Lily suggested to Mama, in the tiniest way, that she and Papa and Joseph could still go to Christmas dinner tomorrow.
Mama silenced her with a look. “Certainly not. Christmas is about being with our family. If one of us can’t go, we will all stay at home.” She arched one eyebrow in that way she had. Lily thought she sounded a little crisp.
That was the end of the discussion.
The next morning, the sun shone brightly. “Looks like we’ll all have a very nice day at home,” Papa said when he came in from doing the chores. “I think it’s going to be the best Christmas we have ever had.” He washed his hands and scooped swollen, bruised Dannie up in his arms and sat on his chair with him. He whistled “O Beautiful Star of Bethlehem” while Mama finished getting breakfast ready.
Lily loved Christmas breakfast. Mama made special dishes and each child was given an orange. As soon as they were done eating, Lily helped Mama clear the plates away as Papa read the story of the first true Christmas from the Bible. Mama and Lily worked quietly so they wouldn’t miss a word. Lily loved hearing Papa’s deep rich voice as he read. He had a fine reading voice, Papa did.
When Mama had the kitchen sparkling clean again, Papa carried Dannie upstairs. Lily held Paul and followed Joseph, who was right behind Papa. The children waited in Lily’s room. So exciting! The time had come for Papa and Mama to get their gifts ready for the children.
“Let’s play Sorry! until it’s time to go downstairs,” Joseph said. Lily got the game ready and they started to play, even though Dannie and baby Paul didn’t really know how to play. They were just getting involved as Papa knocked on Lily’s bedroom door. He had a big grin on his face. “Present time!” He carried Dannie downstairs. Lily thought Dannie was lucky to be carried everywhere. At least there was one good thing about sledding straight into a barn.
In the kitchen, Lily quickly sat at her place and peered at the towel in front of her seat. Under it were her gifts. She wanted to peek under her towel but knew she shouldn’t. She had to be an example to her little brothers and wait until everyone else was ready. But oh, how she wanted to peek! Papa sat at the head of the table. He was smiling from ear to ear. “Okay, let’s see what you children might have.”
Lily lifted her towel. There was a new china bowl filled with candy and nuts. It would replace the glued-together one that Paul had broken. There was a new book. And a pack of beautiful stationery, almost too pretty to use. She would use it only to write to Grandma Lapp.
Lily had forgotten her gift for Mama and Papa! She ran upstairs, grabbed it from her desk, hurried back down, and thrust it into Papa’s hands. He held the framed poem up against the light to read it and then showed it to Mama. Lily described the painful arithmetic quizzes she had endured just to get those stickers. Mama took the poem into her bedroom and placed it on top of her dresser. So she could see it every day, she said, and think of Lily working so hard at school.
So far, Christmas had been much better than she had expected after the Dannie Disaster. Lily tucked her new pack of stationery into one of her desk drawers, far in the back, where her brothers wouldn’t find it. She got her new book and went downstairs to settle into a corner of the sofa. She tried not to think about the Christmas dinner that her entire—entire!—extended family was enjoying. Whenever images of their happy feast popped into her mind, she tried to push the thought away. Over and over. She was stuck on page one of her book, rereading and rereading while pushing images of the Miller feast away, when a knock came on the door.
Papa was first to open the door, with Lily right on his heels. There on the porch were Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Susie! Behind them were Uncle Elmer’s and Uncle Jacob’s families. Everyone! Everyone was here!
Grandma had a big grin on her face. “We decided since you couldn’t come to us for Christmas dinner, we would bring Christmas dinner to you.”
Papa and Lily were stunned.
“Well, aren’t you going to let us in?” Grandpa said, stamping his feet from the cold.
Papa opened the door as wide as he could. The Miller family flowed in, carrying bowls and dishes and platters into the kitchen. The women got right to work. They helped Mama put extension boards into the table and set it with her prettiest dishes. Everyone was laughing and talking as they prepared dinner and then sat down together to eat it.
During dinner, Lily looked around the table. There was more food than anyone could ever eat and everyone was talking and the gas lights made the room look sparkly. And they were all together. Happiness welled up in Lily and she knew she would never forget this moment. It was the best Christmas ever.
