Read Online The Bluebird and the Sparrow by Janette Oke - Free Book Online Page A

proposal of marriage from her gentleman caller. Nor was she prepared to say that she intended to move out on her own at her earliest opportunity. Instead she said, “Granna isn’t doing well on her own. Uncle John thinks Mama should move in with her.”
    Glenna stared.
    “Why haven’t I been told?” she asked.
    “I hadn’t been told either,” Berta shot back. “Until tonight. Mama told me just before you came in from choring.”
    “So that’s why the silence,” mused Glenna.
    Berta nodded.
    “So we are to stay on here alone?” continued Glenna.
    “No. No—the farm will be sold.”
    “Sold?” Glenna sounded incredulous.
    Berta nodded.
    “But that’s—it was Papa’s pride. He—”
    “It only makes sense,” Berta said. “It’s ridiculous for us to be tending cows and chickens and a team we never use.”
    She moved toward the door again.
    Again Glenna stopped her. “Are we all to live with Granna, then?”
    “Please, Glenna,” said Berta in exasperation. “I don’t have the answers. I don’t even know what Mama is going to decide to do. It all will need to be worked out when—when the time comes.”
    Glenna looked like she was about to cry. She dipped her head quickly and when she looked back up she was biting her lip and blinking her long dark lashes.
    “I hate change,” she whispered. “I hate it. It is so—so unsettling.”
    Berta turned away.
    You have no idea just how unsettling it will be, she thought to herself. But you’ll be the lucky one.
    ————
    At least three times a week Parker came to call. All through the winter months and on into the spring he appeared at their front door, hat in his hand. Three times a week Berta excused herself from the room and went to the kitchen to sew or to her bedroom to read.
    The pain had grown less with the quiet knowledge that what her mama had said was surely true. Parker would one day—soon—be Glenna’s husband. Berta trained herself to think of the young man that way.
    But he still had little ways of unknowingly bringing her sorrow. Like the time he brought her a simple bouquet of fresh spring lilacs. And the time he returned from a trip with a lace-trimmed hankie.
    “I thought maybe you had lost all your others,” he quipped, reminding her of their first introduction.
    Berta flushed.
    Parker was always doing thoughtful little things for their mother as well. He took her for Sunday outings along with Glenna. He offered to take Berta along too, but she always found some reason to be excused.
    And he brought fancy chocolates and colorful cottons for embroidery work and even little jokes and amusing stories that he clipped from newspapers. It would have been hard for Mrs. Berdette to find anything wrong with Parker Oliver.
    “I would like the pleasure of taking my three favorite ladies out for dinner next Saturday night,” Parker announced one Thursday as he was about to take his leave.
    Glenna flushed her pleasure, the deep dimple showing in each cheek.
    Mrs. Berdette looked up from her sewing, her eyes taking on a special shine.
    “That would be lovely. Thank you,” she replied.
    Parker turned his eyes to Berta.
    “I—I’m not sure. I might—”
    “Please,” Parker surprised her by pleading. “I would so much like it to be a family dinner.”
    And you fully intend to put an end to our family, was her unspoken retort.
    “Please, Berta,” begged Glenna, moving up beside her and slipping an arm around her waist. “Please—this once.”
    “I’ll … see,” said Berta.
    That was as close to a promise as she would come.
    ————
    Try as she might, Berta could find no good reason to refuse to accompany the family to the local hotel for dinner. She both looked forward to a night out and dreaded the event.
    He’s going to ask Mama for permission to marry, I just know it, she told herself. Glenna finishes school next month.
    Parker’s buggy drew up to the front hitching rail promptly at six, the agreed time, and the