Will O Wisp (16 page)

Millard bailed out of the buggy and
rushed toward them. “What happened? Gracie, you hurt?”

“
She is,” Melinda said.
“She has a swollen ankle from stepping in a fox hole. We sure could
use some help getting her to the sofa. We got her this far, and
we're worn out. She is in an awful lot of pain.”

“
Open the door,” Millard
ordered. He scooped Gracie up in his arms and tried to ignore her
groaning protests as he carried her to the parlor. He eased her
down on the sofa. “There now. Let's see that ankle.”

Melinda took the high top shoe and
sock off. “Oh my, it does look bad. Look at how discolored and
swollen it is.”

“
You t
hink it might be broken?” Millard asked. “I can go get the
doctor if you need me to.”

“
What do you think,
Gracie?” Melinda asked.

“
It hurts like blazes, but
it's hard to tell if my ankle is broken. I know I can't put any
weight on it. Put some cold water compresses on the ankle, and some
pillows under it to get my leg up in the air. If the ankle doesn't
look better in the morning, you can go for the doctor.”

Shana remembered Clara had been left
by the barn door. She grabbed the milk pail and told May Jean where
she was going. Shana opened the back half barn door while May Jean
stood behind her. Clara was in a big hurry to come in. She bumped
into Shana. When Shana went down, she took May Jean down with
her.

By the time, they got on their feet,
Clara had her head in the stanchion. She crooked her neck around to
look out at the girls, waiting for her feed.

Shana locked the stanchion in place
and went for the feed. She emptied one of the cans, Gracie made up,
in the trough and got the milk stool off the nail. Once she had the
stool about where she thought Gracie put it, she placed the bucket
under the cow and edged down on the seat.

“
What do you want me to
do?” May Jean asked.

Shana stared at the cow's full bag.
“Tis sure I am I need to figure out how Aunt Gracie milked this
cow. Do you know how to milk a cow, May Jean?”

“
Sure, I do. I haven't had
to do it too often, but I know how.”

“
Let me give it a try. If I
can't figure this out, you can take over. For right now, you gather
eggs. Don't forget to carry the stick in the bush to hit the mean
rooster with.” Shana put her hands on two of the teats and squeezed
down. A small amount of milk dripped from the end of the teats and
fell in the bucket. That was encouraging. Shana squeezed again, and
the drips turned into a squirt.

Bluebell heard the whoosh when the
milk hit the tin bucket. She knew what that meant and came out of
the manger to watch. When she meowed, Shana aimed a teat at her and
squirted the milk all over the cat's face. Satisfied, Bluebell
licked her face.

Clara must have been contented for the
moment. She swished her tail back and forth. Each time the tail
came near Shana she felt the breeze from it. Then the tail came at
her and hit her up side the head. Shana got over balanced and fell
off the stool backward. Clara didn't seem to notice.

Shana got up and dusted herself off.
“That very tail is dangerous. If you want something to do, May
Jean, see if you can keep Clara's tail from hitting me until I get
done.”

May Jean came over and grabbed the
tail. By holding on to it, she could keep the tail from coming at
Shana. She kept that up until the teats ran dry, but Shana still
had two more to go. Her hands hurt bad enough that her fingers lost
their grip.

“
Me hands are gettin'
tired, they are. More's the pity, I'm only half done. May Jean, you
spell me while I watch Clara's tail,” Shana said.

So they switched jobs. Clara ran out
of feed. Shana had to give her another can to keep her from getting
restless.

After they let Clara out of the barn,
the girls took the milk bucket back to the house. Melinda was
cooking supper, and Millard was trying to entertain Gracie to keep
her from thinking about the pain in her ankle.

Shana and May Jean went in to see how
she was doing.

Gracie said, “I wondered where you
girls got off to. That cow needs milking. I sure ain't in no shape
to do it.”

Millard said, “I can milk that cow for
you, Gracie. Why didn't you say something?” He stood up.

Shana said, “No need to worry, sir. We
just milked the cow and brought the milk to Aunt
Melinda.”

“
You did?” Gracie said in
surprise. “Much obliged, girls. That's really nice of you to do
that for me without me having to tell you.”

Millard stayed for supper that night.
He promised to come back the next morning to help with chores. He
told Shana he'd milk the cow for her after he checked Gracie's
ankle.

The next morning, Gracie's ankle
didn't seem so puffed up. It was tender to the touch. In a couple
of days, she could put enough weight on the foot to limp to the
table.

Chapter
Twelve

That evening at supper, Melinda said,
“Gracie, it's your turn to say the blessing.”

“
All right,” Gracie said
agreeably and bowed her head. “Lord, we are awful thankful for the
food on this table. We're thankful for the fish we caught, so we
didn't have to eat what was left of that old hen the possum caught
last night. We are thankful for the bowl of potatoes. Them fried
from potatoes kept from freezing during the hard winter by hens
sitting on them.”

“
Gracie,” Melinda
interrupted. “I think we get the idea. Just wind it up before the
food gets cold.”

“
Lord, Melinda says to say
Amen now so Amen.” Gracie winked at the girls. They
giggled.

“
You're not setting a very
good example for these girls,” scolded Melinda.

“
Next time we'll let Shana
say the blessing, and see just how much she's learned,” Gracie
said. “Now start passing the food.”

Melinda had warmed up the leftover
fish along with the other left overs. When the fish platter passed
from Shana to May Jean, the girl looked at the pieces of fish.
“Here, Shana. Take the platter back. I don't want whatever this
is.”

“
W
hy not?” Gracie barked, taking the platter from
Shana.

“
Cause I don't know what it
is,” May Jean said timidly.

