by Sarah Price
“Daed…” she began to complain softly, not liking the entire family watching her. She had never been one to want the attention focused on her. She felt uncomfortable and fidgeted on the bench next to Caleb. He reached his hand over and gently touched her leg as if willing her to not get too anxious.
Elsie, however, clapped her hands and bounced up and down from where she sat. “I know what it is! I know what it is!”
Esther reached out her hand and pressed it gently on Elsie’s arm, an indication that she needed to calm herself.
Amos reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin, white envelope. He reached across the table and handed it to Caleb. “Here you go, Son.”
This time, it was Caleb who glanced at Drusilla. Uncertain about what the enveloped contained, Drusilla gave a nervous, uncomfortable smile and shrugged. She had no idea about any of this and couldn’t provide additional information to her husband. So Caleb accepted the envelope.
“Danke Amos. Whatever this is, it was not expected.”
Amos’s eyes seemed to glow as he watched Caleb with the unopened envelope. “I know that, Caleb. Those are the best types of gifts to give, don’t you think?”
The rest of the family laughed and Drusilla realized that they all had known about this Christmas surprise.
“You gonna sit there holding the envelope or are you gonna open it?” Amos asked playfully. “I promise. It don’t bite none.”
Elsie giggled and hid behind her hand, her eyes still watching as she clearly anticipated a reaction.
With a deft finger, Caleb opened the envelope. Two pieces of paper were inside. As he opened the folded papers, a deep furrow appeared on his forehead, his blue eyes scanning the first paper and then, finally, the second. After reading them, he set his hand down and looked up at Amos. “With all due respect, Amos,” he said slowly, “I don’t think I understand.”
Drusilla looked first from Caleb and then to her father. “What does it say?”
“Read it.” Amos pointed to the papers. “Let your fraa take a gander.”
Caleb handed her the papers and Drusilla quickly read them. “Deeds? To land?” She, too, looked confused. “What is this, Daed?”
Clapping his hands together, Amos shook his head and stared down the length of the table to where his wife sat. “Do you believe this, Esther? We have to explain this to them?”
Esther laughed, her face showing how excited she was about the gift. “Reckon you best go show them, then.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Amos pushed back his chair and gestured for Caleb and Drusilla to join him. The sound of the bench’s legs screeching against the floor was quickly followed by a door opening as Amos waited outside on the porch for them.
She paused to grab her black coat and slipped her arms through the sleeves, but she didn’t linger to button it. Her curiosity was piqued, that was for sure and certain. Caleb followed her, his own coat in his hand. As they followed Amos down the porch steps and toward the back of the house, Drusilla stumbled as she tried to keep up.
In silence, Amos walked along the fence line until he came to the end of it. Just beyond was a small parcel of trees, a wooded area at the bottom of the hill that rolled west toward her cousins’ house. Amos put his hands in his pockets and looked around as if he was staring at something wonderful and new, instead of something that had been a part of their landscape for decades.
“What do you think?” he asked as he turned to look at Caleb and Drusilla.
“About…?” Caleb asked the question in a hesitant manner.
“Why, your new farm, Caleb!” As he said this, he gestured with his arm toward the patch of trees and beyond. “Never had any use for these acres. Pull those trees down and fence it in, you got yourself a swell paddock for horses, mules, and dairy cows.”
Drusilla fought the urge to hug her father. “Oh Daed, what a wunderbarr gift!” she managed to say.
Amos tried to hide his smile. “And see that large corn field over there?” He pointed to the west. “The one next to the large field for haying?”
“That’s Jake and Barbara’s land,” Drusilla pointed out.
Amos shook his head. “Nee, Dochder. It’s yours now.”
At this, she gasped and looked first at Caleb before it dawned on her that such a gift came with a very heft price tag. If her father gifted it to them, that meant Jake had sold it to Amos. With his own farm depleted of important fields, how would Jake earn a living for his family?
“Now Drusilla,” Amos started, obviously sensing the conflicting emotions she felt. “This is a good thing for Jake. You know he wasn’t much of a farmer and has been struggling for years to work his farm. By buying this land from him, he now has the means to continue working the smaller fields. It’s enough money for him to provide for his family until he learns how to be more responsible with his farm.”
“But his boys…”
Amos held up his hands. “Believe me, Drusilla, Jake did not want to sell pieces of the land. But it was going to be the entire farm if he didn’t. And he agreed it was best to keep it in the family.”
Caleb stared in amazement at the property of undeveloped land. “That’s almost thirty acres, I bet.”
“Forty-two, to be exact,” Amos corrected. “The wooden section is larger than you think. It’s more than enough to get you going, Caleb. And just enough to keep Drusilla where she belongs…in Pennsylvania.”
“Amos,” Caleb said, his voice thick with emotion. “I..I don’t know what to say.”
