A New Day Rising (11 page)

"No, we have the coffee and visit later. First, we have good news. Mr. Bjorklund brought a letter from home. Mr. Mackenzie gave it to him at The Mercantile." Ingeborg drew the precious envelope out of her apron pocket. "See?"

"Oh, how wonderful." Kaaren flashed their visitor one of her warmest smiles. "It is so long since we have heard anything." She sank down on one of the four chairs at the oilcloth-covered table. In this home, too, were evidences of a man handy with his hands and a piece of wood. While many homes had only stools or chunks of wood to sit on, these chairs had spindles set into upper and lower curved backs. The carved rocker by the gleaming cookstove wore a colorful patchwork quilt, and beside it rested a bag of yarn and a half-knit piece.

Ingeborg studied her sister-in-law's face. Kaaren was looking pale, like she didn't feel good at all. While Kaaren was careful to always wear her sunbonnet, this was not just the creamy tinge of protected skin or the pallor of winter. Dark smudges lay under her tired blue eyes as if she'd smeared coal dust there. Her skirt gaped at the waist of her always slender frame.

"So, Mr. Bjorklund, how did you happen to come clear out here? You said you were from Minnesota?" Kaaren asked eagerly.

Haakan told her the same as he'd told Ingeborg and turned when another man entered the soddy.

"Well, hello, sister. I hear you brought us company." Lars stooped to step through the doorway as Haakan had. When he straightened, he removed his hat and hung it on a row of pegs by the door. With one hand on Thorliff's shoulder, Lars extended his other to greet the visitor. "I'm Lars Knutson, and I am glad to hear I have another relative, in a round about sort of way."

While the men greeted each other, Ingeborg stood with her hands on the back of a chair and, without meaning to, compared them. One dark and one fair but both tall and broad of shoulder. Haakan could measure his by the span of an ax handle. Wind and sun had carved both faces into rugged maps of experience, and they each wore the square jaw of determination, tempered by ready smiles of greeting. Even so, they reminded her of two dogs on first meeting, stiff legged, prancing around each other but with tails wagging. Would they be able to work as a team for the summer? Of course, each would be breaking sod on the separate homesteads, but plowing, seeding, haying, and harvesting were done in partnership, even with the extra team and machinery of the Baards.

Would they resent her working out in the fields, too? The thought of being cooped up in the soddy day after day, after she'd become accustomed to weeks of freedom in the sun working the fields like a man, dressed in britches like a man, hunting, and bringing home the meat, made her flinch. Could she bear going back to women's work only? Did she need to? After all, it was her land.

It surely wasn't as if she didn't have enough to do around the farmstead. There were chores enough for three women.

"Ingeborg?" Kaaren's soft voice broke in on her woolgathering.

"Ja ' Ingeborg blinked and took in a breath, careful not to release it on a sigh. Surely she'd learned the lesson of not trying to add tomorrow's trouble unto today at her mother's knee. "Let us enjoy the letter. Kaaren, you read the best"-she extended the envelope"you read it."

Kaaren nodded. "Why don't you all sit down. Thorliff, you take Andrew and sit in the rocker." Carefully she slit the thin paper and withdrew two sheets, covered both sides with script so close together not a space was wasted.

"'Dear Ingeborg and all our dear ones. I cannot begin to imagine how hard this time has been for you, but we can all rest assured knowing that our Lord is there with you in the midst of all the heartache. If it were not for the knowledge and faith that He is caring for you and us, I would have died of a broken heart, as I know you would have, also. One day we will see our loved ones again, if we don't lose heart.' "

Kaaren paused and wiped her eyes with the corner of her apron.

Ingeborg tried to keep the tears that burned behind her eyes and at the back of her throat in check, but it was not possible.

A chunk of wood dropped in the firebox of the stove, breaking the silence that filled the Soddy. Andrew reached up and stuck his finger into Thorliff's nose, a trick he'd learned recently that usually brought on a giggle.

"Andrew, don't." Thorliff looked over and caught his mother's nod. When she smiled through her tears, he sat back and wrapped both arms around the baby, setting the chair to rocking with one foot.

