Life with Lily (10 page)

Day after day, the children worked on the cabins until Isaac decided they were complete. They didn't really look like log cabins to Lily. There seemed to be more cracks than logs in the walls of the cabin. The roof was made out of wild grapevines. Lily could see the sunlight through the grapevines, but she decided it would still be fun to play in the cabin. As long as it wasn't raining or snowing.

Lily helped the other girls gather stones to make a round fire pit. They would pretend to cook food over the fire pit. The boys made funny little bows and arrows with sticks and twine. The arrows only flew for a few feet, but the boys thought they were expert marksmen. They would pretend to go hunting for food while the girls stayed in the cabins to cook and clean.

The boys returned with skunk cabbage leaves. Pee-yew! Lily could see how the cabbage got its name—the leaves smelled like skunk. As Lily and her friends tore the cabbage into pieces for pretend salad, she almost gagged. She was glad they wouldn't have to eat it.

Playing pioneers became everyone's favorite game. It helped to make the school day go faster. At recess, they rushed from
the schoolhouse to the cabins to play. Lily thought she would never get tired of it, though the weather was starting to change. Her nose was red. Her hands were cold. She had to clap them to stay warm. Soon it would be winter. The thought made her sad. They wouldn't be able to have recess and lunch outside very often during cold winter days.

Then the day came when Mandy Mast announced that playing pioneers wasn't fun anymore. “It's getting too cold,” she said. “Every day, we do the same thing. I'm tired of it! I want to play something else.” She sat in the cabin, sulking.

Mandy had a point, Lily thought. It was chilly. Lily's breath came out in puffs of white. The other children wanted to keep playing, so Mandy was overruled. She joined in with the others, but with a sour look on her face. “Maybe if we could only build a real fire, it would be more fun,” she said. “That way, at least we could be warm.”

The next day, during the first recess, Mandy pulled Lily away from the other little girls. “Look what I brought,” she said. She glanced around to make sure no one could hear. She opened her coat and drew a box of wooden matches out of her coat pocket.

Lily was shocked. “But we're not allowed to play with matches until we're much older!”

“Don't be such a scaredy-cat.” Mandy dismissed Lily with a wave of her hand. “I light matches all the time and nothing ever happens. Besides, in many important ways, I'm practically ten.” Mandy was only six, just like Lily.

For the first time, Lily was glad to hear Teacher Katie ring the bell. It was time to go back to the schoolhouse. She hoped Mandy would forget about her matches before lunch's recess.

After the little girls ate their lunch, Hannah decided they needed a fresh supply of cattails. Everyone ran to the edge of
the swamp to gather more cattails. Lily filled her arms with cattails, and suddenly realized that Mandy hadn't come to the swamp with the girls. She caught a whiff of smoke in the air.
Oh no!
Lily dropped the cattails and ran to the cabin as fast as she could. As Lily saw the cabin, she could see little wisps of smoke curling out of the holes in the walls and roof.

Lily stopped abruptly at the cabin door. “Mandy, put out that fire!”

Mandy didn't pay any attention to her. She kept heaping more dry grass and twigs on the little fire, like kindling. The flames snapped and popped and crackled, licking at the grass. Large sparks flew up into the air. Mandy kept feeding the fire with more grass and sticks.

Lily didn't know what to do! The girls were down by the swamp gathering pretend food. The boys were out pretend hunting. She wished Isaac were here. He would know what to do.

Lily heard the girls' voices, coming up from the swamp with their arms filled with cattails. She ran to them. “There's a fire at the cabin! Come quick!”

The girls followed her back to the cabin. Now Mandy stood outside of the cabin. Even she looked worried. The fire had grown much bigger. The walls of the cabin were smoldering.

Lily saw the boys returning. A great shout went up from the boys when they caught sight of the fire. Isaac took off his coat and started to beat the flames. The other boys tried to help him, but the fire was too big. It seemed to be growing bigger every minute. Their coats were scorched and had little holes burned in them.

The boys started yelling, “Fire! Fire!” and the girls joined in. Uncle Elmer's field was next to the schoolhouse. He heard the children's shouts and came running through the woods. He saw the fire and told the children to get to the
schoolhouse while he ran to the phone shanty to call the fire department.

Reluctantly, the children walked back to the schoolhouse. The big boys were covered with black smudges. Their coats were ruined. Even Mandy was very quiet. Lily wondered what Teacher Katie would have to say.

This was not good. It wasn't good at all.

