PIECES OF LAUGHTER AND FUN (8 page)

The next morning, ma was her usual cheerful self as she bustled around the kitchen preparing breakfast and getting us ready for church. If she looked a little more determined than usual, no one seemed to notice. We climbed into the buggy and left for church.

"What time do you plan to leave tomorrow morning?" ma asked pleasantly.

"I think as soon as it's daylight," pa answered. "It'll take longer getting home since we have to walk the cattle."

"I'll help the boys milk in the morning so you can get ready to leave," ma said.

When I arrived in the kitchen the following morning, the milking had been done. The breakfast was ready to go on the table, even though the sun had not yet peeped over the horizon.

"Looks like a beautiful day," pa boomed as he sat down. "The Lord is good to us to give us such perfect growing weather."

"Yes, he is," ma agreed. "We have a lot to be thankful for."

"You know what there is to do around here," pa reminded the boys. "And if your ma has any chores she wants done, you be available to do them."

"Yes, pa," Reuben replied. "We'll take care of things."

Roy hitched Nellie to the wagon, and pa climbed in. Ma stood at the kitchen door watching as they disappeared down the lane. Then she turned to Reuben and Roy.

"Boys, I want you to go out to the barn and fetch that paint to the house. And don't forget the brushes and the ladder."

They stared at her, dumbfounded. "What are you going to do with it, ma?"

"I'm going to paint the house, of course." "But, ma," Roy protested, "that paint is for the barn!"

"It was for the barn," ma corrected him. "It is now for the house. I'm tired of waiting for my house to be painted, and I don't intend to take second place to a barn. Now, move. And Mabel," she turned to me, "come along and put on an older dress. I don't want paint on that one."

"But, ma," I wailed as I trotted after her, "we wanted a white house! It will look just like we lived in a barn!"

"That can't be helped. I would prefer white, myself. But at least it will look clean. We can get some white to trim the windows and doors."

The boys returned with the paint and ladders, and ma met them at the steps.

"Are we starting back here, ma?" Reuben

asked.

"Indeed not," ma declared. "We'll begin on the front. Your father might not finish it right away if it couldn't be noticed from the road. But he won't leave the job undone when the neighbors can see it."

The boys looked at each other and shrugged. When they had carried everything around to the front, ma directed the job.

"Now, Reuben, you set up the ladder and start at the top. Roy, you start as high as you can reach and work down. Mabel, you begin at the bottom and work up. I'll paint around the windows and doors."

We went to work at once, and stopped only fora cold lunch at dinnertime.

"You're doing a good job, children. If we keep it up until sundown, we should have most of the front done."

"What's pa going to say when he gets home?" Reuben ventured to ask.

"Why, I'm sure he'll think we've done a good job," ma replied. "It looks very nice so far, and we haven't wasted any paint."

"But he intended to do the barn with this paint," Roy put in. "Aren't you afraid he'll be mad?"

"Your father doesn't get mad," ma declared. "Annoyed, maybe, or even put out a little, but not mad."

We went back to work after dinner, and by the time the sun set, we had made a noticeable difference in the front of the house. Ma stood back and admired it.

"Now I call that a good day's work," she said proudly. "You see how much better the house looks with a little paint?"

"It certainly looks ... red," Reuben agreed. "We'll be able to see it from a long way off."

"I like it, ma," I said loyally. "It looks a lot better."

"All right, boys. We'll stop for now. Put the things away and start your chores. I'll help you milk again this evening. You've been good assistants."

The boys left to get the cows, and ma and I went inside to begin supper.

"Do you suppose pa will be home before dark?" I asked. "If he isn't, he won't see it until tomorrow."

"I don't know," ma said. "But I think we can start looking for him anytime now."

Supper was all ready, and it was dark before we heard the sound of the wagon on the lane. I could imagine pa brushing and feeding Nellie, putting the new cow in her stall, and then heading for the house.

Soon the back door opened, and pa came in. Ma greeted him with a smile. "Did you have a successful day?"

"Yes, we did. Brought home a fine heifer."

He sat down and looked at ma. The corners of his mouth twitched as he tried to keep from laughing. "I guess you've had a pretty busy day, too. Haven't you?"

"Yes. We've been working around the house ever since you left."

Pa burst out laughing. "I can't see it, but I can smell it. I had it coming to me. How does it look?"

"Very fine, indeed," ma replied. "As soon as you bring enough white for the trim, it will be the prettiest house in the county."

"It will be the brightest, anyway," pa chuckled. "The Carters will be here tomorrow to help finish it. . . ."

"We got used to our bright red house," grandma concluded. "In fact, we all rather liked that color. And pa learned that when ma had her heart set on something, she would

probably get it!"

I ALWAYS HAD to check my plans with grandma. Sometimes I got tired of asking permission to do everything.

"You don't have to worry about me, grandma," I told her. "I'm big enough to take care of myself."

"I know you think you are," grandma replied. "But I'd just as soon look after you a while longer. I thought I was ready to take care of myself when I was your age, too. But I discovered that I needed a few more years' experience before I could run my own life. That was a good lesson to learn, but not a very pleasant one."

Grandma sat down with her crocheting, and I pulled up my chair to listen to a story....

One day Sarah Jane and I were walking home from school.

"Are you going to tell your folks what Miss Gibson said about making our own decisions?" I asked her.

"Yes, I'll tell them, but I don't think it will do any good," she replied. "They'll just keep right on telling me what to do and what not to do. I'm pretty sure they won't let me make up my own mind. Do you think your folks will let you?"

"I don't know, but I'm going to try. Maybe if they know Miss Gibson says we should, they'll feel differently about it."

