Once Upon a Summer
Once Upon
a
Summer
S
EASONS OF THE
H
EART #1
JANETTE
OKE
Once Upon
a
Summer
Once Upon a Summer
Copyright © 1981
Janette Oke
Cover design by Dan Pitts
Cover photography © Andrea Ruester/Corbis
Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Oke, Janette, 1935–
Once upon a summer / Janette Oke.
p. cm. — (Seasons of the heart ; no. 1)
ISBN 978-0-7642-0800-3 (pbk.)
I. Title.
PR9199.3.O38O5 2010
813'.54—dc22
2010004148
Dedicated with love to
Fred and Amy (Ruggles) Steeves,
my dear parents,
who have given me
unmeasured love and support.
JANETTEOKE
was born in Champion, Alberta, to a Canadian prairie farmer and his wife, and she grew up in a large family full of laughter and love. She is a graduate of Mountain View Bible College in Alberta, where she met her husband, Edward, and they were married in May of 1957. After pastoring churches in Indiana and Canada, the Okes spent some years in Calgary, where Edward served in several positions on college faculties while Janette continued her writing. She has written forty-eight novels for adults and another sixteen for children, and her book sales total nearly thirty million copies.
The Okes have three sons and one daughter, all married, and are enjoying their fifteen grandchildren. Edward and Janette are active in their local church and make their home near Didsbury, Alberta.
C
ONTENTS
Chapter 20
Something Unexpected
Chapter 21
Parson Nathaniel Crawford
Chapter 26
The Lord’s Day and the Lord’s Man
I
COULD HARDLY WAIT
to finish my chores that mornin’. I needed to sneak off to my favorite log along the crik bank and find myself some thinkin’ time. Too many things had been happening too fast; I was worried that my whole world was about to change. I didn’t want it changed. I liked things jest the way they were, but if I was to keep ’em that way, it was going to take some figurin’ out.
I toted the pail of milk to the house and ran back to the barn to let Bossie back out to pasture to run with the range cows. She just mosied along, so I tried to hurry her along a bit, but she didn’t pay much notice. Finally she went through the gate; I slapped her brown-and-white rump and hurried to lift the bars in place. Bossie jest stood there, seeming undecided as to where to go now that the choice was hers.
Me, I knew where I was headin’. I took off down the south trail, between the summer’s green leafy things, like a rabbit with a hawk at its back.
The crik was still high, it being the middle of summer, but the spot that I called mine was a quiet place. Funny how one
feels
it quiet, even though there isn’t a still moment down by the crik. One bird song followed another, and all sorts of bugs buzzed continually. Occasionally a frog would croak from the shallows or a fish would jump in the deeper waters. That kind of noise didn’t bother me, though. I still found the spot restful, mostly ’cause there weren’t any human voices biddin’ ya to do this or git that.
I sorta regarded this spot as my own private fish hole; I hadn’t even shared it with my best friend, Avery Garrett. Avery wasn’t much for fishin’ anyway, so he didn’t miss the information. Today I never even thought to stop to grab my pole—I was that keen on gettin’ off alone.
Even before I finally sat down on my log, I had rolled my overall legs up to near my knees and let my feet slip into the cool crik water. I pushed my feet down deep, stretchin’ my toes through the thin layer of coarse sand so I could wiggle them around in the mud beneath. Too late I saw that my overalls hadn’t been rolled up high enough and were soaking up crik water. I pulled at them, but being wet they didn’t slide up too well. I’d get spoken to about that unless the sun got the dryin’ job done before I got home. I sat there, wigglin’ my toes and trying to decide jest what angle to come at my problems from.
Seemed to me that everything had gone along jest great until yesterday. Yesterday had started out okay, too. Grandpa needed to go to town, and he called to me right after I’d finished my chores.
“Boy.” He most always called me Boy rather than Joshua, or even Josh, like other folks did. “Boy, ya be carin’ fer a trip to town with me?”
I didn’t even answer—jest grinned—‘cause I knew that Grandpa already knew the answer anyway. I went to town every chance I got.
“Be ready in ten minutes,” Grandpa said and went out for the team.
Wasn’t much work to get ready. I washed my face and hands again, slicked down my hair and checked my overalls for dirt. They looked all right to me, so I scampered for the barn, hoping to get in on the hitchin’ up of the horses.
The trip to town was quiet. Grandpa and I both enjoyed silence. Besides, there really wasn’t that much that needed sayin’—and why talk jest to make a sound? Grandpa broke the quiet spell.
“Gettin’ a little dry.”
I looked at the ditches and could see brown spots where shortly before everything had been green and growin’. I nodded.
