Life with Lily

by Mary Ann Kinsinger

  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.”

  Sweet, pretty Teacher Ellen couldn’t be hurt! She had to get better and be the teacher again. She simply had to! Lily was no longer hungry. She pushed her corn to the side of her plate. Big tears started to roll down Lily’s cheeks. Soon, she was sobbing.

  Mama picked Lily up and held her on her lap, hugging her tightly. “Everything will turn out okay, Lily. Teacher Ellen is in God’s care. Once she is feeling a little better, we’ll take you to go visit her.”

  Day after day, school was canceled. Day after day, news from the hospital was the same. Teacher Ellen remained unconscious. Her parents stayed with her at the hospital. Lily overheard someone say that as soon as Teacher Ellen could travel, her parents wanted to take her home to Wisconsin.

  If Teacher Ellen left Pleasant Hill School, who would be their teacher? It was a continual worry to Lily.

  14

  Squeaky Cheese

  Once a week, Mama made cheese and butter. First came the cheese making. Mama would allow the extra milk to sour a little. Then she would heat the sour milk on the stove.

  Mama clipped a thermometer on the side of the milk pail. She needed to keep a careful watch on the temperature. The milk should not get too hot, just hot enough. While the milk was heating, Mama would break a rennet tablet in half and put it into a little bit of warm water to dissolve. Then she would pour the water into the sour milk and stir. After the milk reached the right temperature, Mama took the milk pail off the stove and placed the pail into a tub of lukewarm water.

  While they waited for the milk to thicken, Mama would start the butter making. She poured fresh sweet cream into the butter churn. Lily and Joseph took turns turning the crank. The paddles made a pleasant slap, slap, slap sound as they hit the cream. After a while, the sound changed to a muffled slap, slap, slap. If Lily looked inside the churn right now, she would see mounds of whipped cream. She knew that to be true because she had peeked inside many times. But it wasn’t butter yet. She kept on cranking the handle, until she heard just the right sound: slappity thump, slappity thump. Now it was butter!

  Mama carefully poured the buttermilk liquid—separated from the solid butter—out of the churn into several glass jars. One jar for Papa, who loved to drink fresh buttermilk. She would use the rest for baking. She put the butter into a bowl and kneaded it with the back of a wooden spoon to squeeze every little drop of buttermilk from the butter. Not one drop of liquid would be left. And then Mama would sprinkle salt into the butter and knead some more. Finally, she would shape the butter into little balls and place them in a glass dish in the refrigerator. That delicious sweet butter would feed the family all week long, until the next cheese and butter making day.

  The sour milk, thickening in the pail, was ready. Usually, Mama used it to make cottage cheese, but sometimes she made a soft cheese that spread on bread like honey. Today, she wanted to make hard cheese to slice for sandwiches. She made long cuts all the way through the thickened milk, then made cuts the other way. Mama rolled up her sleeves as far as they could go and washed her hands to make sure they were perfectly clean. She gently lifted the cut pieces of thickened milk with her fingers, then broke them into smaller pieces as they fell back into the pail. Over and over she gently sifted the cheese with her fingers, until it was all crumbly. They were called curds.

  “It’s time to get the other pail ready, Lily,” Mama said.

  Lily opened a drawer to get a large piece of cheesecloth and a box of clothespins. She fastened the cheesecloth to the top of a big white five-gallon pail tightly with many clothespins. “It’s ready,” she said as she set the pail next to Mama.

  Mama poured the curds into the big pail. The curds stayed in the cheesecloth but the liquid whey dripped through it, pinging into the pail. Ping, ping, ping. Mama left the cheese alone until the whey had completely drained. The cheese curds were nice and chewy and squeaked when Lily bit into them. Lily and Joseph loved to sample them, but Mama only let them try a few bites. She needed the rest to make a big block of cheese.