"Sorry." Kaaren sniffed and continued. "'We are all well and working hard to earn a ticket for Hjelmer to come to you. He hopes to leave as soon as spring visits us here in frozen Nordland. If all goes as planned, he will arrive sometime in mid-April.' "

"Hjelmer is coming." Ingeborg looked over at Haakan and Lars. "He is the youngest brother of Roald and Carl. It is hard to think of him as more than a gangling clown, but four years would make him nineteen, a young man now." She stopped. "Mid-April. He could be here anytime."

"In the beginning, we had planned to send money for one of our brothers or sisters to emigrate each year, but so far that has not been possible." Kaaren continued the explanation. "My sister Solveig would love to come too, maybe soon." She returned to the letter. "'I wait with patience to hear from you, that you are bearing up and continuing to rejoice in Christ our Savior. Your loving family, Gustaf and Bridget.'"

Ingeborg felt a stab of guilt. She should write more often, but the time flowed faster than a mountain stream in full spring spate.

After Kaaren finished reading the letter, they sat for a moment in silence. Then Kaaren pushed to her feet. "I will get the coffee."

"And cookies?" Thorliff raised -a hopeful smile.

"Thorliff." Ingeborg's tone and frown made him duck behind Andrew. But when all the adults laughed, he grinned and shrugged.

"I think Mr. Bjorklund would like to taste the best cookies in the territory. Maybe in all America."

"You rascal." Kaaren tweaked his hair. "You could talk a bird out of a tree, let alone get cookies from an aunt who loves you." She handed the letter back to Ingeborg, her eyes begging to read it again later. Turning to Haakan, she said, "So, tell us all you have been doing since you came to this country. How long has it been?"

Haakan answered her questions and those of the others and nodded to Thorliff after taking his first bite of Tante Kaaren's celebrated cookies. Thorliff lifted his own in response and gave a crumbly grin.

"So, you say you have come to help for the summer." Over the rim of his coffee cup, Lars studied the man at the other end of the table. "When would you head back for the north woods?"

"I need to be there just after the first snow when the ground has begun to freeze. We cut trees all winter and float them down the river to the lumber mills when the ice goes out in the spring. It is a good job and pays well."

"We will pay you to help us here," Ingeborg said with what might have been more force than necessary.

Both of the men turned and looked at her as though she'd spoken out of turn.

"We'll see." Haakan nodded.

"Can't get out on the fields yet. The frost hasn't gone out of the ground, so I been working on the machinery, repairing harnesses and suchlike. We need to make a trip to St. Andrew, and I'd really like to go on down to Grand Forks to the machinery dealers there. Joseph and I been talking about buying a binder together, haven't we, Ingeborg?" Lars glanced at her for confirmation.

Ingeborg nodded. "I've been thinking if you had a steam engine and a threshing machine, you could take it out on the road like you did before. Earn some cash money that way to help get through the winter." She hadn't planned to share this part of her dream with anyone yet, knowing that they hadn't the money to pay for one, and she hated like anything to put more on credit. The debts they owed hung over her like a pall of smoke.

Nothing, nothing could force her off the land, but if they couldn't make the payments on what they owed, their land was the collateral. Before buying more machinery, she wanted to pay off the bank loans Roald had taken out to add another section to the homestead. Two more years and the homesteads would be proved up.

"Yes, if I wanted to leave my family and go out on the road again." Lars shook his head and smiled at his wife. "That's for single men, not for those of us so fortunate to have a wife like mine at home."

"Seems to me after seeing Thorliff's sheep, the shearing needs to be done about now," Haakan added while Lars and Kaaren were exchanging quiet looks of love.

"I was getting to that." Ingeborg leaned forward. "I thought Thorliff and I would wait with the shearing in case there comes another blizzard. You'll find out how winter here always tries to make one last stand." She looked to Lars and Kaaren for support. Didn't they understand how important it was for her to make the decisions concerning her land-Roald's land, the land they slaved over for their children?

"I could get going on that tomorrow. You'd help me, wouldn't you, Thorliff?"

Hadn't he heard her? Ingeborg clasped her hands on the table in front of her. "I think it is not yet time to shear the sheep. I do not want to lose any to a blizzard."

Haakan directed his blue gaze upon her, making her think of nothing but Roald when he was so certain he was always right and would brook no argument from anyone.

She felt her back stiffen.