“Ja vell, you’ll think of something one of these days,” Amos teased. His delight in being able to offer this gift to his daughter was more than evident. “I get to help out my bruder, Jake, and my dochder at the same time.”
“Danke, Amos,” Caleb said at last. “It’s quite a generous gift and I’m honored to accept it. We’ll make you proud. Plus Drusilla can keep helping out her maem at the haus.”
Amos cocked his head to one side. “You mean she’ll be busy keeping her own haus, don’t you, Caleb?” Rocking back and forth on his heels, Amos glanced toward the farmhouse. “For now, you both will be living in the grossdawdihaus. Jacob can’t stay alone, just not right having him taking care of himself. And tending to both our haus and his is too much work for Esther. So he agreed to move over here if you, too, are amenable to such an arrangement. I reckon you’ll want to build your own haus on your property at some point. Until then, this should suit just fine.”
She could contain herself no more. With her arms open, Drusilla flung herself at her father, embracing him as she felt the tears of joy in her eyes. “Oh Daed! How much you have done for us!”
When she finally pulled back, Amos seemed at a loss for words. He hemmed and hawed for a moment.
She laughed at his reaction as she wiped at her tears with her fingers. “And everyone knew? Even Elsie?”
“Even Elsie,” he confirmed. “To be honest, your maem and I were worried about that one slipping.”
The three of them laughed at the idea of Elsie and how excited she had been to keep the secret. Slowly, they began their walk back to the house.
“There is a catch to all of this, Caleb,” Amos said slowly.
“Oh ja?”
Amos nodded his head. “Something I want you to do.”
“Anything,” Caleb responded sincerely.
At this reply, Amos chuckled. “Mayhaps you won’t think so once I’ve told you want it is!” They were approaching the house and before they reached the porch, Amos stopped walking and turned toward the two of them. “I want to help my bruder learn how to farm his land properly. That was part of the deal, Caleb. I told him that I would buy his land, but he would have to use some of that money to hire you to work with him on his farming.”
Drusilla breathed in quickly. “What a wunderbarr thing to do, Daed!”
Amos shrugged off the compliment, even though his eyes told her that he was pleased with this solution. “What’s that expression about how it�
�s better to teach a man to fish, rather than just give him a fish?”
“It’s a Christmas gift for everyone, isn’t it?” Drusilla cried out happily. “For Jake and his family, for me and Caleb, and also for all of you!”
Amos lifted his hands as if in self-defense. “I admit it is a bit self-serving in that it benefits your maem and me, but that was not the original intent. We do hope that you both will be happy staying here with us. Now, if you don’t mind, my stomach's rumbling for some of that meatloaf. I reckon those boys have taken half of the pieces by now!”
He walked up the porch steps and held the door open for Drusilla and Caleb to pass through. Inside the house, a cheer erupted from the table as the rest of the family celebrated with the Lapps. The sound was muted, however, as Amos shut the door behind himself, just as the very first snowflakes began to flutter down from the sky and landed on the steps where they had just walked.
Epilogue
Drusilla stood at the open door of the grossdawdihaus, peering through the glass door that kept out the cold and watching the first snow of the new year fall from the sky. Covered in white, the fields looked pristine and far prettier than they had during the late autumn and early winter days when the roots of the cut corn stalks dotted the rows of dirt.
While the scene was beautiful, she much preferred the other seasons, the later part of spring in particular. She loved to watch the crops begin to grow, creating a blanket of green that covered the land against the backdrop of the blue skies with white clouds that were always harbingers of better weather after long weeks of cold winter weather. Of course, summer was always pretty, too, when the growing corn crops waved in the warm breeze, the leaves rustling and looking like gentle ripples of water in the field. Even early autumn was pleasant, the brown stalks of the corn an interesting contrast against the brilliant colors of changing leaves of the trees.
She felt his presence behind her and, without turning, smiled to herself. When his hand pressed the doorframe near her head, she leaned back and pressed against his chest. He wrapped his other arm around her, holding her in a warm embrace.
“Penny for your thoughts, Dru,” he said, nuzzling at her ear.
“Just a penny? I think they are worth much more,” she teased back.
He chuckled softly. “Tell me and I’ll let you know. You know I’m a fair man.”
She reached up and pressed her hand against his as it rested on her shoulder. “I was admiring how beautiful the fields look, covered in the snow. Winter can be a right pretty time of year.”
“Ja, that it can be.”
She continued. “Then I was thinking that spring is my favorite time of year. I love seeing the new beginnings of life stirring on the farm. The crops, the calves, even the kittens. But summer is nice, too. Things are maturing and growing, life is more enjoyable with the longer days spent outdoors working in the gardens and even the fields.”
He leaned down and gently kissed her cheek.