22
The Snow Cave
Everywhere Lily looked there was snow and more snow. As she bundled up for a buggy ride to school, Papa told her that last night’s snowstorm had brought snow more than two feet deep.
As much as Lily liked how beautiful everything looked covered in snow, she knew it would create a problem at school. The children wouldn’t be able to play Fox and Geese at recess. That was Lily’s favorite winter game.
During the first recess, the girls stayed inside to play games or piece a puzzle together rather than try to play in the deep snow. The boys, naturally, were excited about all the snow. Levi, Aaron Yoder, and Sam Stoltzfus had each brought a shovel along to school. They took turns digging a cave in the big drift of snow beside the schoolhouse.
Lily and Hannah stood at the window, watching those silly boys dig, but they soon grew bored and joined the girls.
At lunch, the only thing the boys could talk about was the snow cave. “We should get it done today,” Aaron said, “and then we can have fun sitting inside of it.”
“I get to have the first turn,” Levi said. “After all, I brought the biggest shovel to school. It’s only fair that I get to go first.”
Lily was surprised that the boys readily agreed to let Levi go first. She was glad they were getting along and not letting Levi’s endless bragging become too aggravating. Though, even to Lily, it was.
At the window, the girls watched the boys finish digging out the cave. After the boys were satisfied that the cave was finished, they stuck their shovels in the snow. They huddled together for a moment to discuss something, then Levi ran to the stairs of the schoolhouse basement and disappeared. He reappeared with a flying saucer. Lily watched as he placed it carefully in front of the cave. A door!
The boys stood back to admire their work. Then Levi yanked the flying saucer away and crawled into the cave. The second his feet disappeared from sight, Sam Stoltzfus repositioned the flying saucer at the opening. Aaron and a few other boys started shoveling snow in front of it as fast as they could.
Lily knew they were up to something! The boys hadn’t been nice to let Levi go in first—they did it so they could trap him inside of the cave.
Hannah and Lily ran to Teacher Rhoda to tell her what the boys were doing. Teacher Rhoda hurried to get her coat on, but before she could get her arm through a sleeve, a loud yell filled the air. They ran to the window and saw the boys stampeding over the cave so the roof would collapse on Levi.
Teacher Rhoda ran outside to rescue Levi. Lily watched at the window, horrified. He was completely buried in the snow. Finally, a gloved hand emerged, then an arm, and Teacher Rhoda yanked hard and Levi’s head popped up. He looked dazed, blinking like a newborn owl. Teacher Rhoda pulled him out of the snow pile and helped to brush him off. Once he was safely inside the schoolhouse, she rang the bell. Thanks to Aaron Yoder and Sam Stoltzfus, recess would be cut short today.
The students slipped quietly to their desks. Aaron and Sam had goofy grins on their faces but Teacher Rhoda did not look amused at all. The air in the schoolhouse felt dreadful to Lily, heavy and threatening, like right before a tornado touched down. Something terrible was about to happen.
Teacher Rhoda kept her eyes on her desk for a long, long moment. Then she lifted her chin. “Put your books away for school dismissal.”
Lily looked at
the clock. It was much earlier than usual and Mama would be surprised to see them. But Lily was glad to get away from this heavy atmosphere.
Teacher Rhoda stood. “Everyone may go home except for Aaron Yoder, Sam Stoltzfus, and anyone else who was involved in trapping Levi inside that snow cave.”
Lily quickly got her shawl and bonnet, grabbed her lunch box off the shelf, and followed Hannah out the door. There was one good thing about this terrible ordeal: finally Hannah had seen for herself how awful Aaron Yoder truly was. Lily would no longer have to listen to Hannah go on and on about how wonderful and cute and smart Aaron was. Her dearest friend and cousin had a horrible and completely un-understandable crush on Aaron Yoder. She thought he was a hero. Lily knew he wasn’t. He was a terrible, awful boy.
The two girls trudged slowly through the snow. “I don’t think Teacher Rhoda should have made Aaron stay after school,” Hannah said.
