Life with Lily (8 page)

L
ily's only disappointment with school was that she was the youngest child in the entire schoolhouse. Mandy Mast liked to point that fact out, often. Lily's turn always came last: choosing the game to play at recess, or picking the hymn to sing in the morning, or standing at the end of the line of scholars when they lined up. The last one to get a drink of water at the pump before going inside after the bell rang. The last one to wash her hands at lunchtime. Always, always last.

But other than Mandy Mast, Lily looked forward to her days at school. And most of all, she loved art. They had art every Friday. Sometimes, if they did very well with German class on Wednesdays, Teacher Ellen might let them have an extra hour for art.

On a crisp, autumn Friday afternoon in late September, Teacher Ellen stood in front of the classroom with a big
smile on her face. Her eyes swept the room as the students waited eagerly to see what she had planned for today's art project. Every week she had something new planned and Lily never could guess what it might be. Sometimes Teacher Ellen wanted them to draw a picture. Other times, they painted. Lily stretched her neck to see what was on Teacher Ellen's desk, but she couldn't see anything.

“Today we will be doing something a little different for art,” Teacher Ellen said. “I have a stack of old calendars here. Isaac, please come up and pass them out so that everyone has one.”

Isaac was the nicest boy in school, so Lily didn't mind that he was always given the job of passing out papers. That was another thing Lily was too little to do: pass out papers. Only the big boys and big girls were given the task of passing out papers. Lily couldn't wait until she was a big girl and could pass out papers.

Lily watched Isaac walk from desk to desk, handing each student a calendar. He handed Lily a beautiful calendar filled with pictures of mountains and lakes and other scenery. Lily glanced over at Mandy's calendar. It had birds on it. It was nice, but not as nice as hers. She thought Isaac might have given her the prettiest one.

After everyone had a calendar, Teacher Ellen told them to choose their favorite picture and carefully tear it out. Lily chose a meadow filled with wildflowers. A big snow-covered mountain loomed in the background. She tore it out carefully as Teacher Ellen explained the next step.

“I have brown and black construction paper,” Teacher Ellen said. “I want you to cut strips of paper. We'll glue the paper strips around the picture to make a frame, and one through the middle. It will seem as if we are looking out a window.”

As the students cut and pasted, Teacher Ellen walked up and down the aisles. She put two small pieces of fabric, plus a needle and a thread, on everyone's desk. “After you are done making your window frame, I want you to make a curtain for your window with the fabric pieces. You can stitch the fabric right to the paper. I have some ribbon in a basket on my desk. You can line up and choose a ribbon to make little tiebacks to draw the curtains back from your windows.”

Not another lineup! That meant that Lily had to choose last from the basket. She was happy to see there was one purple ribbon, but she was sure Mandy would choose that one. But amazingly, she didn't! The last ribbon left in the basket was the purple one. Lily sighed with happiness.

Lily did not like to sew by hand. She did not like it at all. But she wanted Teacher Ellen to be proud of her picture. The schoolhouse was quiet except for the sound of scissors and pasting, and needles and thread swishing through layers of paper. Teacher Ellen helped Lily tie her purple ribbon tiebacks into a bow because she wasn't good at tying bows yet. And then, her beautiful window picture was done.

Isaac and two other big boys helped Teacher Ellen tape the windows along the wall. Hers really did look like a window with soft white curtains—outside was a flower-filled meadow and mountain. Lily admired each one, even Mandy's bird picture. Everyone's window looked different. Lily thought it was the best project they had ever made during art period.

During recess, the scholars divided up into two teams to play softball. Teacher Ellen said she would pitch for both teams. Today the batting lineup started with the youngest. Even though she would finally be first in line for something,
playing softball was never good news to Lily. She didn't like playing softball because she could never hit the ball. The rest of the time she had to wait for a turn at bat, bored. It was much more fun to play tag or some other running game. Lily looked forward to the day when it would be her turn to choose the game at recess. They would not have to play softball
that
 day!

Lily stepped up to the plate with the bat. Teacher Ellen took a few steps forward and pitched slow and gentle. Lily swung and missed. Strike one. She swung and missed again. Strike two. As Lily swung and missed for the third time, she dropped the bat and walked over to the rest of her teammates. Softball was no fun. No fun at all.

It was cousin Levi's turn at bat. As he picked up the bat, Mandy Mast whispered loudly, “It's L-L-L-Levi's t-t-t-t-t-urn!”

Teacher Ellen overheard. She stopped the game and walked up to Mandy. “We do not make fun of anyone in our school,” she said sternly. “I want you to go apologize to Levi.”

