Authors: Mary Christner Borntrager

Tags: #Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #test

Ellie (5 page)

Page 38

"Is that true?" asked Papa.

"Well, Fannie grabbed the lines," remarked Ellie.

"But you did pick them up first," said Roy. "Didn't she, Sammie?"

"Yes, she did."

"Didn't I tell you not to touch them?" asked Papa.

Ellie didn't answer.

"Didn't I?"

"Yes, but. . . ." She did not finish her sentence.

Papa opened the door and led her to the woodshed. He talked to her about how they could all have been killed and what anxiety she had put her parents through. Then he paddled her. Afterward, her father spoke to her again and told her why he had to punish her so severely, lest she forget and disobey again.

Well, they need not worry. She was going to die. Then they would be sorry. Ellie was strong-willed, and now she would seek revenge for the whipping she had received in the woodshed.

Mother sent her out to the corncrib to get corncobs to start the fire in the kitchen stove to cook the noon meal. They were unable to attend church because of the events of the morning. As Ellie opened the door to the crib and stepped inside, she determined she would hold her nose shut until she was dead. Then her father would wish he had never whipped her. Again and again she tried this. Finally, in utter exasperation, she said aloud, "Oh, well. I can't even breathe like that."

Her revenge was short-lived. Deep down she knew she deserved the punishment.

Page 39

6
Haystacks and Straw Ticks

Every day was a busy day in the Maust household, but it seemed Saturdays outdid them all. The housecleaning had to be done. Lamp chimneys needed to be washed and the lamps filled with kerosine. Both stoves were polished on that day and the pots and pans were scrubbed until they shone. Pie and cake baking were other tasks to be performed on Saturday . . . not to mention washing hair and bathing, polishing shoes for Sunday wear, and any other unforeseen job which might crop up and need immediate attention. If some garden vegetable had to be picked and put up without delay, it was done, no matter how many other chores needed to be done.

Ellie wondered if her mother ever slept. She was still working when her daughter went to bed in the evening, and in the morning was already at some task when Ellie awoke. Papa had said that when spring came and the outside work started again, he

Page 40

would try to get a
Maut
(hired girl) to help his wife. But for the rest of the fall and winter, they would make-do. He said Ellie was old enough now to help more, too. At seven and a half, she could bake pies and cakes already and was learning to bake bread. "It is better she learned young," Papa had told his wife. And Lizzie Maust was a good, patient teacher.

This Saturday was no different from all the other Saturdays, except that Mama discovered the two straw ticks from the upstairs beds needed filling. Instead of a mattress, each bed had a large sacklike bag which was filled with straw. The ends were sewn shut to keep the straw inside, and the ticks were placed on rope springs, or sometimes real bedsprings.

What fun the children had climbing up on their freshly filled ticks and jumping on the big heap to distribute somewhat more evenly its contents. Then at night they would settle down and squirm and wiggle until they had feathered a little spot just right for their bodies. The straw smelled so fresh, and its rustling made them remember the waving grain as it stood in the field with the wind rippling through it. Ellie thought that it looked like the waves on a big sea.

"Ellie, come help me bring the straw ticks down from upstairs," Mama said. "We will have to empty the old straw, and I'll wash the empty ticks this morning. They can hang out to dry until toward evening, then we will fill them. I must get this job done before cold weather sets in. It's been cooler in the mornings and evenings, and I don't want to wait."

Page 41

Mother started upstairs, with Ellie following at her heels.

Mother decided she might as well wash all the bedding, too, so she began to throw armfuls of blankets and covers down the stairs. She called to Roy, who was in the kitchen watching the twins, to come take the covers from the stairs so she and Ellie could walk down with the straw ticks. Roy took an armful, obediently placing it on the kitchen floor. But one of the twins was curiously investigating the stove. Knowing the danger she was in, Roy picked her up and placed her in another part of the room. By this time, the other baby was in trouble. Reaching up, she had pulled a small plant from the windowsill. Roy picked it up and began to scoop up the dirt when he heard a thump, thump, thump all the way down the stairs. There was a shrill screech, and he looked around to see his mother lying there with the straw tick on top of her.

"Roy Maust," she said, "didn't I tell you to take those covers off the stairs? Now see once what happened. I stepped on them and they bumped me all the way down." She got up and smoothed her hair, straightening her covering and dress. "Why didn't you do as I told you?"

Roy explained about the babies.

"Ach, well," said Lizzie, "those two sure can upset things." Then she laughed. "They really can," she said. "They upset me.'' Realizing now that their mother was not hurt, Ellie and Roy laughed, too.

"Oh, Mama," Ellie said. "You looked so funny bumping down the steps."

Page 42

"Yes, well," said her mother, "we won't talk about it anymore. It doesn't pay to
schussel
(hurry)."

They carefully brought the other tick downstairs, opened the seam, emptied the contents, and began the washing. Ellie carried water to heat in the big copper boiler. Mother also had stacks of diapers to wash. Ellie cut up homemade lye soap and put it in the hot water to dissolve. Lye soap kept the Maust laundry snowy white and clean. Their wash looked so nice drying on the line against the blue of the sky. If Ellie's mother had dared to be proud, she would have been proud of her white wash. But, of course, she must not even let such an idea enter her mind.

