[Home To Blessing 01] - A Measure of Mercy

by Lauraine Snelling

  Since there was nothing else on her schedule until after dinner, she returned to her room to find a letter on her pillow. From Mor. Astrid ripped open the envelope and scanned the page. She had agreed to take Benny until Rebecca and Gerald had a house without stairs, and then he would go to live with them.

  Astrid read about Emaline, who still had not said a word but never left Mor’s side.

  She has the most expressive eyes. And she loves to play with the cat. She laughs, so we know her vocal cords work. She and Inga have become great friends, and Inga talks for both of them. No one here is at all surprised at that.

  Let us know when we can come for Benny.

  Love from your Mor

  One good thing to compensate for the one bad. Astrid clutched the letter to her chest. If only she could take Benny to Blessing in time for Christmas. A wave of homesickness rolled over her, and she found herself sitting on the bed. Almost halfway there.

  27

  BLESSING, NORTHDAKOTA

  What a discussion we have going now.

  Ingeborg glanced over to see that Kaaren was praying. While her eyes were open to keep track of things, her mind was definitely elsewhere.

  “Ladies, ladies.” Mary Martha Solberg raised her hands, in supplication or for quiet, Ingeborg wasn’t sure which. Why had Astrid sent the letter to Mrs. Solberg rather than to her or Kaaren? Thinking on it, she figured it out. Her daughter was trying to keep her mother and her aunt out of the middle.

  “As if we don’t give enough already!” Mrs. Valders glared around the room, her glower resting on Ingeborg. “Your daughter must have no idea how much we already do for those less fortunate and have done for years.”

  Ingeborg started to respond but kept quiet when she caught Mary Martha’s slight headshake. The emphasis on your daughtermade Astrid sound like something newly crawled out of a muddy ditch.

  “We do have a lot here,” Mrs. Magron offered. “God really has blessed us all.”

  Ingeborg mentally applauded the usually meek woman who had always followed Hildegunn’s leading. Well, not so much lately, come to think of it. Thinking back to other quilting sessions, she’d been a dissenter more than once.

  Hildegunn glared at her followers. Mrs. Veiglun and Mrs. Odell could be depended on to agree with her.

  “Ladies.” Mary Martha stood and spoke more firmly. “We have received a perfectly legitimate appeal for assistance. And from someone who could be our window to the world. I think we need to prayerfully consider her request.”

  Dr. Elizabeth leaned forward. “Perhaps I could add something to this?”

  Mary Martha nodded and sat down.

  “Astrid and I have been dreaming of creating an outreach medical arm, sort of like a traveling clinic, where one of us would visit small towns that have no medical help. We had talked about including our local reservation. Since the Indians do not bring their ill and wounded to us, we feel we should go to them. They are part of God’s family too. We are in discussion with the hospital in Chicago as to the building and staffing of our hospital here and provisioning such an outreach.”

  Ingeborg watched how the doctor’s speech was affecting the others in the room. These were good-hearted people who would do the right thing, given some thinking time and proper leadership. Some just reacted more quickly and vociferously than the others. Now if she could control her own desire to go nose to nose with Hildegunn . . . Remember how polite and cheerful she has been to you lately, a little voice whispered.

  Pastor’s lessons on forgiveness had been hitting Ingeborg in the heart region. Squirming was not a good feeling. How much easier it was to point fingers at others and not look inside herself.

  No one seemed to want to look at the others. Instead they studied fingers, handkerchiefs, a spot on a skirt, anything but look up.

  Mary Martha looked to Kaaren. “I think we should table this discussion and do some thinking and praying on it. Kaaren, if you will read to us as soon as we get settled into our duties. If anyone has a request for today, let her know.” She glanced around the group. “We have the wedding ring quilt for Gus and Maydell on the stretcher to be quilted; that is our most critical project today. We have a wool top ready to be put together. We’ll tie that one, and I know Ingeborg has a child-sized quilt that she has been working on for Emaline. Are there any other projects nearing completion that I am not aware of?”