Lily stopped in her tracks. Wait. What? “Aaron trapped Levi inside that snow cave and then helped jump on top of it to make it collapse on top of him.”
“He was only going along with what the other boys were doing.”
Lily couldn’t believe her ears. “Levi is your brother!”
“Still, I don’t think Aaron meant to be mean.”
“You must be crazy!” she exclaimed in her most understanding way. “Of course he meant to be mean! Everything he does is mean!”
Hannah dismissed Lily’s complaints with a wave of her hand. “I still think he is the nicest boy in school.”
That was the last straw. Lily slapped her on the cheek, hard. Hannah’s eyes widened and her mouth opened to an O. A red handprint appeared on Hannah’s face. Then she started to cry.
Lily was horrified. She had slapped Hannah! It was all Aaron Yoder’s fault.
Hannah started toward home, tears running down her face. When they came to the fork in the road where Hannah turned off to head to her house, she split off without a word, still crying. Lily was grateful Joseph had run ahead with Levi and had not seen what had happened with Hannah. She walked slowly the rest of the way home, feeling ashamed. Why, she was almost as bad as mean-hearted Aaron Yoder. Not quite, but almost.
She wiped away a tear before she walked into Papa’s woodworking shop. He looked up when he heard the door open, but his cheerful smile faded away when he saw Lily. “Sit down and tell me everything.”
How did Papa know something was wrong? Lily sat on the stool and told him all that had happened at school. She described how the boys had tricked Levi to trap him. “All Hannah ever talks about is Aaron Yoder and how wonderful he is.” She dropped her chin to her chest and mumbled, “So then I might have given Hannah a tiny little slap.”
Papa lifted his dark eyebrows. “Slapping Hannah didn’t really solve anything, did it?”
Tears pricked Lily’s eyes. “No. It made both of us cry.”
“Take your lunch box to the kitchen. Then we’ll go over to Hannah’s and you can apologize for losing your temper.”
Lily wished she had not slapped Hannah, but she wasn’t sorry enough to want to apologize. She took her lunch box upstairs, placed it on the kitchen counter, and took a long, slow drink of water. Then another. As slowly as she could.
Papa appeared at the top of the stairs, wondering what had happened to her. “Ready?”
They trudged through the deep snow to get to Hannah’s house. Papa knocked on the door. Aunt Mary came to the door, surprised to see Papa standing beside Lily. She invited them to come in out of the cold.
“Lily has something she wants to say to Hannah,” Papa said.
Aunt Mary asked them to take a seat in the living room. She called up the stairs to Hannah and then went back to work in the kitchen.
Hannah came downstairs and stopped abruptly when she saw Lily and Papa. Lily rose from her chair. “I’m sorry that I slapped you.”
Hannah rubbed her cheek. “That’s okay. It stopped stinging after I got home.”
They stood, awkwardly, looking at the floor. Hannah took a step closer to Lily. In a low voice, she said, “I won’t talk about Aaron anymore. I like you better than him.”
Lily was so happy to hear that! She threw her arms around Hannah.
Papa cleared his throat, then coughed, then finally clapped his hands. “I’m glad you girls got everything patched up. It’s never good to let the sun go down on anger. But now it’s time to go home. Mama needs Lily’s help with supper. You girls can play with each other tomorrow.”
On the way home, Lily’s feet felt light and happy, even though the snow was just as deep to trudge through. She and Hannah were friends again. But she did hope that Hannah’s taste in boys would improve as she got older.
23
Fire at the Schoolhouse!
It was a bitterly cold morning in late January. Wind howled around the corners of the house and whistled through the windows. Snow piled up in deep drifts in front of the door. “The wind has a mean bite to it,” Papa said as he scraped the last bit of porridge out of baby Paul’s little bowl and fed it to him. “I think it’s too cold for Lily and Joseph to walk to school. What do you think, Rachel?”
Mama peered at the thermometer that hung outside the kitchen window. “It’s only eight degrees,” she said. “The wind will make it feel much colder. I’ll get their lunches packed while you get Jim hitched up.”
“Can I ride along?” Dannie said.
