THE NEXT MORNING Angie ran down the stairs to the kitchen where her mother was already fixing breakfast for the family.
“Momma, I had a dream last night, all about making my very own crocheted blanket. It had lots of colors, like a rainbow. Will you teach me how to make one? Please?” Angie begged.
Faith smiled at Angie as she turned from stirring the pot of oatmeal, a little amused by her daughter’s plea. “I think you’re old enough to learn how to crochet. But you’ll have to earn your own yarn. We barely earn enough money to buy yarn for my yearly blanket that we sell at the fair.”
“I can earn my own money, momma, I promise!” Angie exclaimed with a huge smile on her face. “I’ll find a way.”
“I’m sure you will,” Faith smiled, “I’m very sure you will. Now you’d better grab a bite to eat and join your father out in the yard. He’s waiting for you to help him in the garden.”
Angie sat down to the table and ate quickly and then ran outside to join William.
“What do you want me to do, daddy?” she called as she ran up to him.
“Weed the gardens” her father answered.
“Can I pick the vegetables instead?” she asked, dreading the idea of getting her hands dirty.
“No, not right now,” her father said pointing to the ground, “The weeds need pulling first.”
She frowned, but obediently knelt down in the dirt and slowly pulled a couple weeds.
“Won’t get it done like that,” William knelt down beside her. “Get your back into it, Honey Bee. Don’t be afraid of a little dirt. It won’t hurt you. A little water will clean you up when you’re finished.”
“But it feels icky” Angie protested.
“No, it doesn’t feel icky,” William smiled. “It feels good. This is God’s gift to us. Let this good rich dirt run through your fingers. This is what makes our vegetables grow. This soil provides us with good food and a good life.”
Angie didn’t quite appreciate the “good rich dirt” on her fingers the way her father did. But she determined she would work hard and get the chore over with. She realized that she wasn’t going to be able to talk her way out of her punishment and decided to work as fast as she could so she could wash all this “good rich dirt” off her hands as soon as possible.
The sun grew hot and Angie grew tired. She stood up and let her tired dirty hands hang beside her. “I’m done daddy” she hollered. He looked over at her from where he was chopping wood. William set down his axe and came over to inspect Angie’s completed job.
“Not bad, Honey Bee. You did a pretty good job. Alright, you can collect the vegetables now.”
“But I’m tired,” she protested.
“Collect the vegetables and then you’re done,” William instructed.
Angie didn’t argue any longer. Just the idea of almost being done with her punishment was enough to give her the needed encouragement to gather what ripe vegetables she could find. She loaded the basket and took the vegetables into the house and dumped them in the sink and then went outside to fill the basket again. When she dumped the last of the vegetables in the sink, her mother thanked her and told her what a wonderful job she’d done.
“Now go wash up,” Faith told her, “Dinner is almost ready. I’ll need your help setting the table.”
Even though Angie was tired, she knew it was part of her daily chores to set the table and help with the dishes, so she went back outside to draw water.
At the dinner table, Angie’s mind was only on retiring to bed, but her mother insisted that the children bathed on Saturday nights so they’d be clean for Sunday church. Angie could feel herself falling asleep in the wash basin, the warm water soothing her tired body. But she felt good about what she had accomplished that day. I’m not so little, she told herself, I can do all kinds of things to earn some money. I’ll be able to get my yarn before winter sets in.
After her bath, she dressed in her nightshirt, kissed her parents goodnight and dragged herself up the stairs, flopping onto her bed. Her mother came up behind her and covered her with her blankets.
Tucking her in, Faith said, “You did a very good job today. I’m very proud of how hard you worked.”
“I’m so tired momma,” Angie said quietly.
“I know,” her mother said. “Try to be nice to Pearl, dear, alright?”
“I’m not going to be nice to Pearl,” Angie responded with her eyes closed and beginning to drift off to sleep.
“Land sakes, my dear” Faith laughed gently. “You must get your stubbornness from your father.”
“But stubbornness is a good thing, momma,” Angie could barely be heard,” Papa says stubbornness can make a body stand by his principles.”
“Or worse,” Faith stroked her daughter’s head. “Just be sure to mix some sensibility in with that stubbornness or you may be standing all alone with your principles.”
Angie was already asleep.
The next morning at the little neighborhood church, the pastor led the singing. The Owens always sat up front with the McKennas. When Pastor Johnson paused to ask if there were any testimonies from that congregation that morning, Angie sprung to her feet.
“I have something to say,” Angie announced not realizing what a testimony was. She just knew it was a time for people who had something to say…to say it. “I am going to learn to crochet like my momma and I need a job so I can buy my yarn. I’ll work hard for you. I know how to make beds, clean dishes, and even weed gardens. If you need an errand done or a chore done, I can do it for you.”