  Mrs. Geddick raised her hand. “I have the pieces cut for a three-inch nine patch, using plain blue squares in between. I am trying to make a quilt for each of my sons, for when they have their own homes.”

  “How many sewing machines do we have today?” Mary Martha asked. She counted the hands. “Three. Good. I put the flatirons on the stove to heat. Let’s begin with prayer.” She waited until all heads were bowed. “Heavenly Father, we gather here in your name to do your work, to care for each other, and to draw closer to you. We thank you for giving us a reprieve from the coming winter, for snug homes, and for an abundance of food on our tables and in our larders. Thank you for your great love for us and help us to spread that love around. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”

  Like a flock of birds, they all rose, laughing and twittering, choosing where to start and settling down again in their appropriate places. Eight women surrounded the stretcher for the wedding ring quilt. Ingeborg took charge of the ironing board. Penny and Kaaren took two machines, Mrs. Geddick the other. Rebecca and Sophie, scissors in hand, took over the cutting table.

  “Where’s Emmy?” Sophie asked Ingeborg.

  “Helping Haakan.” It hadn’t taken long for Emaline to be shortened to Emmy.

  “I’m surprised she let you out of her sight.”

  “Thorliff took Inga out there too,” Dr. Elizabeth added. “She thought having a day with Bestefar would be better than coming here.”

  Ellie glanced over to where the small children were playing, with Addy Geddick, Mrs. Geddick’s daughter, supervising. “If I’d sent Carl over there, they would have had a real party.”

  “You should have all brought them to my house, but with Deborah working days, Garth’s sister Helga already has her hands full.”

  “Why doesn’t she come to quilters?”

  “She says she doesn’t like to sew and would rather I got to go for a change.” Sophie grinned. “Now if that’s not the best kind of sister-in- law to have.” She turned to Ellie. “Your little May looks more like you every day. I sure wish your mother could come more often. She must miss seeing the little ones something fierce.”

  Kaaren took her Bible and flipped it open. She raised her voice. “I’m reading from Psalms to start today. Since we are so near to Thanksgiving time I thought to start with Psalm 150.” She ended with “ ‘Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.’ ”

  “Sometimes it is easier to complain than to praise Him, I think.” Penny stuck her finger in her mouth to keep the blood from a needle prick from staining the pieces.

  “What if we all agreed to write down five things to be thankful for every day, and on Thanksgiving Day we put the lists in the offering plate?” Mary Martha looked to Ingeborg for her agreement.

  “Five every day?” Sophie’s voice squeaked on the words.

  “We could make it ten.” Kaaren rolled her lips to keep from laughing at the look on her daughter’s face.

  Hildegunn nodded. “What a good idea.”

  “Who’s going to read them?”

  “Why does anyone have to read them? They are an offering to God from each one of us.” Penny mentally counted. “We have twelve days. Surely we can manage this for twelve days.”

  “Do they have to be different every day?” Ellie asked. “I haven’t even had time to write to Astrid, let alone to read. Good thing Andrew reads to me every evening.”

  Ingeborg smiled at her daughter-in-law. How good to know that her son was following in his family’s footsteps. She loved it when Haakan read to her while she sat sewing or knitting. The box she
kept for Christmas presents was filling fast, but it was a good thing she had started so early. This quilt for Emmy was not bed size but cuddle size, so she would have something of her own.

  Ellie turned to Ingeborg. “Don’t go making a doll for Emmy for Christmas. I have one about finished. I gave the doll a tan face and dark hair so she’d look more like her.”

  “What a good idea. I wonder if rag dolls might be something else we could put in the barrels for the reservation children.”

  A harrumph came from the quilting frame group.

  ———

  WHEN KAAREN AND Ingeborg got home from the quilting, Emmy flew across the floor and threw herself into Ingeborg’s arms. She raised a beaming face, her eyes dancing. “Did you have a good time?” Ingeborg asked.

  “Emmy likes for Grandpa to give her cookies,” Inga informed them as she made sure she got her hugs too. “So does Carl.”

