“I didn’t plant as big a garden this year.” Hildegunn settled herself in the rocker. “Oh, this feels so good.”
“Take off your hat and let the breeze make you more comfortable.” Ingeborg wiped the perspiration away from her neck with the hem of her apron. “I don’t even have cookies to offer. Inga took the last ones home with her.”
“You go ahead and read your letter. I’m just going to sit here and catch my breath.” She took a drink of the shrub. “This is very good. Has a little less vinegar, doesn’t it?”
“I used the last of my vinegar making pickles. I might have to buy some to finish.”
“Oh, I have plenty. Come get some from me.”
Ingeborg slit the envelope open with a knife and pulled out the precious letter. Haakan did not write often, so this treat was doubly rich.
My dear Ingeborg,
I wanted to telephone you so that I could hear your voice, but none of the farmers out here have telephones yet. They say Blessing is taking on airs, trying to become a city with all the fancy innovations we have. And they are right on one hand – as soon as we can get electricity in, we will do so.
Threshing is going well, but there are some spotty areas that didn’t get enough rain, so the harvest is lean. I feel sorry for the farmers caught in that situation.
Everyone is well on our crew. I must admit I am homesick. I was not home long enough between the reservation and threshing. I heard you wondering where the time has gone, and I must agree. Am I slowing down, so it seems to take longer to do things I used to do quickly? Some of the younger men are easing me into the less strenuous jobs, not that there are many of those on a threshing crew. Lars is saying the same as me. Maybe it is time to turn this over to the younger men, but who would that be? Everyone back in town is so busy with the new construction.
If I had my way, I would turn and head back to Blessing tomorrow instead of moving north and west. We are committed for at least another week, possibly more. Another threshing crew has moved into the area, so they might take some of our farms. That is a good thing. Railroad cars are lined up to haul the wheat to the flour mill in Blessing.
Good night and God bless and keep you.
Your Haakan
Ingeborg caught herself blinking at his signature. She sniffed and looked up at Hildegunn. “Sorry for sniffing like this. Reading his letter makes me miss him even more.”
“They are all right? No accidents?”
“He says they are fine. Hard as it is to admit, we aren’t getting any younger.”
“Ingeborg Bjorklund, don’t be silly. You still work rings around the younger women.”
They rocked in silence for a moment.
“This morning I was sewing new shirts for Benny for school,” Hildegunn said, “and I remembered when Penny started carrying the sewing machines in her store and we all had to have one. Mr. Valders always reminds me of that when I am sewing in the evening. He laughs every time.”
Ingeborg folded her letter and put it in the envelope. Mr. Valders laughed? Hildegunn was sitting on the Bjorklund porch, chatting as if they were the best of friends. What kind of miracle had God worked this time?
“They sure put that house up fast for Mr. Landsverk. He and his brother are sleeping there now. So much building going on in Blessing. Don’t you feel like we are a balloon about to burst?”
“I sure hope not. We need to make room for more people to come here. Think back to all those years ago. Who would have dreamed we would grow like this?”
“I said that one day, and Mr. Valders said he saw it coming. Our bank is sound and our people have made wise decisions. That’s what he said.”
“Haakan said that people from as far away as Devil’s Lake are shipping their wheat to our flour mill instead of to Minneapolis. We will need to build more storage.”
“Those words again – ‘need to build more.’ Uff da. I am thinking that those of us who have extra rooms might think about taking in boarders until more housing is finished. We have Gerald’s room. I thought I would bring this up at quilting. I have so missed our meetings this summer. I’m looking forward to next week. When the children go back to school, the ladies go back to quilting.” She pushed herself to her feet. “Takk for taking time for a visit. I’ll see you either at the post office or in church on Sunday. God bless.”
“God bless.” Ingeborg almost hugged her and then thought the better of it. Hildegunn had never been one for hugging. “Thank you for coming out here. I really needed this. Isn’t God amazing to provide us with friends and family?”
“There are some letters in there for Kaaren too.” She waved and sailed on down the lane.
Miracles indeed. Thank you, Lord. Only a week until school starts. Lord, please bring Emmy back to me.
26
“There’s a letter on the table for you,” Elizabeth told Astrid as she joined her sister-in-law on the porch.
“Thanks. Elizabeth, are you feeling all right?”
“Other than being tired at times, yes. If you ask if I’ve regained all my strength, I would have to say no.” Elizabeth sagged into a chair. “And if you suggest I take it any easier, I will be forced to be firm with you. Using muscles builds more muscles. Lying around makes one weaker. There is a fine line between the two, I know. So I am eating the best I can, even though I don’t feel like it at times, and resting when I am weary, and I can tell you that sitting with all those catalogs and pamphlets is wearing me out.”
“So we switch. You take care of more of our patients, and I will work on the hospital planning.”
“Fine. Now go read your letter.”
When Astrid turned to leave, Elizabeth added, “And stop worrying. Worry is a sin. The Bible says so.”