She then promptly sat down with a grin on her face.
The congregation began to laugh, to Angie’s surprise. What was so funny? she thought, and felt embarrassed, shrinking down in the pew. Her mother patted her on the knee and smiled as she whispered in her ear, “You said that exactly right, my dear.”
“Then why did everyone laugh?” Angie whispered back.
“Because you did that so well, you made everyone happy,” her mother quietly responded.
Angie knew that her mother was just being kind, and she still felt embarrassed.
After the church service while the Owens were shaking Pastor Johnson’s hand, Elma and George walked up to Angie. George said, “I think we can help you earn some of that yarn. Come by our house in the morning and we’ll find some jobs for you.”
Angie beamed and thanked them.
“Oh Angie,” Pearl called, “I have a job for you. You can clean up after our horses. A job you’re fit for!” Cora, her mother laughed along with Pearl.
“No thank you,” Angie responded, “I already have a job, a much better job!”
“Her parents are too poor to buy her some lousy yarn,” Pearl said to her mother, “They’re so poor, I bet Angie even has to work for the dirt on her face.”
“Yes, it would seem so,” her mother agreed and smiled at Faith.
“I don’t have a dirty face!” Angie objected.
“Of course you don’t,” Elma tried to calm Angie. “Pearl is just making up lies.”
“Never mind them,” Faith said gently to Angie. “Evidently they have nothing better to do with their day than spread unhappiness.”
“I’m glad she’s not my mother,” Angie said to Faith. “She’s as mean as Pearl.”
“Must be where Pearl learns it from,” William added as he led them down the front steps of the church. “Let’s go. It’s time to go home for Sunday dinner. Your mother worked hard on it all morning.”
“I’ll beat you home” Billy challenged Angie as he got a head start on her, running ahead of the family.
“No you won’t!” Angie called behind him and sped by him, beating him to the front door of their house.
William and Faith walked slowly behind. “It breaks my heart,” Faith told William, “the way the Hubbards behave toward our family, especially toward Angie.”
“We’ll have to keep praying for them,” William said.
“And praying for ourselves as we
ll. My patience is running quite thin,” Faith confided.
William held her hand as they walked up to the front door. “That’s alright, my dear,” he assured her. “A little patience goes a long way.”
“I hope so.” She shook her head as she followed behind the children into the house.
Early the very next morning, Angie rushed through her breakfast and ran to the McKenna house to begin her day of earning a few coins. She knocked at the door and waited for Elma to open it.
“My lands child,” Elma remarked. “Do you know what time it is? I thought I was the only one who got up this early.”
“I’m ready to work for you,” Angie smiled.
“Well, alright,” Elma said as she stepped out onto the porch. “Let’s start right here, weeding the flower garden.”
Angie moaned a little, but made sure Elma didn’t hear her.
Elma walked past her and out to the yard. “Weeding,” Elma pointed to her flower garden. “Lots of weeding to do. I’m afraid my garden gloves are too big for you Angie, but you can wear them if you’d like.”
“That’s alright,” Angie knelt down onto the dark soil, “I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty.”
Angie had been working in the garden for a little more than an hour when she heard a familiar voice beside her.
“What are you doing?” Pearl asked as she leaned over the four-foot fence.
“Working!” Angie answered as she went back to weeding Elma’s garden, irritated that Pearl was standing there.
“Why?” Pearl asked.
“I’m earning money,” Angie said through her gritted teeth.
“For yarn? That’s silly. I wouldn’t work for yarn!”
“I know you wouldn’t,” Angie looked up at her with disgust, “That’s because you’re too lazy.”
“I’m not lazy, I’m rich, so I don’t have to work. You’re poor and sour about it,” Pearl smiled.
“I am not sour, and you are too lazy!” Angie said as she stood to her feet.
“Take that back!” Pearl demanded.
“I will not!” Angie said as she came closer to Pearl, “I’m just speaking the truth! Why, you’re so lazy, even the gypsies wouldn’t want you!”
“You’re so mean Angie Owens!” Pearl stomped her feet, “I’m going to tell my mother what you said and she’s going to have your mother take you behind the woodshed for sure! And I’ll be there to see it!”
“Not again! Girls, why do you always fight with each other?” Elma said as she came rushing out the front door.
“Why, you’d think you’d stay clear of each other the way you get on so. Now, Pearl, you run along home and no more of this bickering, you hear? And you’d better get back to weeding, Angie child. Lots to do before lunch time.”
“Yes Mrs. McKenna,” Pearl said sweetly and continued down the sidewalk and Angie knelt back down to resume working in the soil, still perturbed with Pearl.
Once Elma turned her back and began to return to the house, Pearl stopped suddenly, picked up a nearby rock, and threw it in Angie’s direction, just missing her. Angie jumped up and glared her eyes at Pearl as Pearl ran quickly down the road toward her home.