We went on into town and Grandpa stopped the team at the front of Kirk’s General Store. I hopped down and hitched the team to the rail while Grandpa sort of gathered himself together for what needed to be done.
Soon we were inside the store and after exchangin’ “howdys”and small-town talk with Mr. Kirk and some customers, Grandpa and I set about our business. Grandpa’s was easy enough. He was to purchase the supplies needed back at the farm. I had a tougher job. Before I’d left, Uncle Charlie had, as usual, slipped me a nickel on the sly; now I had to decide how to spend it. I moved along the counter to get a better look at what Mr. Kirk had to offer. Mrs. Kirk was toward the back talkin’ to someone over the telephone. Only a few folks in town had telephones; I never could get used to watching someone talkin’ into a box. She finally quit and walked over to me.
“Mornin’, Daniel. Nice day again, isn’t it? Fear it’s gonna be a bit hot afore it’s over, though.”
Without even waiting for a reply, she said to Grandpa, “Wanted to be sure that ya got this letter that came fer ya.”
Mrs. Kirk ran our local post office from a back corner of the general store. She was a pleasant woman, and her concern for people was jest that—concern rather than idle curiosity.
Grandpa took the letter, his face lighting up as he did so. We didn’t get much mail out our way.
“From my pa,” he volunteered, giving Mrs. Kirk his rather lopsided grin. “Thank ya, ma’am.” He stuffed the letter into his shirt pocket.
I forgot about the letter and went back to the business of spending my nickel. It seemed it was next-to-no-time when Grandpa was gathering his purchases and askin’ me if I was about ready to go. I still hadn’t made up my mind.
I finally settled on a chocolate ice-cream cone, then went to help Grandpa with the packages. I wasn’t much good to him, havin’ one hand occupied, but I did the best I could.
He backed the team out and we headed for home, me makin’ every lick count—that ice cream plum disappears in summer weather. When we were clear of the town, Grandpa handed the reins to me.
“I’m kinda anxious to see what my pa be sayin’,” he explained as he pulled the letter from his shirt pocket. He read in silence and I stole a glance at him now and then. I wanted to find out how a letter written jest to you would make a body feel. This one didn’t seem to be pleasin’ my grandpa much. Finally he folded it slowly and tucked it into the envelope, then turned to me.
“Yer great-granny jest passed away, Boy.”
Funny that at that moment he connected her with me instead of himself. He reached for the reins again in an absent-minded way. If he’d really been thinkin’, he would have let me keep drivin’—he most often did on the way back from town.
I watched him out of the corner of my eye. I was sorry to hear about Great-granny, but I couldn’t claim to sorrow. I had never met her and had heard very little about her. Suddenly it hit me that it was different for Grandpa. That faraway old lady who had jest died was his ma. I felt a lump come up in my throat then—a kind of feelin’ fer Grandpa—but I didn’t know how to tell him how I felt.
Grandpa was deep in thought. He didn’t even seem to be aware of the reins that lay slack in his hands. I was sure that I could have reached over and taken them back and he never would have noticed. I didn’t though. I jest sat there quiet-like and let the thoughts go through his mind. I could imagine right then that Grandpa was rememberin’ Great-granny as he had seen her last. Many times he’d told me that when he was fifteen, he’d decided that he wanted to get away from the city. So he had packed up the few things that were rightly his, bid good-bye to his folks and struck out for the West. Great-granny had cried as she watched him go, but she hadn’t tried to stop him. Grandpa had been west for many years, had a farm, a wife and a family, when he invited Uncle Charlie, his older and only brother, to join him. Uncle Charlie was a bachelor and Grandpa needed the extra hands fer the crops and hayin’. Uncle Charlie had been only too glad to leave his job as a hardware-store clerk and travel west to join Grandpa.
Every year or so the two of them would sit and talk about hopping a train and payin’ a visit “back home,” but they never did git around to doin’ it. Now Great-granny was gone and Great-grandpa was left on his own—an old man.
I wondered what other thoughts were scurryin’ through my grandpa’s mind. A movement beside me made me lift my head. Grandpa reached over and placed his hand on my knee. I was surprised to see tears in his eyes. His voice was a bit husky as he spoke.
“Boy,” he said, “you and me have another thing in common now—the hurt of havin’ no ma.”
He gave my knee a squeeze. As the words that he’d jest said sank in, I swallowed hard.
He started talkin’ then. I had rarely heard my Grandpa talk so much at one time—unless it was a neighbor-visit or a discussion with Uncle Charlie.
“Funny how many memories come stealin’ back fresh as if they’d jest happened. Haven’t thought on them fer years, but they’re still there fer jest sech a time.”