Astrid chuckled as she left the back porch, which had become their second office. The first was upstairs and fine for winter, but not for summer. By this time next year their offices would be in the new hospital. She sat down in another rocker in the parlor and slit open the letter. From Mr. Jeffers. What a nice surprise. She read it through, smiled, and read it again. So Thorliff told him she wouldn’t mind a letter from him. Putting the letter back in the envelope, she thought a bit, tapping the edge of the envelope on the back of her other hand.
“I wonder where that brother of mine is,” she said to the two kittens that lay entwined in the basket by the chair. One cat opened an eye and yawned, showing needle-shaped white teeth and a curled pink tongue, and nestled back to sleep. “You’re no help.”
She got to her feet and headed for the newspaper/construction office behind the stable behind the house. Thorliff sat at his newspaper desk, writing and editing, but looked up when she tapped on the screen door.
“Come on in. You needn’t knock.”
“Well, I hate to bother you. I know how tight your schedule is.”
“Never too tight for family. What’s on your mind?”
“This.” She laid the envelope in front of him.
“Well, I’ll be switched. Daniel did get up the nerve to write.” He grinned up at her. “You didn’t mind, did you?”
“No, of course not. He’s a nice man, and anyone who can put up with you as a partner must be a candidate for sainthood.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“When will he be back?”
“Could be as early as today. He’s been doing well with the orders.
Sounds like our adapter will be real popular, and the orders for the new seeders are coming in too.”
“The building will be finished soon enough to produce the new seeders?”
“It’s going to be tight, but yes.”
“And the hospital?”
“We’ll get the first stage done for the dedication and then work on the rest of the building through the winter. We will have houses in the same condition, weathered in to be finished this winter.”
“I’ll tell him thank you when he returns.”
“Good, and if he asks you to walk with
him, you’ll do that too?”
“Thorliff, are you in league with Sophie?”
“How so?”
“Matchmaking?”
“Nope. I don’t have time for shenanigans like that. Now, I need to finish this up so I can spend the evening with my wife and daughter.”
“For a change. You do know that Inga is out at Mor’s?”
“I do. I’m going out to get her as soon as I’m done here. You want to come along?”
“I do. I’ll be in the surgery.”
“Patients?”
“No. Checking on supplies.” She waved good-bye and returned to the house to begin inventorying supplies in all their cabinets and drawers, making a list of the things that were low as she counted. She could have assigned the job to Thelma, but with all the canning, Thelma hardly took time to sleep as it was. “I should have the nursing students here for this,” she said to herself.
“What did you say?” Elizabeth asked as she came into the room.
“Our students need to learn how to take inventory.”
“You are so right. We’ll invite them tomorrow.”
“Can our Indian ladies count?”
Elizabeth stared at her. “I don’t know, but I will ask Tante Kaaren.
I’ll be right back.” When she returned from the telephone, she said, “One can count to ten, but the other can’t.”
“So we invite them and let them work as a team with Deborah overseeing?”
“Before or after patients?”
“We close at noon.”
Later that afternoon, Astrid saw Mr. Jeffers climbing the steps to the boardinghouse. She’d heard the train whistle but not paid any attention until now. He was back. So all she had to do was thank him for the letter – when she saw him. Do you want to see him? she asked herself. After all, you said no more men after that fiasco with Mr. Landsverk. You are married to your medical practice.
It wasn’t long before the telephone rang the requisite long and a short. Thelma came to the door. “It is for you.”
“A patient?”
“I don’t think so. Mrs. Jeffers.”
“Oh, thank you.” When Astrid put the earpiece to her ear and said hello, a warm chuckle answered her.
“This is Amelia Jeffers, and I was wondering if you would like to join my son and me for supper in the dining room this evening. Had we our own home, it might be more personal, but this will have to do.”
“Of course. I’d be delighted. What time?”
“Say, six o’clock?”
“Very good. I will see you then.” As she returned the earpiece to the prongs, she shook her head. This was a bit strange, but oh well. Perhaps they had invited others too.
“What should I wear?” she asked Elizabeth.
“How about that blue dimity? You hardly ever wear it, and it looks so nice on you.”
“All right, I guess. I wonder why I never wear it.”
“All you ever wear are plain skirts with a light waist, all covered with our aprons. That’s all either of us wears. Even for supper out at your mother’s I neglected to change into something nicer. We need to remedy this.”
“But dressing up takes so much time. Good enough for Sunday church or a party, but that’s about all.”
“If we don’t keep to the fashions for this town, who will?”
“Who cares about fashion anyway?”
But Astrid did freshen up and change her clothes, and she even twisted her long hair into a figure eight at the back of her head, leaving trailing wisps on her forehead. She pinched her cheeks to give them some color and added the necklace with a blue stone that Elizabeth insisted she wear.
“Astrid?” Thorliff stopped and stared at her coming down the stairs.
“Oh, stop that. You know it’s me.”
“You look lovely.”
Elizabeth tucked her arm into his. “She does, doesn’t she?” She nodded. “I was right. We need to make more of an effort around here. Set a good example like Sophie does.”
“Sophie has always enjoyed lovely clothes, even when we were little.”
“Have a good time.” Elizabeth waved.
“It’s not like I’m going to Grand Forks or something. Just down the street.” But Astrid waved back and continued on her way. Both of the Jefferses were sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch of the boardinghouse. They waved as she crossed the street, being careful to keep her skirt hem out of the dust.