Lily sighed when she heard him ask that question. Dannie was getting to be such a tag-along. If he came, there wouldn’t be enough room for everyone on the front seat with Papa. She would be the one to sit alone in the back because she was the oldest. She would be alone and cold. She hoped Papa would say that it was too chilly for Dannie to come, but he didn’t. “If you bundle up warmly you can ride along,” Papa told Dannie. He helped Dannie with his jacket and crouched down to close the hooks and eyes on his coat. “You’ll be able to keep me company on the ride back home.” Papa plucked his hat off the wall peg and headed out to the barn.
Lily hadn’t considered that it might be a lonely drive home for Papa after dropping them at school. She felt a tiny pinch of guilt for not wanting Dannie to tag along.
Lily hopped into the back of the buggy and was pleased that Joseph climbed in beside her. They covered their laps with the thick, fuzzy buggy robes, but it wasn’t long before Lily’s toes were cold. Her breath made big puffy white clouds. She and Joseph tried to see who could make the biggest breath cloud.
In the front seat, Dannie chattered away to Papa. Lily didn’t even try to listen to what he was saying. Dannie had a lot to say but most of it wasn’t very interesting to Lily. Fortunately, Papa was one of the best listeners in the world. He always seemed to enjoy listening to whatever anyone had to say. Even Dannie.
Jim trotted slowly through the wind and the snow. The buggy wheels squealed as they cut through the snow. It was a sound unique to a winter day, and even though Lily liked the snow on the ground, she knew that it took more work for Jim to pull the buggy.
As they crested the last hill before the schoolhouse, Dannie eyes went wide. “Look at all the fire trucks!” he said. “Look! The schoolhouse is burning!”
Lily threw the buggy robe off her lap and stood to look out the storm front. Dannie was right! The schoolhouse was burning. Flames licked at the roof around the chimney. More fire trucks than she had ever seen were parked in the school yard and beside the road. Red lights flashed everywhere. A few firefighters held a big hose and sprayed water on the fire. Lily couldn’t look at it any longer and squeezed her eyes shut. Oh, how terrible! The schoolhouse was burning. They couldn’t have school without a schoolhouse.
Then came a horrible, terrible realization. Her box of beautiful crayons was in that schoolhouse! They would be destroyed. Melted into wax.
Lily would never forget the day when Mama gave the crayons to her. She had just come back from town after buying Lily and Joseph’s school supplies. Mama reached into her shopping bag and gave Jos
eph a brand-new pack of twenty-four crayons. Lily loved new crayons. She waited for Mama to give her a new pack, just like Joseph’s. Instead, Mama pulled out a pack of sixty-four crayons and handed them to Lily. Sixty-four! She was stunned, speechless. Too happy for words.
Lily spent hours looking through her box of brand-new crayons, memorizing each name: aquamarine, topaz, sunset orange. Even the names were beautiful.
“You’re growing up, Lily,” Mama said. “You’re old enough to have a box of sixty-four crayons. Since fourth graders don’t color very often, I expect you to keep these crayons nice. They should last for the rest of your school years.”
Lily had tried to keep these sixty-four crayons from breaking or smudging against each other. She kept the points nice and sharp. She would miss getting a brand-new box of crayons every year but having one box of sixty-four was better than a new box of twenty-four.
Joseph and Dannie looked at Lily’s box of crayons with longing in their eyes. And they didn’t even like to color! For the first time in Lily’s life, she had something she was not expected to share. When Joseph and Dannie reached fourth grade, Mama said they would get their very own box of sixty-four crayons as well.
Lily had felt important on the first Friday afternoon art period when she took her box of beautiful crayons out of her desk and used them. None of her friends had a big box of crayons. Beth, Malinda, and Hannah admired them, and Effie said that they were too worldly, but Lily was sure that Effie wished she had such a box of crayons.
It always took Lily a long time to color pictures. There were so many different colors to choose from and she wanted to take better care of these crayons than she ever had with her other crayons. They needed to last five years, until she would be finished with school and all grown-up.
But now, as she thought about her beautiful crayons melting in the schoolhouse fire, she wished she had colored with them every day.
A Big Year for Lily Page 10