  “And you don’t care for cookies?” Kaaren asked, passing around hugs too.

  Inga looked at her, wide-eyed in disbelief. “I gave out the cookies. Grandpa said so.”

  Ingeborg looked over at Haakan sitting at the table, coffee cup in front of him and another plate of cookies on the table. “Did you have dinner?” she asked Inga.

  The child nodded. “No one even spilled.”

  The thought of Haakan getting the two children up to the table and serving soup with bread and a glass of milk made her give her husband a raised-eyebrows look. While she had left the soup kettle on the stove and sliced the bread, she knew that getting the two taken care of at the same time took some doing.

  “Inga helped,” he said with a smile.

  “Pa came too,” Inga said, gazing up at her grandmother. “But then he left.”

  “After dinner?”

  She nodded.

  Kaaren burst out laughing. “Oh, Haakan, and here we were feeling sorry for you. I should have known better.”

  “Thorliff delivered the newspaper and stayed for dinner. It was only polite to ask him.”

  “Pa drew us kittens. We colored them.”

  Ingeborg glanced down at the little girl holding on to her skirt. Emmy watched and listened but still had not said a word. Yet she and Inga got along fine. How come children could play so well together even when they didn’t speak and adults couldn’t? She thought back to the early days when Metiz would come to visit. She always brought something along to work on, like the rabbit-skin mittens that everyone prized. Ingeborg still had a pair of the soft, fur-lined mittens. How she wished Metiz were here to bring her special wisdom and more mittens and vests. Samuel had tanned a bunch of rabbit skins. She should make some herself.

  “Are we taking Inga home?”

  Haakan shook his head. “She’s spending the night. Carl is invited too.”

  “I see.”

  “I’m heading home,” Kaaren said. “You want me to send Freda back?”

  “If she wants. You think they finished the wash?”

  “I see that the sheets are all hanging on the clothesline. She and Anna have made things so much easier for Ilse. This pregnancy has been hard on her.”

  “And she still has a month to go.”

  “If she makes it that long.”

  “Thorliff brought the mail. We have a letter from Astrid and one from Augusta.”

  “Wonderful. Surely you can stay to hear them?” She turned to Kaaren. “Take your things off and be comfortable. School will let out soon, and you can ride home with your bunch.”

  When they had their cups of coffee poured and the little ones sitting on the floor with a cookie each, Ingeborg broke the seal on Astrid’s letter.

  “Dear Mor and Far,

  “I am so excited that Rebecca and Gerald are coming to take Benny home. Thank you for your willingness to step in and help them. Gerald told me his mother is excited about Benny’s coming.”

  Ingeborg glanced up at Kaaren. “Hildegunn didn’t mention this today. Do you think she’d react with joy?”

  “She took in those boys years ago, and look what a blessing it has been to her and them. She’ll make a good grandmother. It’ll give you two one more thing to share.”

  Ingeborg raised an eyebrow. This could get interesting.

  “I wish I could bring Benny to Blessing myself, but all of us will be staying here at the hospital. You know he has nothing of his own except what he came in wearing. He needs a warm coat, so remind them to bring one with them. He is so game in learning to use his artificial legs, but when he wants to get somewhere fast he crawls.

  “Red Hawk and I have nearly completed our dissection of our cadaver. The old man has become a hero to us as we study every bit of him. I am grateful for people who are willing to donate bodies like this. We have learned so much.

  “I was at the meeting with Dr. Morganstein and her friends who are gathering information of our dreams for a hospital. Isn’t it interesting that God has given them a dream for building other hospitals at the same time as we’ve had a dream? I told them as much as I could but suggested they need to come to Blessing and talk to people there. Dr. Morganstein’s nephew asked most of the questions. She calls him her money man.

  “I need to close this and get some sleep. I am hoping and praying that the women of Blessing will be willing to help those on the reservations. I know you are already doing some.

  “Love from your Astrid.”