Mandy mumbled a quick “sorry” to Levi, but Lily didn't think she sounded at all sorry. Just sorry Teacher Ellen happened to hear.

Lily felt badly for Levi. His stutter wasn't nearly as obvious as it had been when school started. She thought it seemed that the less nervous Levi was, the less he stuttered. She hoped that someday his stutter would disappear for good.

Teacher Ellen wound up her arm to pitch to Levi. He swung the bat and
Thwack!
he hit the ball way out in the field. Levi dropped the bat and ran all the way to first base. Second base. Third base! He looked so pleased! Lily was happy for him.

Levi might have a little trouble talking smoothly, but he made up for that in almost everything else. He could hit a
ball farther than any boy his age. He could run faster than any boy his age. He was always friendly and willing to help anyone he could. All of those things, Lily thought, were much more important than a little stutter.

Rain came down like a curtain of water. Lily stood inside the schoolhouse and looked out the window, watching for Mama to arrive in the buggy to pick her up. Mama was late and Lily was one of the few students left in the schoolhouse. Isaac and his younger brothers had brought umbrellas to school. They could walk home in the rain.

Lily watched as Isaac and his brothers walked across the school yard to the road. Isaac led the way while his younger brothers followed behind him, like baby ducks following the Mama duck. Lily wouldn't mind walking all the way home in the rain if she had a pretty umbrella. Maybe a purple one with polka dots or flowers.

A buggy turned into the school yard. It was Mandy Mast's neighbor, Naomi, coming to give Mandy a ride home. As the horse passed Isaac and his brothers, it stopped abruptly
and snorted. The horse tossed its head angrily and jumped forward a little. Then it reared up and pawed at the air with its front hooves.

Isaac realized that the umbrellas were scaring the horse, so he yelled to his brothers to close them. “Fast!” he yelled.

Too late.

The horse dropped back down on all four hooves and broke out in a run. Nostrils flaring, it dashed past the schoolhouse. Naomi held on to the reins as hard as she could to try to stay in control. Lily's eyes went wide as she watched the horse go crazy. Mandy started to cry. The horse and buggy rounded the schoolhouse. The buggy tipped dangerously on two wheels as it rounded the bend. Then the horse galloped out the school yard, across the yard, and into a farmer's hayfield. Poor Naomi!

Lily saw Jim pull Mama's buggy into the school yard. She grabbed her bonnet and lunch box, then ran outside and climbed into the buggy. She told Mama what had happened and pointed to poor Naomi, stuck in the hayfield.

Mama jumped out of the buggy and tied Jim to the hitching rail. “Lily, you stay here. I want to make sure Naomi is all right before we start for home.”

Lily wasn't sure what Mama could do with a scared, frightened horse. She watched Mama cross the road to go to the hayfield. In the pouring rain, Mama held the horse's bridle and gently stroked his nose. Lily could see that the horse was jumpy and nervous. Mama guided the horse back to the schoolhouse and waited until Mandy was safely in the buggy. The horse trotted out of the school yard and started down the road, but it was still twitching its tail more than usual. Lily hoped Naomi and Mandy would get home safely without passing any more umbrellas.

Poor Mama was soaking wet. On the way home, she said, “Isn't it nice that our Jim doesn't mind umbrellas? Sometimes, little things can spook a horse. Your Papa is very good at training horses and I'm glad for it!”

Lily was glad too. And now she wasn't sure she would want to walk home from school with an umbrella after all. Too risky.

Lily's mouth watered as she eyed the bowl in the middle of the table. It was filled with steaming hot corn that Mama had canned from her summer garden. Next to the bowl was a plate filled with red and orange tomato slices—the last of the season. The bread platter was piled high with fresh homemade bread. There was a cup of milk beside everyone's plate. When sweet corn was the main entrée, Lily was allowed to eat as much as she wanted to. Papa had just sprinkled salt on Lily's mound of corn when a knock at the door stopped him. Papa wiped his hands on his napkin and went to see who had come to visit.

Papa opened the door to find Nate Mast, hat in his hands. He stood stiffly, with a somber look on his face. Papa invited Nate to join the family for dinner, but he didn't want to sit down.

“I stopped by to let you know that Teacher Ellen is in the hospital,” Nate said. “She was on her way home from school when a car smashed into the back of her buggy. Careless teenagers. They were driving much too fast.” He looked down at his feet. “She has been badly hurt. There won't be any school tomorrow. Maybe not for a while.”