That night at the supper table, I approached the subject.

"Miss Gibson says we are old enough to make decisions for ourselves," I announced. "We shouldn't have to be told anything, anymore."

The boys looked at me in surprise. "She didn't say anything," Reuben said. "She meant we should be able to decide whether something is right or wrong before we do it."

"Yes," Roy put in. "She was talking about returning something you found. You should know that keeping it would be stealing."

"If I'm old enough to know what's right and what's wrong, I'm old enough to make all my own decisions," I declared stubbornly. "I'm tired of being told every move to make. I can do it myself."

"That's pretty risky business," pa commented. "There are some things you can decide on your own. But I think you still need help with important matters."

"Then will you let me decide the not-important ones?" I asked eagerly.

Ma and pa exchanged glances. "Did you ever hear someone say, 'You made your bed, now lie in it'?" ma asked me.

I shook my head. "I don't think so. What does it mean?"

"It means that when you make a choice, you have to live with the results. There's a lot of responsibility in making your own decisions. I'm not sure you're ready for that."

"Oh, I am!" I assured her. "Just try me and see."

"All right," ma agreed reluctantly. "We'll see how well you do. But pa and I will have the final say on what's important."

I was pleased with this arrangement. While I did my homework, my mind kept wandering to my new freedom. What would I decide first? I considered staying up past my bedtime, but discarded that almost immediately. Ma would say that my rest was important.

I went to bed that night without finding anything I could do on my own. In the morning, however, a thought occurred to me. I could wear my good dress to school! I knew the other girls would look at me with envy and wonder how I had managed such good fortune. As I pulled my light blue dress over my head, I glanced down at my legs. I certainly couldn't wear my everyday black stockings with this beautiful dress. I removed them and pulled on my white Sunday stockings. That looked better.

I glanced at my good shoes longingly. But I knew they were strictly for church and dress-up occasions. I wouldn't push my luck too far.

When I appeared in the kitchen, ma opened her mouth to say something; then she closed it again. I breathed a sigh of relief. She wasn't going to send me back.

The boys didn't hesitate to say what they thought, though. "Well! La-de-da!" Roy exclaimed. "Look at Miss Priss! Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to school, of course," I replied. "Where did you think I was going?"

"We thought you'd lost track of the day and gotten dressed for church. You look pretty fancy to be going to school," Reuben snickered.

"There's no reason why I can't dress nice every day," I retorted. "Boys don't care how they look. But I do."

"Enough," pa said. "We don't need an argument this morning. Let's have breakfast, shall we?"

When I left the house, Sarah Jane was at the end of the lane waiting for me. She noticed my white stockings right away.

"How did you get out of the house without your ma seeing you?" she demanded. "Are you wearing your good dress, too?"

I opened my coat to show her, and she shook her head in disbelief.

"What will happen when your ma finds out? You'll get it for sure."

"She already knows," I replied. "This was a decision I made on my own. I can make up my mind about things that aren't important."

"I wish I could," Sarah Jane said enviously. "You sure are lucky. Are you going to dress up every day?"

"Probably not every day," I replied. "I'll think of other things to decide. It will be nice that someone won't be telling me what to do all the time."

Sarah Jane agreed, and we hurried on to school. We were early, and there was a game of hopscotch started on the school ground.

"Come on, Mabel, let's play," Sarah Jane said. "We have a few minutes before the bell rings."

"I guess I'd better not," I replied. "I don't want to get my stockings dirty." I went over and leaned up against the building to watch the others. I was sad about not joining them. But I comforted myself by thinking how nice I looked.

I was sure the other girls would notice, and I wasn't disappointed. They gathered around when I took my coat off and admired my dress.

"Are you going to a party after school, Mabel?"

"Is this your birthday?"

"How did you get your mother to let you wear your good dress?"

I explained as modestly as I could, and proudly took my seat. Even Miss Gibson remarked about how nice I looked. This would surely be one of the best days I'd ever had.

During the morning, Miss Gibson announced that we would collect pussy willows from the ditch along the road. She looked at me doubtfully.

"You'd better not, Mabel," she said. "I wouldn't want you to get grass stains and dirt on that nice dress."

So I stayed with my books while the others waded happily through the weeds. I could hear them shouting back and forth to each other, and I wished I could be out there with them. But there was a price to pay for looking beautiful, and I was willing to pay it.

At noontime, I ate carefully, and then stood and watched everyone play ball or tag. This would not do for every day, I decided. It was too lonely, being left out of everything.

In the afternoon, we had penmanship. When we had made a good copy of the day's lesson on our slate, we were allowed to put it in our copybooks in ink. I always enjoyed this class, and took great pride in keeping my copybook free of blots. So far this year, it was in perfect shape.

Sarah Jane and I had just opened the bottle of ink we shared, when someone bumped our desk.

"Oh! It's tipping!" Sarah Jane cried. She reached to grab the bottle, but the ink was streaming down the desk. Quickly I moved my copybook out of the way, allowing the ink to roll into my lap.

"Don't stand up, Mabel, or it will go all over your stockings," Sarah Jane screeched.

But she was too late. I was already standing up. The ink rolled down my dress, onto my stockings, and then splattered all over the floor.

Miss Gibson was sympathetic, but she couldn't do much to get the stain out of my clothes. I finished the afternoon in a state of gloom.

"At least you didn't ruin your copybook," Sarah Jane comforted me as we left school. "You can display it at the end of the year."

"That's great," I replied glumly. "Now if there were some way I could wear my copybook to church, everything would be all right. I sure hate to have ma see this."