“Thank you, dear, for coming on such short notice and an invitation by telephone, no less. My but we are getting lax in the social graces.”
“Funny you should say that. Elizabeth and I were just discussing the same thing. She had to remind me to put a hat on.” Astrid climbed the three steps. “Aren’t porches one of the better inventions?” She turned to Mr. Jeffers. “Welcome home. It sounds like you had a very successful trip.”
He stood and motioned for her to take his chair. “Thank you. No, you sit here, and I’ll pull up another one.”
Mrs. Jeffers leaned across and patted her hand on the arm of the chair. “This is such a pleasure. I don’t know why I haven’t done this before.”
“Perhaps because you believed the edicts regarding proper decorum for grieving widows.” Mr. Jeffers set another chair down and settled into it. “I think that is one of the things I love about Blessing. There is more freedom here. Not so many people trying to tell you what to do because that is the way we have always done it,” he said, mimicking a whiny voice on the last.
Astrid chuckled. “I’ve heard about that, especially when I attended the missionary school in Georgia. Many of the people there could not abide the idea of a young unmarried female doctor going off to Africa as a missionary. Fortunately there were some who felt that God will use anyone He wants as He wants.”
“But you didn’t go to Africa?”
“No. Dr. Elizabeth nearly died with her last baby, and I understood God to say I could come home. I didn’t really want to go to Africa, but if He was calling me there, I would go.”
“You are an adventuresome young woman.”
Astrid leaned forward. “I just want to do what God wants me to do. Sometimes I seem to lean on the hard-of-listening side.”
“Listening?” Mr. Jeffers raised an eyebrow.
Astrid looked at him with a slight smile. “I know I have good hearing, so it must be listening that is the problem.”
“Hearing the voice of God takes one deeper. When my husband disappeared, I felt like God had left also. But I made myself listen harder, read the Word, search for what He said He will do. And the comfort came. Not in a rush like I wanted, but it came trickling in, surprising me in small ways and helping me to sleep better. I was certain my Daniel was safe in God’s hands. Learning he was gone and not suffering somewhere was a relief. And then I came here.”
“And I’m so glad you did. Thank you.” Astrid pushed with her foot to set the chair to rocking. “I so appreciate your teaching my nurses how to speak English. It seems to have lightened their fears, so they smile and laugh more. At first I was afraid I had made a mistake in bringing them here, but now I know it was right.”
“Our construction crew is the same way. The men can laugh at their mistakes in speaking, fall back into their native tongue, and try again. Thorliff is so good because he can speak Norwegian to some of them. And Mr. Geddick takes care of the others. Poor Boris Sidorov. He struggles on alone, but I give him credit. He is a good carpenter and uses what new words he has.”
“I think we should go in to eat now,” Mrs. Jeffers said. “They’ve most likely served the majority of the people.”
Mr. Jeffers held the door for them both and escorted them into the dining room to a table set apart with a small vase of flowers in the middle.
“Isn’t this lovely?” Mrs. Jeffers turned to Astrid. “I asked for flowers. I miss my garden so. That is one thing I am looking forward to once I’m in my own house again.”
“If you wanted to go out and p
utter in the garden behind the boardinghouse, I know that Sophie would be delighted. She wants her guests to feel at home, and if that will help you, so be it.”
“She wouldn’t be offended? Not Mrs. Sam either?”
“No. Most people in Blessing are not easily offended. I think it goes back to that freedom we were talking about. You could come over to the yard around the surgery too or go out to my mor’s. We all love to share both the bounty and the beauty.” She smiled up at Mr. Jeffers as he helped seat her. “Thank you.”
“Thank you.” His emphasis on the you made her heart trip.
Her slight laugh covered a bit of discomfort. What was going on? Surely she wasn’t attracted to this man.
“Good evening,” Miss Christopherson said as she stopped at their table. “I hope you’ve had a pleasant day. Welcome back, Mr. Jeffers.”
“It’s good to be back,” Mr. Jeffers said.
“Good evening, Miss Christopherson. I would like something cold to drink to start with.”
“We have milk, buttermilk, raspberry swizzle, and lemonade.” As they all placed their orders, Astrid kept herself from looking across the table at Daniel Jeffers. “I received your letter today,” she told him when Miss Christopherson left.
“I’m sorry it didn’t arrive sooner. I carried it in my pocket for two days before finding a post office.”
“That’s quite all right. I really wasn’t expecting to receive it.”
Mrs. Jeffers picked up the vase and smelled the flowers. Daisies, delphinium, and baby’s breath. “Isn’t this lovely,” she commented as she replaced the flowers in the middle of the table. “At home I had flowers in every room through the summer months. In winter I used pine boughs and fir with dried birch branches and sometimes holly berries. I always watched for the pussy willows to announce that spring was on its way. One year I saw an ad for a curly willow. From then on I had willow branches with plenty of personality. I wonder if that will grow here.”
“Wild willow does. We use the dried bark for several different medications. Mor gathers the bark during the summer, then once it dries, pulverizes it for her collection. It tastes bitter, so we add honey for our patients.”
A Heart for Home Page 23