A Promise for Ellie (13 page)

“You think Onkel Olaf will buy us ice cream for sure?”

Ellie smiled and nodded. He’d been the one to suggest they drop in at the building where he had his furniture shop. “Let’s hurry and get the lamps done. I have a real hankering for ice cream.”

Together the two picked up lamps as they made their way to the kitchen, where Goodie sat in the rocking chair, her Bible on her lap.

“The lamp brigade is here.” Ellie set her two on the table.

“Out on the back porch would be a good place to do that. It’s cooler than in here.” Goodie closed the book, stroking the leather cover with a loving hand.

“Good idea. We’ll use the washing bench.” Ellie picked up the lamps again and backed her way out the screen door, holding it for Rachel. “I’ll get the wash pan set up while you bring out more lamps.”

Rachel nodded and ambled back inside, whistling as she went.

“Whistling girls and crowing hens always come to two bad ends,” Goodie intoned.

“Yes, ma’am.” The music stopped, but Ellie knew the admonition never did more than cause a pause in the whistle. Rachel would just wait until she was out of earshot.

“I don’t know what I am going to do without you here to help,” Goodie said when Ellie returned to the kitchen.

Ellie nodded. She’d heard the words so often one would think they would fail to wound by now, but that wasn’t the case. Since the wedding wouldn’t be until fall, perhaps she should stay home to help. Not that Grafton was home, but it was where her mother lived. The thought of not seeing Andrew for several months made her toes clinch.

“But I have agreed to work for Penny so that I can take care of my garden and help with building the house.”

“I know that. Don’t pay any attention to my wishing.” Goodie rose and placed the Bible on the shelf away from Arne’s busy fingers then returned to the rocker.

“I wish Onkel Olaf would move back to Blessing,” Rachel said on her way to get more lamps.

While her mother said nothing, Ellie knew she wished the same thing. But Olaf had found a ready market for his furniture in Grafton. People were coming to him from Grand Forks, and he’d even had some orders from Fargo, many miles to the south. Thanks to the railroad system, he sent his beautiful furniture far away and was developing a solid reputation. He now had four men working for him and was looking for another. Ellie had seen him talking to George Mc-Bride, a young man from Kaaren’s school for the deaf who had worked for him before in Blessing. Olaf had trained several young men from the school in the craft of woodworking.

Ellie knelt by her mother’s rocker. “If I didn’t love Andrew so much, I would stay with you. You know that.”

“I do.” Goodie cupped her daughter’s cheek with her hand. “First Hans left us for college and now you are leaving. I know that’s the way of life but a mother always hopes her children will live close by. You will make a fine wife for that young man and he will make you a fine husband. A mother can hope for no more.” She patted Ellie’s shoulder as Rachel returned with another lamp. “Forgive me. I am feeling sorry for myself today. Uff da.What would Ingeborg say if she heard me carrying on like this?”

“She’d say let’s sit down and have a cup of coffee and a good visit.”

Goodie smiled and nodded. “That she would, and then she’d bring out the cheese to have with bread. Ah, I am so thankful for the many times she and I sat to visit.”

“Or more likely visited while you both kept on working. I don’t remember seeing the two of you sitting very often.” Ellie pushed herself to her feet. “If I don’t get moving, I might lose my helper. The boys wanted her to go fishing, but I bribed her with the promise of ice cream.”

Goodie flinched as she rose to check on the cake baking in the oven.

“Ma, are you all right?”

“I’ll be fine, dear. I best buy some liniment. I do wish I’d mentioned it to Ingeborg when I was there.”

Ellie nodded and dipped water out of the reservoir into a pan where she shredded soap to make suds. Taking the pan, dishcloth, and clean towels outside, she set up for the washing. Adding a pan of clean water with vinegar for rinsing, she set the kerosene can on the bench too.

“Bring the scissors,” she said to Rachel when she placed the last of the lamps on the bench.

“Where are they?”

“Hanging on a string behind the stove, where they always are, I imagine.”

“No they’re not. I looked.”

“Oh, bother. I wonder who used them last.” The rule was “Always return the scissors to the hook” along with “Put back in its proper place anything you took out.” Goodie trained her family well in keeping things in good order.

“I’ll ask Tante Goodie.” Rachel darted through the door, leaving Ellie to set the lamp chimneys in the pan to soak.

With the chimneys removed, Ellie unscrewed the metal cap that held the wick, pulling the wick out at the same time. Once they were all disassembled, she poured kerosene into each lamp base, filling each to the base of the metal wick holder.

The door slammed open. “I found the scissors.”

“Where?”

“With your writing things on your chest of drawers.”

“Oops. Sorry.” She’d been cutting out an article from the newspaper to put in her letter to Andrew.

“Always put the scissors—”

“Back on their hook. I know.”

The air of superciliousness that surrounded her cousin made both of them smile.

“You want to trim the wicks?”

“Sure.” Rachel picked up one of the metal pieces, inserted the wick into the neck of the lamp, and screwed the metal in place. Then, turning the metal screw, she cranked the wick high enough to trim. Cutting off all the black, she glanced to Ellie for approval, then adjusted the wick so about an eighth of an inch showed above the slot.

“Very good. You want to wash or dry?”

“Neither. I’ll trim.”

“I’ll wash and rinse. You polish.”

Chatting about a book they’d been reading, the two worked as a team until all the lamps were gleaming and returned to their places.

