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Read Ebook: When Sarah Saved the Day by Singmaster Elsie
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Ebook has 1414 lines and 57415 words, and 29 pages
Her father laughed.
"No, you are not dumb. If you are good, and if you study, you dare come here."
Ah, but how could one study with a sick mother, and then a sick father and a baby to look after, and twins like Ellen Louisa and Louisa Ellen to bring up, and--
Sarah went slowly back to the kitchen. It was like going into church, all was so still and solemn. Albert and the twins slept, Aunt 'Liza and Aunt Mena had taken their places on the opposite side of the table from Uncle Daniel and Jacob Kalb.
"Come, come," cried Uncle Daniel impatiently. He did not like black-eyed little Sarah. She looked too much like her father, whom his sister had married against his will. "We must get this fixed up. Sit down, once."
Sarah sat down on the nearest seat, which was the lower end of the settle on which Albert lay. She wiped her hot face on her gingham apron, then laid her hand on Albert's stubby little shoes, as though she needed something to hold to.
"Don't," commanded Uncle Daniel. "You wake him up if you don't look a little out."
Sarah's eyes flashed. As though she would wake him, her own baby, whom she had tended for three years! She wanted to tell them to go, to leave her alone with her children. But again she was wisely silent. She did not know yet what it was that her uncle meant to "fix up."
Swartz pulled his chair a little closer to the table. He looked uncomfortable in his black suit and his stiff collar. Occasionally he slipped his finger behind it and pulled it away from his throat, as though it were too tight. It seemed as if his remarks were for the benefit of Sarah alone, even though he did not look at her, for Aunt Mena and Aunt 'Liza and the hired man helped him out with an occasional word as if they knew beforehand what he meant to say.
He, too, had his dreams. One was to see a son in his house; another was to see the Wenner farm once more united to his own as it had been in his father's lifetime. Then he would have the old border on the creek. There was also talk of the strange, new "electricity cars" running along the creek. That would double the value of the farm.
But he said nothing of this in his speech to Sarah.
"A couple of years back," he began, "I made an offer to Wenner. I said to him, 'I will take William and bring him up right, and then he can have the farm when I am no longer here.' That is what I said to your pop. But he wouldn't have it. He had to send William instead to school."
"Then what did he get for his schooling?" asked Jacob Kalb.
"I never had no schooling," said Uncle Daniel. "And you see where I am. Nobody needs schooling but preachers and teachers."
"I don't believe in schooling," said Aunt Eliza.
"Nor I," said Aunt Mena.
Sarah's eyes continued to flash, but she said nothing. She knew that they were expressing their scorn for her father's judgment, but she was too tired to answer. If they would only go home! She saw her uncle look at little Albert. He need not think she would give him up. Sarah almost laughed at the idea. Then she heard that her uncle had begun to speak again.
"Well, now I have another offer to make. Mena will take Ellie and Weezy. I will take Albert. He shall be Albert Swartz from now on. And Sarah can come also to us to help to work."
"You will have to be a good little girl and work right," admonished Aunt 'Liza.
"And you will have a good home," put in Jacob Kalb. "You and the zwillings ." There were times when Jacob's English vocabulary was not equal to the demands upon it.
"But we are all going to stay here together like always," she said. "I and Albert and the twins."
She saw their anger in their faces.
"What!" said Aunt Eliza.
"Such dumb talk!" cried Uncle Daniel.
"Are you then out of your mind?" asked Aunt Mena.
Jacob Kalb alone said nothing. But Sarah saw him smile. He planned to live in the Wenner farmhouse.
"Will you plough?" demanded Uncle Daniel.
"Or plant the seeds?" asked Aunt 'Liza.
"Or harvest?" said Aunt Mena.
Sarah spoke quietly. "I have it all planned. Ebert will farm like always for the half."
"The half!" repeated Uncle Daniel. "Should we then give this good money to Ebert? The half! I will farm."
"Well, then," said Sarah. "But you must pay the half to us because we must live."
"Pay the half to you!" exclaimed Aunt Mena.
"It is our farm," replied Sarah. "It was my mom's and my pop's farm. It isn't yours."
"Well, it will be mine," said Uncle Daniel. "What would such children make with such a farm?"
"I am not a child," answered Sarah firmly. "For three years already I managed the farm while my pop was sick. And it is William's farm so much as ours. And when William comes home--"
"William will never come home," said Uncle Daniel.
Sarah got up from the old settle.
"A whipping would be good for her," offered Jacob Kalb.
"You haven't any right here, Jacob C-calf," cried Sarah.
Jacob's little eyes narrowed. "It is no way for little girls to talk when their brothers steal school-board money, and go off and their pops have to pay it," he said.
For a moment there was silence, then a reproving murmur from Aunt Mena.
"It isn't true!" cried Sarah. "It isn't true!" Suddenly she remembered her father's sadness, her mother's tears.
She burst into wild crying. "Ach, I wish you would go away and leave me with my children! I will get good along, if you will only let me be. Albert should be this long time in his bed. I wish you would go home."
She bent to lift the sleeping child. But her uncle pushed her aside.
"Albert is coming home with me," he said, as he lifted him up. "Jacob, put Weezy and Ellie in the carriage with Aunt Mena."
Sarah tried to keep her hold of the little boy. But she struggled in vain. Jacob Kalb picked up one of the twins.
"Ellen Louisa!" called Sarah.
Ellen Louisa struggled into wakefulness.
"Let me down, Jacob Calf; let me down!" She began to cry. "Ja-cob Calf, you m-make m-me l-laugh; let me down!"
But Ellen Louisa was borne shrieking from the room.
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