Green Fever

by Wanda E. Brunstetter

  “May I help you?” Mrs. Johnson asked after opening the front door, halting Mark’s thoughts.

  He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and cleared his throat. “Uh—yes, I was wondering about that bike you put out by the trash.”

  Mrs. Johnson wrinkled her nose. “That old thing has seen better days, and it really isn’t worth much anymore. That’s why my husband and I bought our son a new bike.”

  Mark reached up to wipe the trickle of sweat running down his forehead. He didn’t know why he felt so nervous.

  “Is there something I can do for you?” Mrs. Johnson asked.

  “Well, I was wondering…since you’re tossin’ the bike, would it be okay if I take it?”

  Her eyebrows lifted. “Why would you want that old thing?”

  “I’m hopin’ to fix the bike so I can ride it,” Mark explained.

  Mrs. Johnson glanced toward the road where Mattie stood next to the old bike Mark wanted. “I’m not sure it’s worth fixing,” she said, “but if you want the bicycle, then it’s yours.”

  Mark smiled. “Thanks, I appreciate that.” He started to go but turned back around. “My sister and I are on our way to school, so I can’t take the bike with me right now. Would it be all right if I park it here in your yard till my dad or older brother comes over to get it?”

  “Certainly,” she said with a smile. “Just bring it up and leave it on the side of the house.”

  “Thanks again.” Mark grinned with gratitude and bounded off the porch with a spring in his step. He could hardly believe he was finally going to have a bike of his own, and he couldn’t wait until it was fixed and he could ride it. Mark was anxious to tell his friend John about what he’d discovered today.

  CHAPTER 8

  Fun at the Farm

  Every day after school that week, Mark worked on the bicycle he’d found. He’d sanded the old paint off the fenders, scrubbed the rust off the handlebars, and removed the bell so he could put it on his and Mattie’s bike. He’d asked Dad to help him with the tires and bike chain, but he was too busy in the wood shop right now. Dad had suggested that Mark ask Grandpa Miller to help him, but Grandpa and Grandma had gone to Illinois to see Grandma’s cousin and wouldn’t be back for ten days. It was disappointing that he’d have to wait awhile and wouldn’t be able to get the old bike fixed right away.

  Well, one good thing, Mark thought as he headed for the barn to do his chores on Saturday morning, we’ll be leaving soon for The Farm at Walnut Creek to see the animals.

  When Mark entered the barn, he fed and watered his cats. Thankfully, the food was kept on a low shelf, and he was able to reach it. He smiled as he watched Boots and Lucky eagerly lap up the water and munch the cat food he’d poured in their dishes. He liked having cats; they were easy to care for and earned their keep by catching mice.

  “Not like Mattie’s yappy hund,” Mark muttered. “She’s not worth—”

  “What about my dog?”

  Mark whirled around. “Mattie, I didn’t know you were here. Were you spying on me?”

  She shook her head vigorously. “ ’Course not. I came to the barn so I could get Twinkles’s leash. I’m gonna take her for a walk.”

  “Where are you headed?” Mark asked.

  “Thought we might go over to see my friend Stella Schrock. I want to tell her about the new bell we got for our bike.”

  Mark’s forehead wrinkled. “That bell is really mine, Mattie. It goes on the bike I found.”

  “I know that, but I thought you said we could put the bell on our bicycle-built-for-two.”

  “I said I’d put it there for now,” Mark replied. “After the old bike is fixed up, then the bell will need to go back on it again.”

  Mattie put her hands on her hips. “That’s not fair, Mark. We need a bell on our bike, and we would’ve spent our money on one if we hadn’t ended up buying the light you wanted.”

  “I wish you’d quit bringin’ that up,” Mark said. “We needed a light, too, and you agreed to it, so there’s no point in complaining about it now. We can buy a new bell for our bike as soon as we save up the money.”

  “But that could take a long time.”

  “Maybe.” Mark turned his hands palm up. “Maybe not. We just need to find a way to earn some cash.”

  “We can’t sell anything from the garden at our road stand until sometime this summer,” Mattie said. “Besides, I don’t even have any flowers growing yet.”

  “When Grandma and Grandpa get back from Illinois, we can ask if they have any chores for us to do.” Mark gave Mattie’s arm a little tap. “In the meantime, we can keep using the bell from the old bike ’cause I can’t fix it up all by myself, and it’ll be awhile before I can ask for Grandpa’s help.”

  “You’re gonna let me ride the bike once you get it fixed, though, right?” Mattie questioned.

  “Probably. But only when I don’t want to ride it.”

  Mattie sighed. “I wish you’d never found that old bike. It’s not fair that you have a bike of your own and I don’t.”

  “Are you jealous?” Mark asked.

  “A little,” Mattie admitted.

  “Well, don’t be,” Mark said. “The bike’s not even fixed up yet, and someday I’ll bet you’ll have a bike of your own, too.”

  “I doubt it. A new bike would be expensive, and Mom and Dad can’t afford to buy anything like that right now.” Mattie took Twinkles’s leash down from the wall peg where it hung, then she turned toward the door.

  “You can’t go to Stella’s right now,” Mark called.

  She halted and turned back around. “Why not?”

  “ ’Cause we’ll be leaving for The Farm at Walnut Creek to see all the animals soon,” he said.

  Mattie thumped her head. “Oh, that’s right. Well, guess I’ll just walk Twinkles around the yard till we’re ready to go.” She turned and hurried out of the barn.