They had barely reached the schoolhouse when Lily heard the fire whistle in town. Soon, the siren sounded from the fire trucks, closer and closer. The children stood outside the schoolhouse and watched as the fire trucks drove right through the school yard and up to the fence. A police car followed. Uncle Elmer cut the wire fence so the firemen could drive through to get closer to the fire. Firemen jumped out and grabbed hoses from the side of the truck. They ran toward the fire. Soon the dark clouds of smoke turned white, then became smaller and smaller, until the fire was put out.

The firemen waited until they were confident the fire was out, then they drove the fire trucks out of the woods. The policeman came over to the children and asked if they knew how the fire started. Lily looked at Mandy. Mandy's eyes were fixed on her shoes. Lily was afraid the policeman would take all of them off to jail in his police car. She didn't want to go to jail. She nudged Mandy with her elbow. Mandy refused to look at her. The policeman stared with suspicion at them all, especially Lily. Her heart was pounding.
Ba bump! Ba bump! Ba bump!
She was sure the policeman heard her thumping heart.

The policeman talked to all of them of how important it was to never play with matches. He gave them a very long lecture, grazing Lily with his spectacled gaze. He told all kinds of stories about how fires can get out of control very quickly. When he finally ran out of frightening stories and
severe warnings, he got into his police car and drove off. Lily was so relieved! Jail seemed like a horrible place and she didn't want anyone to go to jail. Not even Mandy.

Then it was Teacher Katie's turn to lecture. Her face twisted into an angry scowl as her caterpillar eyebrows formed one long line—never a good sign. Her eyes closed to a pair of dangerous slits. She gave them a lengthy scolding about the dangers of fire, and ended it by having every scholar write: “I will not play with matches.” One hundred times.

Lily's hand started to ache after writing only ten lines. She didn't think it was fair that they all had to be punished. It was Mandy's fault! And Mandy didn't seem to mind one little bit that everyone was in trouble. In fact, she looked happy.

The next day, the children went out to the woods. The cabins were only charred pieces of wood. There was a big black area where the fire had been. Lily looked up and saw a few snow flurries drift slowly from the sky. A flock of geese honked overhead. They were in a hurry to go south. The cabins were gone, the snow was coming. Playing pioneers was over.

W
inter had arrived. The days were growing shorter, and frost was crawling up on the windows at night. Soon, the snow would come. The creeks and pond would freeze. Mama's garden was already brown and withered. She had worked hard to can the fruits and vegetables she had grown all summer long. Lily loved to go down to the basement with Mama and see the colorful jars of peaches and cherries and applesauce and green beans and corn, all lined up on shelves Papa had built. Lily thought the beautiful food in the jars looked as pretty as a rainbow.

One chilly morning, Papa circled an advertisement in the newspaper. “Someone is selling a miniature horse,” he said, folding up the paper. His eyes were twinkling. “I'm thinking of taking a look at it. It would be nice to have a horse for the children.”

“Is there enough room in the barn for another animal?” Mama asked.

“We'll be butchering the pigs before long,” Papa said. “We could keep it in their pen. I'll stop on the way home from work tomorrow. If the horse looks like a good buy, I'll ask if they could keep it until we have some room in the barn.”

Lily hoped Papa would like the miniature horse. It would be nice to have a horse even smaller than a pony. It would be just her size.

The next evening, Papa came home with a broad smile. He had bought the miniature horse! The man had given him a little cart and harness too. In just a few weeks, Papa said, they could bring the horse to Singing Tree Farm.

Lily thought a few weeks' wait seemed like a very long time. She wanted the miniature horse to come home right away. “What does he look like, Papa?”

“He's somewhere between two and three feet tall. He's coal black and a little chubby.” Papa chuckled. “So they named him Chubby.”

Chubby. What a fine name for a little tiny horse. Lily hoped Papa and Mama wouldn't want to change it.

Finally, the day came when Chubby would come to Singing Tree Farm. On a Saturday morning, as Lily and Joseph helped Mama do the cleaning, Papa hired someone with a cattle trailer to deliver Chubby. When the trailer turned into the driveway, Mama helped the children into their thick winter coats. Then they hurried out to the barn.

Papa was in the pen with Chubby, currying him and talking gently to him. “Well, what do you think of this little guy?”

Lily wasn't sure what to say. Chubby was so small. Why, he was even smaller than Joseph! “Can I pet him?”

“Sure,” Papa said. “Hop in the pen. Chubby is very tame. He likes little children.”

Lily climbed over the side of the pen and hopped on the soft straw. She started to pet Chubby. He was much more wooly than Jim. It seemed funny to be able to look down into a horse's face, instead of up.