  Ingeborg looked up. “I do wish I could have been a mouse in a pocket at that meeting and after Astrid left. I agree with her. It is amazing to watch when God goes to work.” She looked at Kaaren. “Such big dreams we have now, when all we wanted in the beginning was to prove up our land. You with the school, now a hospital, traveling clinics.” She shook her head slowly, a verse trickling through her mind. What a mighty God we serve. Mighty indeed. With dreams far outstretching their own. “We are so blessed that God is letting us be part of all this. When I think of all He is doing right here in Blessing . . .”

  She looked down to see Emmy leaning against her knee, staring up at her with her dark eyes. “What do you want, little one?”

  “She wants another cookie.” Inga joined her. “Me too. And Carl.”

  Ingeborg glanced over to see Carl sitting on his grandfather’s lap, finger in his mouth, leaning against Haakan’s chest, eyes at half-mast. Now, that is the perfect picture, she thought and leaned over to kiss each of the girls. “You go pick up your toys, and I’ll see if I can find another cookie.”

  “What about the plate on the table?” Leave it to Inga.

  “Toys first.”

  Emmy scampered over to pick up the blocks and wooden train Haakan had made for them. Inga followed her.

  Ingeborg could tell Emmy was learning the language, at least cookies and toys and her name.

  Since the lane bordered Ingeborg’s yard and went on to the Knutsons’, they heard the schoolchildren coming.

  “I’ll go tell them to stop,” Kaaren said. “Anything you want sent to my house?”

  “George took the cheese this morning,” Haakan said, “and plenty of milk. Tell Lars we’ll be butchering day after tomorrow if the cold holds. We’ll start with the steers.”

  * * *

  TWO DAYS LATER, as soon as the chores were finished, two rifleshots rang out, signaling the death of the two steers. Haakan made sure that when the throats were slit, the blood was caught in basins to be used for making blod klub.

  “You think we have enough potatoes ground?” Freda asked.

  “We’ll know soon enough.” Ingeborg looked up at the sound of boots on the porch. “Here comes the blood.”

  Using every large bowl and pan, they mixed the grated potatoes with flour, added the fresh blood, and formed balls of the dough around pieces of salt pork, the last of that in storage. Like cooking dumplings, they placed the sticky balls in boiling water and set them to simmer. When they ran out of space, they filled other bowls and sent Trygve running to Kaaren’s to cook them there.

  The hearts, livers,
and tongues were brought in next. After setting the tongues to boiling in pickling spices, they sliced the liver for dinner. Fried liver and onions was the traditional dinner, while the blod klub would be served along with it and later heated in cream for supper.

  Outside, the men salted down the hides and wrapped them in bundles to age while the carcasses were wrapped in sheets and hung in the smokehouse to age.

  When the men gathered for dinner, Ingeborg looked lovingly around the extended table. Knute and Gus, George and Lars, Samuel and Trygve, Solem, Gilbert, Haakan, Andrew and Thorliff, and Hjelmer. Just like cooking for the haying or threshing crew. One would think they were having a party with all the laughter and teasing.

  * * *

  BY THE TIME they finished two days later, they had butchered four steers and eight hogs. Haunches, shoulders, and pork sides were brining to be smoked. Sausage was ground and patties set in crocks sealed with melted lard, which had been rendering in ovens and set in bread pans, so they now had blocks of snowy lard to keep in the cellars.

  Thorliff snitched a few pieces of crusty cracklings, what was left after all the lard was rendered out of the slabs of pork fat. “You didn’t salt this.”

  “I know. I hadn’t gotten around to it yet.” Ingeborg stirred a cup of the crackly pieces into the cornmeal she was setting for fried cornmeal mush in the morning. “Take some home for Thelma, along with a couple of blocks of lard.”

  “She has plenty. She’s been rendering too.”

  “Where’s Haakan?”

  “Out at the smokehouse. There’s so much meat hanging in there, he can hardly get in to feed the coals.” He dug in the bowl for another cluster of the golden bits. “Good thing we’re finished. I need to print the paper tonight.”

  “I was wishing I could get out and bag us a few of those geese we hear flying south,” Ingeborg told him. “Smoked goose would taste good too.”