  Mama sprinkled salt over the curds on the cheesecloth, stirred, and placed the curds into the cheese press. She screwed the top weight on the press, and turned the crank to squeeze the curds together. Mama turned and turned and turned the crank. As the crank turned, the cheese squeaked. It really did. Lily didn’t like hearing the squeak. It sounded as if the cheese was getting pinched. Mama said that was silly—cheese could not feel anything! But still, Lily covered her ears.

  When Mama couldn’t turn the crank one more time, she knew the cheese was squeezed as much as it could be squeezed. Mama set the press on a shelf in the pantry. It would take a week for the curds to form into a nice chunk of hard cheese.

  The last thing to do was to feed the pail of whey to the pigs. Those pigs seemed even happier for cheese and butter making day than Lily and Joseph. Whey was a treat for pigs. Lily and Joseph would laugh as they listened to the pigs’ happy greedy snorts as they slurped down the whey. Lily picked Dannie up to carry him out to the barn with Mama and Joseph.

  It had rained during the night and the porch steps were slick. Mama slipped on the top step and tumbled down to the bottom. Lily and Joseph watched, horrified, as the big pail of whey bounced behind her and spilled all over her. Mama was soaking wet with whey! She lay at the bottom of the steps for a little while to catch her breath. Then she got up and limped slowly and painfully up the stairs to get cleaned up.

  Poor Mama.

  The pigs would not be getting their treat today.

  Poor pigs.

  15

  Lily’s New Teacher

  Day after day went by and there was no teacher to be found for Pleasant Hill School. Lily didn’t mind too much because she liked to stay at home with Mama and Joseph and Dannie.

  This morning, Lily and Joseph had played a game with empty thread bobbins. They tied the bobbins to Joseph’s toy horses with a piece of thread. As they guided the horses along, the bobbins would roll behind it. Usually, Lily liked to play horse and bobbin with Joseph, but this afternoon, she sat on a little stool beside Mama’s sewing machine. Mama was sewing a little tan shirt for Joseph. She made it look easy as she carefully guided the pieces of fabric under the needle while slowly pumping the treadle up and down with her feet.

  Joseph came over and watched Mama sew. “I want some chocolate milk.”

  “I’m almost done with your shirt, Joseph,” Mama said. “Then I’ll mix up some chocolate milk for all of us.” She stood and asked Joseph to hold his arms out to measure the sleeve length before she sewed the cuffs on at the end of the sleeves. Satisfied, she went to sit at the sewing machine to finish the shirt.

  But Joseph was upset that he had to keep waiting for chocolate milk. Right as Mama was about to sit down, Joseph yanked the chair away. Lily watched in hor
ror as Mama fell to the floor. Joseph’s eyes went wide. Mama got right up and brushed herself off. Her mouth was set in a tight line.

  “Little boys have to learn to be patient,” Mama told Joseph. “I don’t think anyone will be getting chocolate milk today.” Without another word, she sat back down at the sewing machine to finish the shirt.

  Later, after Dannie woke up from his afternoon nap, Mama called Lily and Joseph into the kitchen. She filled cups with plain cold milk and gave each one a cookie. But they would have to wait until tomorrow to have chocolate milk. Lily was very disappointed, but she knew Mama needed to teach a certain little boy to be patient.

  A month had passed without school. The school board still hadn’t found a new teacher, but Teacher Ellen had regained consciousness and soon would be ready to go home.

  As promised, Papa and Mama took Lily to go see Teacher Ellen in the hospital. Lily was shocked when she saw her. All of her pretty auburn hair had been shaved off. Her legs were held in ugly contraptions. It looked as if there were big screws that were fastened right into her legs. The sight of those big screws made Lily shudder.

  Teacher Ellen’s face lit up when she saw Lily. Lily was glad to see that her smile was still the same.

  “I’m sorry I won’t be able to be your teacher any longer,” Teacher Ellen said, “but the school board will find someone else and you can keep on learning. And we can still be friends. I will send you letters and you can write to me too. I want to hear everything that you’re learning in school and anything else you want to talk about.”