“I put the cart over by the buggies. Let's take a look at it.” Papa swung the door of Chubby's pen open and held out his hand for Lily. They walked over to look at the cart. It was just as tiny as Chubby. Just the right size for her and Joseph.

“Can I drive Chubby this afternoon?” Lily asked.

“Not yet,” Papa said. “I want to be sure he is safe for you to drive. I'm the only one who will be driving him for a while.”

Every evening, Papa hitched Chubby to the little cart and drove down the road. Every evening, Lily wished she could drive Chubby by herself. She wouldn't go out on the road, but it would be fun to drive him around the barnyard. When spring came, she would drive Chubby all over the yard and in the pasture. And when her friends came to visit, she would give them rides too.

Later that week, Lily watched Papa drive Chubby down the road. She stood at the window to watch for Papa to return, but it was taking much longer than usual. Finally, she saw Harold Young's station wagon drive up to the house with Papa in the passenger seat. Papa jumped out and hurried to the house. Where was his hat?

By the time Papa reached the porch, Mama held the door open for him. “Whatever happened, Daniel?”

Papa was shivering and dripping wet, head to toe. His teeth chattered. “Let me get into some dry clothes and I'll tell you all about it.” He bolted up the stairs to change. “And some hot chocolate would be nice too,” he added over his shoulder.

Papa left a trail of water drops everywhere he walked in the house. Lily ran to get a rag to wipe up the mess. Mama heated some milk on the stove for Papa. Lily found the can that held the hot chocolate powder. She carefully spooned several tablespoons into a mug, just the way that Papa liked it.

Papa drew a chair next to the stove to warm up. He sipped at the hot chocolate as he told them what had happened. “I was driving down the road when Chubby decided he wanted to turn right into the Youngs' house. I pulled on the reins to try to get him to turn back out on the road, but he kept going. The next thing I knew we were both in the creek that ran alongside the Youngs' property. My hat popped right off my head when I hit that cold water and went floating down the creek. I didn't have time to worry about it, though. I got up right away and tried to help Chubby. He is so small that he had to tip his head up as far as he could to keep his nose above water. I unhitched him and tried to drag him out. Even though he's small, he was too heavy for me to get him out by myself. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I didn't want Chubby to drown. Thankfully, Harold Young came home about then and saw us floundering there in his creek. He helped me get Chubby out and offered to let the horse warm up in his garage. He brought me home so I could get out of those wet clothes.” He finished his last sip of hot chocolate so Mama hurried to refill the mug. “The cart is still in the creek. I hate to think of getting back into that cold water to drag it out, but I don't want to leave it there until spring.”

Lily shivered. She was glad Papa and Chubby weren't hurt. And she was pleasantly surprised that Harold Young would allow Chubby to stay in his garage to warm up.

Later that evening, Harold Young stopped by the farmhouse
to say that Chubby was nice and dry. “He's as fluffy as a teddy bear by now,” he said in his gruff way.

Papa went out to the barn to get a halter and rope. He would go back to the Youngs', pull the cart out of the cold creek, and lead Chubby home.

That month, Papa spent a great deal of time training Chubby until he was confident that the horse would behave safely for Lily and Joseph.

One Saturday afternoon, Papa came in the house. “Get
your coat, Lily, and come outside. I have Chubby hitched up for you to drive.”

Lily pulled on her coat and scarf. She skipped out the door beside Papa. She would finally be able to drive Chubby! Lily had to bite on her lip to not laugh out loud when she saw that Papa had hitched Chubby to her pink sled instead of the cart. She hoped Chubby thought it was a cart. He might be embarrassed if he knew he was pulling a pink sled. Papa helped her get situated on the sled and handed her the reins.

“Don't make him trot today,” he said. “I want you to get used to driving him. Only walk him for now. There will be plenty of time to go faster.”

Lily sat on the sled, held the reins, and then clucked to Chubby just the way Papa always did to Jim. Chubby started walking slowly around the barnyard. She pulled on the right rein and Chubby turned right. If she pulled on the left rein, he would turn left. Lily drove around and around the barnyard. This was fun! Getting pulled on her sled was so much better than dragging it all the way up a hill only to have a short ride down. Now she didn't have to pull the sled anywhere. Chubby could do that for her.

And as soon as spring would come, she could give Joseph a ride on the cart that Harold Young had helped Papa pull out of the creek. She hoped that Hannah and Levi would come over often to play. Then she could take them on rides with Chubby too.

She might even offer Mandy Mast a pony cart ride. Maybe not.