the rafters. He squinted into the sunlight, thankful for this near-perfect weather. A number of men had commented earlier on it, saying the Lord God had seen fit to give them a fine day to raise this barn. As was usual at such gatherings, the atmosphere was abuzz with the camaraderie of all the workers—men and womenfolk alike.
He scanned the area below, searching for sweet Tessie. And then he spotted her, clear over near the large tent erected off to the left of the field, no doubt helping to spread out the food.
Even at this distance, she was mighty pretty. And more than that, helpful and kind, possessing all the worthy character traits a man would ever desire in a wife. At the thought, he glanced over at Ammon Miller, working several tiers below him. Marcus had high hopes for the Lord’s intervention for a conversation with Tessie’s father, possibly even today.
I trust in Thy will, O Lord, he prayed, watching Ammon hammer nails with the force of a young man. A man with strength in many areas, Marcus thought. A man who surely has his daughter’s best interest at heart.
———
One of Tessie’s Amish neighbors, Maryanna Esh, who owned a greenhouse, was chattering about an old upright piano herelderly aunt had seen at a German Brethren meetinghouse. The young man who’d played it had explained to her that such instruments needed exceptional care. “A gut piano like that reminded my aunt of some people, I guess.” Maryanna continued, “You just
Tessie and Mandy gasped in unison, and Mandy shook her head.
“ Gut thing the community comes together like this.”
Tessie agreed and was glad to be able to spend a good part of the day setting up the serving tables for more than four hundred men and dozens of younger boys. Some families would come from as far away as Strasburg and Nickel Mines. She quickly settled into the work, enjoying the fun-loving banter and talk among the womenfolk.
“I hear there’s a local Amish farmer who’s raisin’ camels for their milk,” Rebecca Lapp said presently, catching Tessie’s attention.
“Jah, Miller’s Organic Farm is shipping it all over the country,” Rhoda Kurtz answered. “Ten dollars a pint.”
“Guess it tastes like skim milk, only a little saltier,” Rebecca said. “S’posed to be mighty gut for folks with diabetes and other illnesses.”
“Word has it, it’s even helped some of the autistic children round Bird-in-Hand,” Lillianne Hostetler chimed in.
“Well, not so quick,” Rebecca said. “No one’s stating outright that camel’s milk will cure anything. Let’s just be real clear on that.”
Tessie smiled, wondering about all this camel talk as she, Mamma, and Mandy set out three dozen snitz pies. By midafternoon, the new barn would be pretty much closed in, if all went as usual. A good number of folk would stay on till closer to supper, making vents to place in the eaves, and taking time to build grain bins, too. She envisioned sledgehammers and long ropes, chalk lines and measuring tapes, and pry bars. A head carpenter had been appointed days before. The eight-by-eight timbers had already arrived, and sill planks were laid out on the vast foundation. The older men would build the animal stalls inside the towering barn walls, amidst what might seem to an outsider like mass disorder, yet was anything but.
With everything Tessie Ann had to do to help with the meals for the male workers, she didn’t know exactly when she might whisper her startling discovery to Marcus. How might he respond? Still, it was only fair that she told him the probablesource of the lingering tension between him and Dat, even though it would add a new burden to their young marriage.
Perhaps they could take a short walk after the noon meal, right before Marcus returned to his high perch on the barn’s roof. She prayed the Lord might make it possible to do so privately.
———
Marcus paused to wipe his brow with the back of his arm, there high on the rafters. He squinted into the sunlight, thankful for this near-perfect weather. A number of men had commented earlier on it, saying the Lord God had seen fit to give them a fine day to raise this barn. As was usual at such gatherings, the atmosphere was abuzz with the camaraderie of all the workers—men and womenfolk alike.
He scanned the area below, searching for sweet Tessie. And then he spotted her, clear over near the large tent erected off to the left of the field, no doubt helping to spread out the food.
Even at this distance, she was mighty pretty. And more than that, helpful and kind, possessing all the worthy character traits a man would ever desire in a wife. At the thought, he glanced over at Ammon Miller, working several tiers below him. Marcus had high hopes for the Lord’s intervention for a conversation with Tessie’s father, possibly even today.
I trust in Thy will, O Lord, he prayed, watching Ammon hammer nails with the force of a young man. A man with strength in many areas, Marcus thought. A man who surely has his daughter’s best interest at heart.
———
One of Tessie’s Amish neighbors, Maryanna Esh, who owned a greenhouse, was chattering about an old upright piano herelderly aunt had seen at a German Brethren meetinghouse. The young man who’d played it had explained to her that such instruments needed exceptional care. “A gut piano like that reminded my aunt of some people, I guess.” Maryanna continued, “You just
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