A New Home for Lily (5 page)

O
ne spring Saturday afternoon in early April, Lily and Joseph were outside helping Papa clean the yard. There was so much to do. Leaves, sticks, and rocks littered the yard. Junk too. Lots and lots of junk. It looked like a tornado had come and gone. Papa said the people who had lived here before them must have been too worn-out to work outside. Lily said maybe they just liked to collect trash, but Papa said it was best to think well of others.

Even though Lily still didn't like the olive green house, and she didn't like her hallway bedroom, she wasn't bothered by such a messy yard. It was fun to help Papa work outside. Lily and Joseph's job was to pile sticks in the wheelbarrow. When it was full, Papa would dump them in a pile behind the barn. When he had time, he would burn the sticks.

Papa whistled as he worked. He was always whistling. He dug bunches of tiger lilies to replant in a neat row beside the
fence. He paused to wipe the sweat from his forehead as a big noisy truck rattled to a stop in front of the house.

Lily and Joseph stared at the truck. Rusty red gates on the back were held together with baler twine. A big puff of wind might blow them right off. Several goats stuck their heads up over the gates.

A man jumped out of the truck and walked over to Papa. He wore baggy overalls and a dirty white shirt. He kept spitting brown stuff on the ground near his feet.

“You wouldn't be interested in buying these goats, would you?” the man asked Papa.

“How much do you want for them?” Papa asked.

“Give me twenty dollars and you can have all four of them. There are three nannies and one billy. Two of the nannies will be having kids any day now.”

Papa walked over to the truck to examine the goats more closely. Lily and Joseph followed close behind, but Lily walked carefully around the man's spit spots. Disgusting.

But the nannies looked nice. They were a soft brown with a white patch on their foreheads and white legs. The billy was bigger. He was black, with eerie yellow eyes and long curved horns.

Papa took off his hat and ran a hand through his thick hair. “We hadn't given any thought to buying goats.”

“I'll let you have them for ten dollars,” the man said. “I have to get rid of them. They're nice and tame, but I can't keep them. My wife doesn't like them. She said either the goats go or she goes.” He spit another long brown wad into the grass beside the road.

Lily was shocked. How could a wife say such a thing? She hoped Papa would buy the goats. It would be terrible if the man had to go home with the goats and his wife would go
away. But maybe, Lily wondered, if the man stopped spitting, his wife wouldn't be so mad at him.

Papa looked at each goat for a long time, thinking and thinking. Then he jammed his hat back on his head. “You back the truck up to the barn while I go get the money.”

The man jumped into his truck. The whole truck shuddered and lurched forward when he started it. Lily and Joseph ran into the house with Papa to hear him explain to Mama that he had just bought four goats. Mama looked stunned. Papa hurried off to pay the man.

“Goats?” Mama said as the door slammed shut behind Papa. “You bought goats?”

After the truck rumbled away, they all joined Papa outside to look at the goats.

Papa had tied the goats outside of Jenny's pen. He gave them several handfuls of hay to eat. Lily liked to listen to their sharp little teeth crunch the hay with quick, fast bites. It sounded so different from the slow, contented way Jenny munched her hay.

“I think I'll have to spend the rest of the afternoon making a pen for these goats,” Papa said. “And it looks as if I'll need to milk one of the nannies tonight.”

“Can I milk the goat?” Lily asked. “She's just about my size.”

Papa hesitated. “I guess you could give it a try.”

Lily was excited. Chore time would be even more fun if she could milk a nanny goat while Papa milked Jenny. Joseph could hold Jenny's tail for Papa. No one would have to hold the goat's tail because it was too little to swat anyone in the face.

By chore time, Papa had finished the goat pen in the barn. He put the three nanny goats in the pen but tied the billy goat
near the back of the barn. Lily felt a little sorry for the billy goat, but Papa said that he didn't want that goat anywhere near the nannies. Lily thought that might be a good idea. If they were going to get kids soon, she didn't want the billy to hurt them with his big horns. But she thought she might gather fresh fistfuls of grass every day to feed to the billy. He might not feel so lonesome if he were given fresh grass to eat.