The twins were put to bed with their bottles. This was a good time, Mama said, for Ellie to sweep and scrub the living-room and kitchen floors. The floors were also washed with lye soap. Mother said it kept them from turning dirty gray. Papa sometimes treated them with linseed oil to help preserve the wood.

The house was quiet now. Roy had been sent out to the barn to help Sammie. They were cleaning down cobwebs in the cow barn. Ellie was glad she did not have that task. All she could think of was the big fat spiders they might stir up. She liked the outdoors, but this time she was glad she was a girl with indoor work to do.

The day wore on with its many duties, and Ellie was getting tired. Yet she looked forward to filling the straw ticks. Just before chore time, her mother took the two blue-and-white-striped ticks from the line and told Ellie to bring the twins and follow her

Page 43

out to the straw shed. The babies were just beginning to walk, so Ellie could easily lead them along by their little hands.

"Now, set the babies over by the haystack and hold this tick open for me, so I can put the straw in," Mama said. "We can keep an eye on the little ones, and they won't be in our way if we leave them by the haystack." When Papa's hayloft was filled and he needed more room for his hay crop, he often made it into stacks out by the straw shed. This year there had been a bumper crop.

Mrs. Maust did not know that some of her hens had been laying eggs out here. The nest was well hidden, but not so well that two exploring babies couldn't find it. And find it they did. Mama and Ellie kept glancing at the two little girls playing busily. Mother and daughter worked as swiftly as they could to finish their job. They had one tick done and started the other one. The finished one lay on its side with the top open. It looked fat and inviting to Ellie.

"Come on," said her mother, "we must get the second one filled while the babies are behaving so well."

Soon both straw ticks were completed. Mother thought it would work best if they took the twins to the house and put them in their cribs before she and Ellie brought the straw ticks inside.

"What is that smell?" asked Ellie as they drew near the haystack.

"Ach, my, I don't know," said Mother. She could see Fannie's back as she sat there, but when she saw Fannie's face and hair, she knew where the smell

Page 44

came from. "Eggs, rotten eggs!" she exclaimed. "There must have been a nest of eggs out here for a long time." Egg yolk and pieces of hay were all over her child.

"Get Annie," she told Ellie, "and come quick to the house." But Ellie couldn't find Annie.

"Mama," she said, "I don't know where Annie is. She isn't anywhere."

"Ach," said Mama, "she has to be somewhere. Look again and bring her quick." But no matter how hard Ellie tried, she could not find her baby sister. Finally she ran to the house, where Mother had taken Fannie and was now removing the foul-smelling clothes from the child.

"Mama, I've looked everywhere and I can't find her."

"Get Papa, and the boys, too. They must help you. I cannot leave little Fannie now. Go, once," said Lizzie anxiously.

Ellie sped to the barn and told Papa and the boys of their predicament.

"Are you sure you looked good?" asked Jake.

"Yes, Papa."

"Well, then, come, boys. We have to hurry and find her so we can get the milking started. Soon it's time."

Back to the haystack they went. The smell of rotten eggs still hung in the air.

"Phew!" exclaimed Sammie. "What smells so bad?"

"Rotten eggs," answered his sister. "The babies found a nest and broke some eggs."

Page 45

"I think maybe Annie is somewhere here in this hay," said Papa. "Start digging with your hands and keep calling her name."

Each one began to work in earnest. Handful after handful was removed, but still no baby was found. Papa began to fear she might have crawled part way in before the hay came down and smothered her. On and on they worked, and finally the stack was completely flattened. Well, she sure wasn't in there.

"Let's take this straw tick to the house and see if Mama has thought of where she may have gone," Papa said. "Sammie, take the other end, and Roy, open the gate for us. Ellie, you wait here in case Annie is around the barn somewhere."

As they picked up their cargo, Roy said, "Papa, I saw something move in the straw tick. I think maybe it's the cat."

Papa and Sammie laid the load they were carrying on the ground, and Papa looked into the open end of the tick. What a sight he saw. There was the smelly little girl covered with egg yolk, wisps of hay and straw clinging to her.

"If you were a little older, I'd paddle you good," said Mr. Maust as he pulled his daughter from the straw pile.

"Here, Ellie, take her to your mother." He and Sammie took the straw tick to the house and went out to get ready for the evening chores. Papa wanted to brush and curry Dixie so she would look her best for tomorrow's trip to church. Her leg had healed well with his expert care and his standby remedy of Black Diamond Liniment.

Page 46

Ellie helped clean up the messy twins, then made her way to the barn to milk her two cows. A yellow butterfly fluttered around a little mud puddle by the barn door. She thought of Missy. Oh, she would have so much to tell her next school day . . . all about the haystack and straw tick and the twins.

After the chores were finished and the supper dishes done, the children took turns taking their Saturday evening baths in the big tin tub which was brought into the kitchen. Ellie was tired and anxious to get to bed. After Mother had tightly braided her freshly washed hair, Ellie headed upstairs and made her little spot in the newly filled tick.

"I almost spanked that Annie today," Jake said to his wife. "I needed to hold back with all my might to keep from it. Now I have to restack the hay."

"I need a
Maut,"
is all Lizzie said.

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