  That sounded like fun! Lily had never received a letter of her own in the mail. She was still sorry that Teacher Ellen had been hurt and wouldn’t be her teacher anymore. But Lily would write to her often. Every day! Maybe twice a day.

  One week later, Nate Mast stopped by Singing Tree Farm to tell Papa that the school board had found a new teacher. School would start again on Monday. Lily was excited! She hoped the new teacher would be just like Teacher Ellen.

  On Monday morning, Lily sat at her desk and studied the new teacher. This teacher looked older than Teacher Ellen. She had coal black hair and big bushy eyebrows, as big and fuzzy as wooly caterpillars. Lily thought she might look pretty if only her mouth wouldn’t pinch together into such a stern firm line.

  Lily felt her stomach turn into knots as the teacher glared at the scholars. Lily glanced over at cousin Hannah. She looked as scared as Lily felt.

  The teacher stood. “Good morning, children. My name is Katie Zook. I will be your teacher for the rest of this school year. We go to school to learn, not to have fun. The first thing that needs to be done is to get rid of all these ridiculous pictures on the walls.”

  Lily’s heart dropped. All of their pretty artwork was coming down? Teacher Katie directed the upper grade boys to remove the pictures. One by one, the pictures were removed and stacked on Teacher Katie’s desk. The wall looked bare and sad. Teacher Katie tore the pictures up and tossed them into the trash can. “That’s the last of such nonsense!”

  Lily felt like crying. She thought of all the happy Friday afternoon art periods with Teacher Ellen. It was all gone. All in the trash now.

  The scholars were quiet and sober as Teacher Katie handed out assignments to each class. She walked grimly between the aisles to make sure everyone was doing their work properly.

  Lily was glad when it was time to go home. She hadn’t smiled at all today. Not once. She couldn’t wait to be at home with Papa and Mama and play with Joseph and Dannie.

  Teacher Katie was very stern. From the first day, she ruled with a firm hand. The schoolroom felt as if a heavy gray rain cloud hung over it, even on sunny days. No one dared to disobey Teacher Katie. Lily tried her best to write and color neatly in her books. She didn’t want to upset the teacher.

  Because Teacher Katie liked to yell.

  She yelled at someone every day, for the smallest things. Missing a spelling word, not sitting up straight, daydreaming. Teacher Katie didn’t like to have to explain anything more than once. If she had to review a difficult arithmetic lesson because a scholar couldn’t understand it, she would get cross. She kept a ruler tucked inside her apron belt and used it to whack a scholar’s hand whenever she became frustrated. Whack, whack, whack!

  Cousin Levi was a source of great frustration for Teacher Katie. Levi wore new shoes, and they squeaked when he walked to the chalkboard. The squeaky sound made Teacher Katie cross. She thought he was making them squeak on purpose.

  Poor Levi. His face was as red as a ripe tomato. Tears welled in his eyes. His hands twisted in his lap. Lily would not want to be in his shoes.

  Teacher Katie was not the kind of teacher who went outside to play with the children at recess and Lily was glad for that. Recess was the only fun part of the day. When Teacher Katie said to put away books for recess, you never saw such good children. They quickly put their books away and sat up straight, eager to be free from Teacher Katie’s cross words, at least for a little while.

  Today, Lily quietly closed her book and placed it carefully inside her desk. She laid her pencil on the special little tray along the side, closed the lid, and waited until Teacher Katie told everyone to stand to be dismissed. Teacher Katie peered up and down the rows at the scholars. The way she scowled made her two big thick eyebrows meet in the middle, like two caterpillars kissing. Finally, she gave a brief nod, a signal for permission to leave. Lily joined the girls on their side of the room to get her coat and scarf and then hurried outside to join a huddle. She wondered what they would be playing today. It was Isaac’s turn to pick.