Papa handed Lily the milking stool. “Here, Lily. You can try milking the goat first. I can milk Jenny after you're done.” He tied the nanny so she wouldn't walk away while Lily was milking her.

Lily sat down beside the nanny. She placed a little bowl on the floor under the goat and tried to milk her. Instead of nice long streams of milk like Papa got, she was able to get only a few drops into the bowl.
Plink, plink, plink.
Papa tried to help Lily, but as hard as she tried, she couldn't get the milk to stream. Her hands just weren't strong enough.

“We'll wait until you're a little older,” Papa said. “I'm sure you'll learn how to be a good milker when you get bigger.”

Lily was crushed. Papa finished milking the goat and handed her the bowl of milk to take to the kitchen. Mama strained the milk into a quart jar and put it into the refrigerator to get cold.

The next morning, Mama poured milk into a glass by each person's plate for breakfast. “Can I have goat milk this morning?” Lily asked. She'd been wondering what it would taste like.

Mama looked up, surprised. “You can if you want to.”

Lily ran out on the porch and got the goat milk from the refrigerator to fill her cup. Papa and the boys decided they wanted to try the goat milk too. Lily took a sip and made a face. It didn't taste like milk was supposed to taste. It tasted
like . . . Lily tried to think what it tasted like. What was it? Hmmm . . . then she knew. It tasted the way that big billy goat smelled.

Papa didn't like the milk either. “Tastes like goat to me,” Papa said as he pushed his cup of milk aside. Joseph and Dannie liked it. They drank it all and asked for more. Little boys were funny that way. It didn't seem to matter what they ate. They just wanted to eat.

The next afternoon, Lily and Joseph ran all the way home from school. Lily wanted to get home fast so that she would have more time to feed fresh, sweet grass to the billy goat.

They gulped down the snack Mama had waiting for them at the kitchen table. Then they jumped out of their seats to hurry back outside.

“Not so fast,” Mama called after them. “It's still too cold to be outside without a coat.” She handed them their thin spring coats.

Lily slipped into her coat and ran out to the pasture. She grabbed fistfuls of grass in her hands and ran to where the billy goat was tied. She dropped the grass in front of the billy goat and watched as he munched it down appreciatively.

She ran back to get more. This was fun. She pulled even more grass and made a big pile before gathering it up to take to the billy. She dumped her armload in front of the billy. He kept on munching, happy to have such a tasty snack. As Lily spun around to get more grass, she saw some dropped grass on the floor just out of the billy goat's reach. She bent down to pick it up. As she tried to rise, something caught her coat. As she had bent over, the billy had stepped forward a little to eat more grass. His long horns got caught in the back of
Lily's coat. She tried to slip her coat off the horns, but the billy knew something was wrong. He started to bleat and shook his head to get away. He was so strong that Lily lost her balance. She dangled from his horns. Her feet and hands weren't quite touching the floor.

The billy grew angry. His bleating grew louder and louder. Lily started to cry. Joseph stood there, frozen, watching Lily hang in the air by the billy goat's horns. “Go get Mama!” she said.

Joseph turned and ran to the house. Lily had never felt so helpless. The billy jerked her back and forth, back and forth. His bleats were getting wilder and more desperate, as if he were crying too.

Mama came flying. She took one look at Lily and opened
her coat to lift her away from the billy. He shook his head and gave a few more short angry bleats. He backed as far away from Lily as he could. As if he was frightened of her, of all people!

Mama sat down on the ground and started to laugh. She laughed and laughed, so hard that tears ran down her cheeks. Lily had never seen Mama laugh like that. Joseph and Dannie started to laugh too. Lily didn't think it was at all funny. Not at all, but at least the scared, shaky feeling was going away.