“
It's the fish we caught
yesterday morning,” Melinda explained. “We caught so many we
couldn't eat all of them at once.”

Gracie offered the platter back to May
Jean. The girl shook her head no and kept her hands on the table.
“You say that's fish? I still don't want it. Us Graves don't eat no
fish that don't have a head on it. That's how we can tell what
we're eating.”

“
Fine then,” Gracie said,
setting the platter down. “It just leaves more for the rest of
us.”

For dessert, Melinda dished them up a
bowl of strawberry shortcake and spooned whip cream over
it.

“
This sure is good,” Gracie
said. “Much obliged to you girls for picking the strawberries. You
know we can have more of this if you pick the berries every other
day until they're gone.”

“
I'm for that,” May Jean
said. “Mama don't bake much at our house.”

“
Why not, dear?” Melinda
asked.

“
She said doesn't do any
good to bake cookies or a cake, cause there are so many of us we
eat it up too fast,” May Jean said.

“
I thought that's what bake
goods were for,” Gracie said, looking at Melinda.

Melinda looked baffled.

“
Did you notice Thad's cows
while you were in the pasture?” Gracie asked the girls.

“
Sure and we did, but I
didn't count them. Did Mr. Sawyer tell you how many head there
was?” Shana asked.

“
Thirty five cows with
calves by their side. There's a bull with them, too. Thad didn't
say the bull was mean, but you girls stay away from him just to be
on the safe side,” Gracie warned.

“
We will,” Shana
said.

“
I don't want to be chased
by a mean bull,” May Jean agreed.

“
Aunt Gracie?” Shana began
after being thoughtful a moment.

“
What?”

“
The Sawyer cattle pretty
much all look alike. How do you tell them apart?”

“
Thad is with them so much
he knows each one of them right off. Usually by markings and size,”
Gracie said.

“
What are the cows names?”
Shana asked.

Gracie put her fork on her plate as
her voice rose. “Why in the world would anyone want to name a whole
herd of crapping critters?”

Shana put her hand over her mouth and
giggled.

“
Gracie Evans! Watch your
mouth! We're eating supper. It seems you have forgotten that,”
scolded Melinda. She eyed the smiling girls. “Now both of you eat
so I can get the dishes done.”

At bedtime, Melinda looked in on the
girls to see if they settled down for the night. She tucked the
covers up around both of them. “Sleep tight, you two. Don't let the
bed bugs bite, and if they do beat them with a shoe until they're
black and blue.”

The girls laughed.

“
It's more fun at this
house than it is at my house,” May Jean said sadly.

After Gracie and Melinda went to
sleep, the girls heard the elderly women snore. Shana whispered,
“You want to walk out in the timber and see if the will o wisp is
still there tonight?”

“
That might not be a good
idea. We best stay in our bed,” May Jean said.

“
It c
an't hurt a thing. Will o wisps always run away. They won't
hurt us if we don't get too close,” Shana said.

“
How do you know?” May Jean
asked.

“
There was always talk
about them in Ireland roamin' here and there. Never heard of any
that hurt live people,” Shana declared.

“
Maybe the will o wisps in
Iowa won't like us watching them. They might be mean,” May Jean
insisted.

“
They generally don't get
mean. I've never heard of one that would do more than scare us a
wee bit. Let's see what we can find in the timber. Aunt Gracie and
I saw one a few days ago,” Shana whispered.

May Jean came up on her elbow. “You
did?”

Shana boasted softly, “We sure
did.”

May Jean's interest was piqued. “What
did it look like?”

“
To be sure, it was a white
wispy form movin' fast. To tell the truth, the being was too far
away to get a good luck at,” Shana said. “That's why I want another
look.”

May Jean relaxed. She paused a moment
to consider. “All right, if you want to go, I guess I'm game. Won't
your aunts give us a hard time if they find out we're up and
outside in the dark? In the timber to boot.” May Jean
asked,

“
Get dressed. They are
never goin' to know we went outside.” Shana pointed out at the open
window. “We're goin' out that very way quietly.”

After they dressed, Shana climbed onto
the sill and slid off. She lost her grip and fell to the ground.
May Jean giggled as she looked over the sill at Shana, sitting
below her. Shana said, “Watch that first step. It be a
doosy.”

May Jean stuck her feet out the
window. When she bellied over the sill, Shana thought the girl
seemed to be a pro.

They made so much noise Spot woke up.
He loped off the porch and sniffed their legs, whining for
attention.

“
Hush up dog. Go lay down,”
Shana scolded.

Spot put his tail between his legs and
backed away. As the girls went around to the front of the house, he
followed.

Shana slipped into the kitchen for
some matches. When she came back, she lifted the barn lantern down
from the nail on the porch.

In the darkness of a moonless night,
the girls walked down the lane with Spot behind them. Shana looked
back. “Well, scolding that dog will do no good at all. He insists
on comin' with us.” Shana lit the lantern and turned the flame down
low. They walked into the timber as far as they dared.

When they stopped, Shana said, “You
want to become my blood sister in a ceremony like the Indians
do.”

May Jean shrugged. “I guess so, but
ain't that where we have to cut ourselves and put our blood
together. That sounds like it will hurt me.”

“
Tis true I agree. That
doesn't sound like much fun. Miss Gracie says there's another way.
We can light up a twig and put it out. Once the tip of the twig
cools, we mark our wrists with the ashes. We rub our wrists
together. How about that?”

“
That sound a heap easier,”
May Jean said.

Shana picked up a few twigs and pulled
a match out of her pocket.

“
What are you going to do?”
May Jean said.

“
Make a small fire and find
a twig to burn to get the ashes off of,” Shana
explained.

“
What if someone sees the
fire? We'll get in trouble,” May Jean worried.