  The children gathered around Isaac to listen to his idea. Isaac always had the best ideas. He was a wonderful boy, a big eighth grader, with sun-bleached hair, almost white, and eyes the color of a blue sky on a cloudless, summer day. Isaac had a grin that lit up his whole face. Lily thought he was beautiful.

  “Do you remember the book Teacher Ellen had been reading to us before her accident?” Isaac said. He meant a book about a pioneer family who had traveled west in a covered wagon and built a log cabin. “I think it would be fun to play pioneer. We could build a few little cabins in the woods right here beside the school yard.”

  Everyone followed Isaac as he climbed through the fence and into the woods. “Look for fallen tree limbs or branches that are lying on the ground,” he said, pointing out some brush. “We can pull everything over here to make our cabins.”

  The older children started to drag branches into a pile. Isaac directed them to prop the branches up to make a little cabin. Lily and Hannah and the other little girls weren’t strong enough to pull the fallen limbs by themselves, so Isaac thought of something else for them to do. He suggested they gather cattails along the swampy area near the creek. They would use the cattails for pretend food. Isaac was thoughtful like that.

  Lily helped carry armload after armload of cattails and dumped them under a tree near the little cabin. Too soon, Teacher Katie rang the bell and it was time to go back to the schoolhouse. Lily wished recess would last much longer. It was fun to play with the other children and not worry about Teacher Katie’s bad temper.

  But the next hour of school flew by and soon it was noon. The children gulped down their lunches and ran to the woods to work on the cabins. It was taking a long time to build them. Lily couldn’t wait until they could start playing inside. She helped the other little girls gather more cattails. On her way to the cabins, she noticed acorns under a big oak tree. The little girls gathered up the corners of their aprons into one hand to fill them with acorns. The acorns could be more pretend food. Lily twisted the tops a little and the acorn popped right out. The hull could be used for tiny plates.

  Day after day, the children worked on the cabins until Isaac decided they were complete. They didn’t really look like log cabins to Lily. There seemed to be more cracks than logs in the walls of the cabin. The roof was made out of wild grapevines. Lily could see the sunlight through the grapevines, but she decided
it would still be fun to play in the cabin. As long as it wasn’t raining or snowing.

  Lily helped the other girls gather stones to make a round fire pit. They would pretend to cook food over the fire pit. The boys made funny little bows and arrows with sticks and twine. The arrows only flew for a few feet, but the boys thought they were expert marksmen. They would pretend to go hunting for food while the girls stayed in the cabins to cook and clean.

  The boys returned with skunk cabbage leaves. Pee-yew! Lily could see how the cabbage got its name—the leaves smelled like skunk. As Lily and her friends tore the cabbage into pieces for pretend salad, she almost gagged. She was glad they wouldn’t have to eat it.

  Playing pioneers became everyone’s favorite game. It helped to make the school day go faster. At recess, they rushed from the schoolhouse to the cabins to play. Lily thought she would never get tired of it, though the weather was starting to change. Her nose was red. Her hands were cold. She had to clap them to stay warm. Soon it would be winter. The thought made her sad. They wouldn’t be able to have recess and lunch outside very often during cold winter days.

  Then the day came when Mandy Mast announced that playing pioneers wasn’t fun anymore. “It’s getting too cold,” she said. “Every day, we do the same thing. I’m tired of it! I want to play something else.” She sat in the cabin, sulking.

  Mandy had a point, Lily thought. It was chilly. Lily’s breath came out in puffs of white. The other children wanted to keep playing, so Mandy was overruled. She joined in with the others, but with a sour look on her face. “Maybe if we could only build a real fire, it would be more fun,” she said. “That way, at least we could be warm.”

  The next day, during the first recess, Mandy pulled Lily away from the other little girls. “Look what I brought,” she said. She glanced around to make sure no one could hear. She opened her coat and drew a box of wooden matches out of her coat pocket.