Mama wiped the tears from her face and rose to her feet. “Let's all go back to the house and do something less exciting until Papa comes home. I'm sure he'll want to hear about your adventure too.” Mama started giggling all over again. Lily wondered if Mama would be able to stop laughing before Papa came home. She wondered if he would laugh as hard as Mama. Probably more.

Lily tried to think how she might have looked hanging from the billy's horns. A little smile tugged at her lips. Maybe it was funny. Just a little bit.

S
uddenly winter was over and spring had come. It wasn't like New York, though, where the air was scented with lilacs. Sometimes, Lily missed New York so much that she walked around with a lump in her throat. It was especially hard after she got a letter from her cousin Hannah. Yesterday's letter reported that Hannah had seen Chubby, Lily's miniature horse, taking some children for a pony cart ride. Lily sighed all afternoon.

Robins were back in the trees, filling the air with sweet birdsong. Lily wondered where they had flown during the winter. She liked to watch them hop around the patches of snow hunting for worms to eat.

Grandma Miller had a favorite saying: “Your year will end up just like the first robin you see in the spring. If it is flying, you will get a lot done. If it is hopping about looking for food, you will be comfortably busy and have steady work. But if it is holding still, you will be lazy.”

Papa would quietly add that Grandma's saying was only a fun way to tease each other. “Robins have nothing to do with how lazy a person is, Lily,” he said. “Even Grandma doesn't really believe it.”

Still, Lily wished that the first robin she had seen had not been sitting on a tree branch, singing, instead of flying across the sky. She wondered if she might have a lazy year.

And if Grandma's saying was true, Lily was sure everyone in her family must have seen robins in full flight. Ever since the snow started to melt, life had become very busy. Grandpa Miller was building a long building behind his little barn that would become a sawmill. He was also adding a room to the house for Grandma's mother. Great-Grandma had a stroke last year and had to stay in bed. Grandma needed a place for Great-Grandma to live. Until then, Great-Grandma was staying with Grandma's sister, but she was much older than Grandma and couldn't take care of her as well.

Secretly, Lily didn't mind that Great-Grandma hadn't been able to stay at Grandma Miller's. Great-Grandma was very old and very scary looking. Bony hands like claws, not a tooth in her mouth, whiskers on her chin. She reminded Lily of a wrinkled apple doll.

Lily wondered what it would be like at Grandpa Miller's after his sawmill was built. In New York, Grandpa had a harness shop. In Pennsylvania, there were too many harness shops, so Grandpa decided he would cut lumber out of logs that loggers brought to him.

Lily was worried that Grandpa would not want little children to spend time with him while he worked in the sawmill. Even she knew it would be much more dangerous than the harness shop had been.

Grandpa asked Papa and a few other neighbors to help
him build his sawmill and the new room for the house. Work frolics were fun, but this frolic would be on a Wednesday, and Lily and Joseph had to go to school. Lily felt a little miffed. She wished that the grown-ups would ask her opinion about the best days for things like frolics. She definitely would not have scheduled it on a school day. If she didn't know better, she'd think the grown-ups didn't want the children at the sawmill frolic.

On a Sunday afternoon in early May, Papa and Mama thought it would be nice to go visit Grandpa and Grandma Miller. It was such a beautiful day that they decided to walk. Papa said he had a hunch Dannie would tire of walking, so he pulled him on the little wagon.

Lily loved to visit at Grandpa and Grandma Miller's house. She had the visit all planned out. Aunt Susie would be eager to play dolls or color in coloring books. Joseph and Dannie could play with the wooden blocks and toy animals. They weren't very good colorers. Dannie only scribbled and Joseph colored outside the lines.

Here's what Lily liked best: Grandma would give a bowl of apples to Mama to peel and slice while she popped popcorn. And then everyone would sit around the table and talk while they snacked.

The part Lily liked least was visiting Great-Grandma. After Grandpa had finished building the little room, he and Grandma had gone to New York to bring Great-Grandma to Pennsylvania. Great-Grandma's room was very nice. It had cheerful light-honey-colored walls and fluffy white curtains at the windows. At one end, Grandma had a big desk and several shelves filled with craft and scrapbook things.
Grandma thought that Great-Grandma wouldn't be so lonely if she were working in the room beside her.