“But autumn, even though it’s the beginning of the end, is nice with the vibrant colors of the trees and the crisp morning air.”
“You’re still at a penny,” he whispered.
She smiled again, shutting her eyes as his lips lingered near her skin. “But then I thought maybe that is the way God planned it. Seasons are just like life. We have new beginnings that mature and transform. Eventually, everything dies, but in death, there is rebirth, both for the deceased who join God and the living who carry on.”
“Now you are getting interesting, Dru,” he murmured. “Two pennies.”
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven,” she quoted. “We mourn the passing of Mammi Ana, but without her passing, we would have most likely moved away. Her season, her winter, came to an end but it is permitting us to enjoy the beginning of our married life with family, a spring.”
“Three pennies.” Another soft kiss.
Despite his attempts to distract her, Drusilla kept talking. “But the cycle always continues. In some seasons, when something ends for one person, something new begins for another. Last spring, baby Anna was born, but Maem became sick with the depression. That, too, went through a cycle of seasons: growing, maturing, and finally, this winter, being controlled. Now she will begin a new cycle of healing that will grow and mature and hopefully stop the depression all together!”
“Four pennies.”
“And look at us, Caleb. Why, just last year, our spring was the beginning of our courtship, ja? We went through the very same cycle! Now that it’s winter, our relationship is established and stable. But we will create a new cycle as this spring we begin building our life together on the farm.”
“I see your point,” he said softly. “But what is our cycle for next spring?”
At this question, she reached up and took his hand from her shoulder, sliding it down the front of her body and placing it upon her stomach. She waited for him to react, to realize what she meant. When his lips stopped touching her neck and she heard the intake of breath, she knew that he understood.
His hand pressed against her stomach, feeling the slight growing bump, and he sighed. Resting his chin against her shoulder, he whispered, “God is gut.”
Covering his hand with hers, they entwined their fingers. In silence, they stared out at the fields, a finer appreciation for the layer upon layer of snow that slowly built up in the fields. While beautiful in its purity, a uniform way to cover everything, creating an unspoiled world just outside of their door. Yet, in a few short weeks, winter would end. The snow would melt and spring would arrive in March. Caleb would begin working his new land and building his life with Drusilla at the Riehl farm as Drusilla worked at creating a new garden and tending to her husband. The life that grew inside of her would also continue and, by the end of summer, they would welcome their first child.
“And now?” she asked as she turned so that she faced him. “How much was my thought worth, Caleb?”
He stared down into her face, letting his one hand rest against her neck, his thumb caressing her cheek. His blue eyes brightened as he studied her for a long moment. Finally, he started to lean down, his lips hovering just above hers as he whispered, “Priceless.”
Vocabulary
ach vellan expression similar to oh well
AusbundAmish hymnal
bruderbrother
Daed, daedFather
dankethank you
dochderdaughter
Englischenon-Amish people
Englischera non-Amish person
ferhoodledlove sick, silly in the head
g’maychurch district
grossdawdigrandfather
grossdawdihaussmall house attached to the main dwelling
grossdochdergranddaughter
gut mariyegood morning
haushouse
jayes
kappcap
kinnerchildren
Maem, MammMother
neeno
rumschpringeperiod of “fun” time for youths
schwestersister
wie gehts?what’s going on?
wunderbarrwonderful
About Sarah Price
Sarah Price self-published her first book, Fields of Corn, in 2009, a book she wrote thirty years earlier while studying anthropology and writing at Drew University (Madison, NJ). With her Anabaptist upbringing, she was drawn to the amazing culture of the Amish of Lancaster County where Ms. Price is still heavily involved with numerous Amish communities where she is considered family by some and friend by most others. Fields of Corn became an instant Amazon bestseller and fans began asking her to write more books.
Follow her on social media:
Blog: http://www.sarahpriceauthor.com.
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Instagram: @SarahPriceAuthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/SarahPrice
ALSO BY SARAH PRICE
First Impressions (Realms)
The Matchmaker (Realms)
Second Chances (Realms)
Sense & Sensibility (Realms)
The Amish of Lancaster Series
Fields of Corn
Hills of Wheat
Pastures of Faith
Valley of Hope
The Plain Fame Series
Plain Fame (Waterfall Press)
Plain Change (Waterfall Press)
Plain Again (Waterfall Press)
Plain Return (Waterfall Press)
Other Amish Fiction Books
An Amish Buggy Ride (Waterfall Press)
An Empty Cup (Waterfall Press)
An Amish Christmas Carol
Amish Circle Letters
Amish Circle Letters II
A Christmas Gift for Rebecca
Secret Sister (Realms)
The Tomato Patch Collection
For a complete listing of books, please visit the author’s website at www.sarahpriceauthor.com.
1 Ausbund, 119:12-14