Around noon, Elma sent Angie to the General Store with George’s lunch.
“Well, look who’s here!” George smiled when he saw Angie emerge through the door.
“I brought you your lunch,” Angie said excitedly as she handed him the metal covered pan, “Where’s daddy?”
“I sent him on a delivery,” George said as he came around the counter.
“Hmmm, let’s see what you’ve brought,” George said as he took the pot and removed the lid, “Stew, chicken stew.”
“And homemade bread!” Angie added as she showed him the loaf wrapped in a towel that had been under her arm.
“Well, this just won’t do,” George looked at Angie a little worried, “This is way too much food for me to eat. You’ll just have to help me eat this.”
Angie followed George to the little table by the shelves behind the counter and found a chair.
“After we eat, can I help you here in the store?” Angie asked, “Elma said it’s getting too hot to work in the yard this afternoon.”
George thought for a moment. “Well, I do believe the floor needs a good sweeping. With all the dust in the road, it gets tracked in here on a daily basis, and it’s all I can do to keep up with it.”
“I’ll sweep the floor for you!” Angie said as her eyes wandered over to the domestic goods.
George caught her gaze and said, “I do believe we have some very nice yarns over there. You’ll have to take some time before you go home today and make sure you have a good look at them.”
Angie nodded her head as she took a bite of bread, and continued to look across the room at the yarns that sat on the shelves.
George smiled to himself and picked up a piece of bread to dip in his stew.
They were just finishing their meal when William came in the front door, surprised to see his daughter. “What are you doing here?”
“I brought George his lunch and now I’m going to help him clean the store.”
“Oh, you are?!” her father grinned, “Are you sure you’re not trying to take MY job?”
“No I’m not, daddy,” Angie said as she grabbed the broom, “As soon as I get enough money for my yarn, I’m going to quit.”
George and William laughed with each other at Angie’s enthusiasm.
Angie swept and dusted the entire store, taking her time whenever she neared the yarn shelves, eyeing the colors and trying to decide which skein she would buy first.
George then said, “Time to go home so you’ll have time to do your own chores. Take a look at the yarn on your way out and then return tomorrow.”
“How long will it be before I can earn my yarn?” Angie asked.
George smiled, “Go ahead, and take a skein with you. You’ve earned one.”
She ran over to the yarn shelves and spent time looking through each color.
“I’ll take this one,” she said as she showed George a blue skein, with a huge smile on her face.
“Very pretty,” George nodded approvingly.
“Thank you!” Angie ran to her father who was helping a customer. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and ran out of the store hugging her skein of yarn close to her chest. She ran all the way home and could hardly wait to show her mother her day’s earning.
Later that evening, Angie’s mother said, “Mrs. Hubbard came to see me today.”
Angie looked up at her mother as she helped dry the dishes from dinner.
“I hear you’ve been fighting with Pearl again,” Faith said sternly.
“She just asks for it momma!” Angie protested, “And I don’t like her.”
“Now Angie, that’s truly not very nice of you.” her mother scolded.
“Well, she’s not very nice either,” Angie tried to defend herself.
“Maybe so, but what does the good book tell us to do when people treat us badly?” Faith asked her.
Angie didn’t respond. She just continued to look at the dish she was drying.
“What does it say?” her mother gently insisted.
“I’m supposed to love my enemies,” Angie replied. “And surely she is my enemy!”
“Then you’d best love her, despite yourself,” Faith instructed.
“But why?!” Angie protested, “That just don’t make no sense!”
“Doesn’t make any sense, my dear. That just doesn’t make any sense,” her mother corrected her.
“Well, it doesn’t!” Angie said looking up at her mother.
“Angie,” her mother replied, touched the side of Angie’s head, “we get more with sugar than we do with vinegar. Keep treating her with kindness and Pearl will eventually come around. You’ll see. You may even become best friends.”
”No I won’t!” Angie looked horrified, “Not with her!”
“Angie?” her mother began, “will
you at least try?”
After a long pause, Angie answered reluctantly, “I guess I could try, but it won’t be easy.”
“Yes, well, you’d better go to bed now,” her mother instructed, “You have another early morning at Mrs. McKenna’s house. You know she likes to get a fresh start on her day.”
Angie set the last dish in the cupboard, set down the dish towel and ran upstairs to her bedroom.
“Treat her with kindness!” she muttered, “I’d rather kiss a skunk!”
The next morning, Angie ran to Elma’s house to begin her day of earning a few more coins. She already knew which color of yarn she would choose next.
After working in the yard all day, she went to the store with George’s lunch once again, and once again, there was entirely too much food for George to eat on his own. Angie ate with George and her father, and then went about sweeping the floor.
* * * *