Whenever they visited, Mama always went in to talk to Great-Grandma. She brought Lily in with her. Lily tried to stay far away from Great-Grandma's bed, but she would still stick her bony arm out to shake Lily's hand. Her fingers were twisted and gnarled and her skin looked like crepe paper. Lily was always glad when this part was over and she could go play with Aunt Susie.

On this particular Sunday afternoon, as they reached Grandpa Miller's house, Lily could see a big pile of sawdust outside the sawmill. There were stacks and stacks of logs waiting to be cut and even more stacks of neatly cut lumber waiting to be picked up.

The mountain of sawdust looked like it might be fun to dig and play in. Joseph and Dannie had the same idea and asked Papa if they could play in the sawdust. “We'll have to ask Grandpa first,” Papa said.

Grandpa and Grandma welcomed them at the door and ushered everyone into the house. Aunt Susie hurried off to get her dolls to bring to Lily. Joseph waited as long as he could, at least ten seconds, before it burst out of him. “Grandpa, can we go outside to play on the sawdust pile?”

Grandpa chuckled at Joseph's and Dannie's eager faces. “As long as your mother isn't worried about getting your clothes dirty.”

Before Mama could finish saying that she didn't mind, Joseph and Dannie galloped outside to play. Lily looked at the doll in her arms. As much as she liked playing dolls, she really wanted to go out and play on that sawdust pile too. She cast a sideways glance at Aunt Susie. “Do you think we should go outside to watch the boys?”

Aunt Susie was always happy to do whatever Lily wanted to do. They put their dolls away and went outside. Aunt Susie found some little shovels and they started to dig.

It was a little different than Lily had expected. It wasn't like digging in sand. She grew bored with digging and decided to climb to the very top of the sawdust pile. It was almost as high as the roof of the sawmill. Lily could see for miles and miles. The sawdust shifted a little under her feet. She thought it would be fun to run down, so she started down the hill, picking up speed. By the time she reached the bottom, she was sure she had never run that fast before. So much fun! Almost like flying!

Lily scrambled back up the sawdust hill. “Let's all run down together,” she called to Joseph and Dannie. They were busy digging a big hole in the side of the sawdust pile.

Joseph popped his head up. “No, I want to dig.”

“Me too,” Dannie piped up. “Gotta dig.”

Aunt Susie didn't want to run down the pile, either. She went to help the boys dig the big hole. Lily climbed all the way to the top again. She paused for a moment, then jumped. She practically flew down the sawdust hill! She couldn't remember ever having so much fun. She didn't even mind if little bits of sawdust got all over her, from inside her prayer covering to her socks. She was dusty with chaff and didn't mind a bit when it scratched her. She climbed up several more times and ran down as fast as she could.

Lily was getting tired, but she thought she would jump down one more time. She climbed up the side of the pile and stopped halfway up to admire the deep hole that Joseph and Dannie were digging. It was the biggest hole those little boys had ever made. It was so deep that they were both in the hole to dig it deeper. Aunt Susie had stopped digging to watch them.

Lily made it to the top of the sawdust hill. She took a deep breath and started to run down the hill one last time. As she ran past the hole, the sides caved in, covering most of Joseph and all of Dannie. Aunt Susie sent up a scream that tore the sky in two. Lily worked to free Joseph and Dannie from the cave-in before they suffocated.

Grandpa and Papa came running out of the house. They quickly uncovered Dannie and Joseph and pulled them out. Dannie was bawling. Joseph was spitting sawdust out of his mouth. Aunt Susie was crying her eyes out.

Papa held Dannie in his arms and patted his back to soothe him. “I think it would be a good idea if everyone stays in the house or finds something else to play. Playing here is too dangerous.”

Everyone went back inside. Lily felt like crying. She had spoiled everything. She knew Grandpa would never allow them to play on that sawdust pile ever again. Not ever.