"But, Mor, I would like to ..." Thorliff's voice died off at the look his mother shot him.

"It is time for me to go begin chores." Ingeborg rose and bent her head in Haakan's direction. "You can stay here to visit more. In fact, there is a spare bed in this soddy." She let the clipped words lay on the table. "Come, Thorliff, I will carry Andrew." She picked up the baby and settled him on her hip. "Mange takk, Kaaren, Lars. I will see you tomorrow."

"I will carry him." Haakan rose also.

"Nei." Ingeborg left the house and strode out across the prairie. The sun slipped behind a layer of clouds stippled above the horizon. Tonight would be a glorious sunset, she was sure. A breeze that had felt welcome before now nipped at her face and tugged at her skirt. Thorliff trudged beside her, Paws trotting beside him at the boy's knee.

The thoughts kept time with her feet as she marched through the snow rather than stomped as she desired. Kaaren would tell her to not be so prickly. Her mor would say that God put men in charge because they were the stronger. Help she didn't mind; in fact, she met help with joy, but not him taking over just because he was a man.

If he still decided to help, she would pay him. Of that there would be no further discussion.

She could hear his firm steps coming up behind her. Thorliff turned around and trotted backward to watch Haakan's face.

"I would carry Andrew for you."

"I know." If only she wasn't wearing these confounded skirts, she could walk faster and not get tangled up. All she needed to do right now was to sprawl on her face in the mud.

The thought tugged a grin at the corners of her mouth. Now that would be a sight to see.

"Will you show me how you do the chores? I know every farmer has ways of his, or her, own."

"Ja, if you are sure you want to help." She didn't add, and not take over, but it wasn't for want of desire.

"Mr. Bjorklund, I will show you where the hens lay their eggs, and you can help me take the horses and oxen down to drink at the river. That's always more fun than pulling buckets at the well." Thorliff ran forward and skidded on a patch of snow. Paws leaped beside him, barking and nipping at the slush that flew up from the boy's feet. "Good, huh, Mor?"

"Ja, good. But if you fall-"

"I'll get wet and muddy, I know." He repeated his action, laughing at the joy of it, his arms wind-milling to keep his balance when his skid carried him past the snow patch.

"You have a fine son," Haakan said softly for her ears alone.

"I try to tell him that often. Since his father died, Thorliff has felt it his job to care for me and Andrew. He was not happy with Lars at first, because he saw Tante Kaaren being taken away. But Lars brought him Paws, and from then on, the worship began."

"A boy needs a good man in his life."

"Thorliff had one-his father." Ingeborg entered the soddy and blinked in the dimness. She hadn't finished the lamps, and now they would need the light as soon as the chores were done. Of course she could bring in the lantern from the barn.

"Thorliff can show me how to feed the animals after we take the large stock down to drink. Or we can bring up enough water from the well. If we do the barn chores, then you will have more time to do the things you need. It isn't like I haven't milked a cow before." Haakan stood in the door and waited for her answer.

ingeborg sighed. "That would be welcome. I will have supper ready when you are finished." She leaned down to pick up Andrew, who had been pulling at her skirt.

"What do you usually do with him while you are milking and doing the other chores?"

"He comes along to the barn and plays in the grain bin."

"I see." He patted the little fellow on the back and started to go out the door.

"The milk bucket, Mr. Bjorklund." Ingeborg snagged the bucket from where it sat on the far side of the work table and followed him out the door. He took the handle with a smile and headed across the muddy yard to the barn. Ingeborg lifted her face to track the honking geese in another dark V against the dimming sky. They would be setting down soon for the evening feed. Perhaps tomorrow night she could take the gun and go bag some. Roast goose sounded mighty tempting.

The evening star glowed in the western sky above a narrow band of gold on the horizon when Haakan and Thorliff returned to the house. The lamps were lit, throwing shadows on the dark walls that seemed to suck in the light and hoard it forever. Slices of ham simmered in their own gravy on the back of the stove next to a steaming pot of potatoes, and the smell of baking biscuits permeated the air.

Haakan sniffed appreciatively when he came in. "It smells wonderful in here. Thorliff guessed we were having ham clear out to the barn." He set the pail down on the work counter. "Do you have a strainer?"