“Now, doesn’t that feel like we accomplished something necessary? A good feeling?”

Rachel shook her head and rolled her eyes. “They’ll just get smoky again.”

“And use up the kerosene, I know. But still, for right now they look very nice.”

“Let’s go get ice cream, like you promised, before Mor—er, Tante Goodie says it is too close to dinner.”

“It’s okay. You can call her Mor,” Ellie whispered.

Rachel nodded and wrapped her arms around Ellie’s waist.

Ellie kissed the top of her head. “All right. Let’s get the mail.” Within moments they were out the front gate and on their way uptown, all without Arne, who’d been digging in the backyard, none the wiser.While Arne loved ice cream, they almost always had to give him a bath afterward. Neatness did not count, as far as he was concerned.

Ellie kept her letter to Andrew in her apron pocket, where her fingers could sneak in to caress the stiff paper. Such a flimsy tie to the other half of her heart.

In a week she would be leaving. This might be the last time she and Rachel would walk uptown like this. When she came back again, she would be a visitor. The thought stopped her like she’d hit a wall.

“What’s the matter?” Rachel asked.

“Nothing. I just had a strange thought.” She half trapped a sigh and smiled back at her cousin’s questioning look.
So enjoy every
moment before you leave
. While that was good advice, it wasn’t easy to do. Regret lent everything a shadow.

Admiring the furniture her pa had made for her at his shop and answering greetings from others at the post office took longer than they had expected, so by the time the girls got their ice cream, they needed to hurry home to help with dinner.

Eating an ice cream cone and walking at the same time was not difficult, unless one let her mind wander off to the last time she’d had ice cream with Andrew. Ellie stumbled over a root in the path and, but for a convenient tree trunk, might have taken a header.

Rachel licked around her cone. “You should pay attention.”

“Thanks for the advice.” The two grinned at each other and kept on walking.

The letter from Andrew burned a hole in her pocket.

“Onkel said he’d be a few minutes late,” Rachel announced when they walked in the door.

“Thank you. Please set the table, and Ellie, could you slice the bread?”

Ellie couldn’t get away until later in the afternoon when she stole out to the swing attached to a huge limb of an oak tree in the backyard. Olaf had put up the swing with a wooden board for a seat not long after they moved to the house in Grafton, not long after Rachel came to live with them.

Ellie sat down and, using her fingernail, opened the envelope and withdrew the single sheet. While Andrew was a faithful letter writer, he never used more than one page.

Dearest Ellie,

She paused and reread the greeting.
Dearest Ellie
. What a beautiful thing to say. She sighed, a slight smile teasing the side of her mouth.
Dearest Andrew
. Soon she could say that to him in person. She continued reading.

This has to be fast, but even though I said good-bye to you yesterday, I wanted you to get a letter. Our house will be shipped in two weeks, so once the barn is up, we should be able to begin setting up the house. I’m not sure how many wagon trips it will take to move all the pieces to our land.

Our land, our land
. Hers and Andrew’s but not really. Not hers until after the wedding, but still, it made her feel closer to him.

We started laying the stones for the foundation for the barn. Even Thorliff came over yesterday to help. Astrid has been helping at their house and some at the store too. Far finally agreed to buy a few more cows, but now Mor must find some to buy. He has no time for buying cows right now. I think Far is right in waiting until more of our own heifers come in, but perhaps there are none to buy. No one in Blessing has any for sale, and everyone sells all their extra cream and milk to the cheese house anyway.

Trygve is keeping us all in rabbit meat with his snares. I remember when that was my job. Soon he’ll pass that on to Samuel.

Elizabeth is back to work in her surgery, but Mor is still taking care of anyone who can’t come to the office. She went out to birth a baby again last night.

We sold a few of the bigger shoats, but with the two younger litters we will have plenty to butcher come fall. Next year we’ll have our own smokehouse, along with a cellar.

Sometimes I stand in a spot between where our house and barn will be and close my eyes so I can see it all. I’m thinking I want the barn red, but I know you said white with green trim would be good. We’ll have to talk about that. Oh, I forgot to tell you. We will have the barn raising this Saturday and Sunday. We won’t get it finished, but we’ll have a good head start. I wish you could be here for that.

Ellie laid the sheet of paper in her lap. Why was she struggling so much with leaving her family? Did all young women have this struggle, or was she unique?
Heavenly Father, what am I to do? I
want to be with Andrew, but I feel I am needed here.

F
IFTEEN MEN, INCLUDING A FEW BOYS,
showed up.

“Andrew, if you don’t mind, I’ll lay out the jobs and such.” Haakan kept his voice low, for his son’s ears alone.

“I was hoping you would. You’re the best builder around.” Andrew knew Haakan’s reputation and counted on his expertise to make sure the buildings were tight and sound. And up as fast as possible.

Onkel Hjelmer, who had just returned from Bismarck, clapped him on the back. “It is still a surprise to me that you are already old enough to be building a house and barn, let alone thinking of getting married.”

“He’s been thinking of that since the day he first laid eyes on Ellie.” Thorliff picked up a hammer and slid the handle between belt and pants. “Got any extra leather gloves? I have a bad case of summer hands. Writing and even running that old press don’t bring up the kind of callouses you all have. You better give some to Hjelmer too.”

“See there, young man, are you making disparaging remarks regarding what I do?” Hjelmer’s Bjorklund blue eyes twinkled, and a grin wiggled his mustache.