  Mark went back to watching the cats eat their breakfast. He knew how bad his sister must feel, but it wasn’t his fault he’d seen the bike first and had come up with the idea of fixing it.

  “This is gonna be so much fun,” Mark commented as their family climbed aboard the large wagon that would take them on the trails to see all the animals at The Farm at Walnut Creek.

  “I hope the two horses hitched to this wagon are strong enough to pull all of us,” Mattie said, seating herself on the wooden bench on the right side of the wagon.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Dad said, taking a seat on the left side of the wagon beside Mom, Calvin, Ada, and Perry. “The horses are big and strong, just like the ones I use to plow our fields.”

  “That’s right,” Ike agreed. “These big draft horses will have no trouble at all.” He took a seat near Mark, Mattie, and Russell.

  “Oh, look,” Mark said, pointing at the horses, “they’re wearin’ bells on their harnesses like they did the last time I was here.”

  Their guide, who was Amish and said his name was Aaron, explained that he would be driving the wagon. “There are a few rules everyone needs to know before we start our adventure,” he said.

  Mattie figured there would be some rules because Mark had told her ahead of time what to expect.

  “You must stay in the wagon at all times and remain seated whenever the wagon is moving,” Aaron said. “You can feed some of the four-legged animals by holding the buckets of food I gave you, but some of them will need to be fed by pouring feed out of the buckets and onto the floor of the wagon where they can reach it.” He gestured to the buckets sitting in the middle of the wagon. “Be sure to feed the two-legged feathered animals with beaks out of the bucket. If you don’t, their sharp beaks might hurt your hands.”

  Mattie didn’t like the sound of that. She would make sure not to feed any of the animals with her bare hands.

  “There are some areas I’ll be taking us through where the animals will walk right up to the wagon, so hang on to your bucket because if you drop it out of the wagon
we won’t be able to stop and pick it up.” Aaron looked at Mattie and said, “You look eager to know more, so feel free to ask questions about any of the animals we see along the way.”

  She smiled. “Danki, I will.”

  As they rode along, Aaron pointed out some goats and several sheep with long, curved horns that were called Aoudad.

  “These unusual sheep come from northern Algeria,” Aaron explained. “They’re able to run quickly up steep hills, and they can go as long as five days without drinking fresh water.”

  “Wow!” Calvin exclaimed. “Don’t think any of us could go that long without water.”

  “You’re right about that,” Dad agreed. “We would quickly become dehydrated.”

  “Those sheep can weigh anywhere from 90 to 130 pounds,” Mark interjected.

  “That’s right.” Aaron smiled at Mark. “You’ve been here before, haven’t you?”

  “Jah, I was here last year with my friend John and his family. After I got home, I did a little reading about the animals we’d seen.”

  “I thought you looked familiar, but then I never know for sure because we get a lot of visitors here every year,” Aaron said. “I’m glad to hear you took so much interest in our animals. You’ll never get too old to learn new things. I once read that, ‘Knowledge has a beginning but no end.’ ”

  Mark gave a nod.

  They rode a little farther until they came upon several elk and deer. Mattie thought it was fun to hold the bucket of feed out or put food on the wagon floor so the animals could eat whenever the wagon stopped.

  Ada and Perry were too little to hold the buckets by themselves, so Mom helped Ada, and Dad helped Perry. Ada squealed and clapped her hands every time one of the animals stuck its head into the wagon. Perry laughed and held on tightly to his side of the bucket while Dad held the other.

  “Oh, look, there’s a zebra!” Mattie shouted. When the animal came up to the wagon to be fed, she reached out and stroked its ear. Its fur felt soft and silky, just like Twinkles.

  “This critter is called the Grevy Zebra, and it’s the largest species of zebra,” Aaron said. “It’s able to run as fast as forty miles per hour.”

  Russell whistled. “There’s no way I could ever run that fast.”

  Next, they saw an ostrich with a long neck and pointed beak. Mark held his bucket tightly as the ostrich eagerly stuck its beak into the bucket to get some food. In and out! In and out! The big bird’s head bobbed back and forth. “I think this ginormous bird is tryin’ to eat all my food,” he said, laughing.

  Mattie rolled her eyes. She didn’t see why Mark had to use such a big word. It seemed like he was showing off. Maybe he was trying to impress their driver and make him think he was really smart for a boy who was only nine and a half.

  “An ostrich egg is quite large,” their driver went on to say. “It can be as much as six inches long and weigh up to three and a half pounds.”

  Mom chuckled. “Now that is a very big oi! Can you just imagine what a large omelet that egg would make? Why, I’ll bet it would fill up an entire plate.”

  Dad laughed, too. “We could probably divide it among ourselves.”

  “Now in this next area we’re coming to, there will be more animals roaming around,” Aaron told them. “You’ll have to be careful because some of them might get pretty excited when they come up to the wagon looking for something to eat.”

  Mattie hardly knew which way to look. There seemed to be animals everywhere. The little fallow deer had spots and looked like the baby white-tailed fawns they sometimes saw in the fields near their home in the spring.

  “Oh, oh. Here come the llamas. Be careful now,” Mark warned. “When I came here with John and his family, one of the llamas spit on me.”

  When the llamas approached, Mark and his brothers held out their buckets. Mattie, feeling a little nervous, put some of her food on the floor near the edge of the wagon. She didn’t want to get spit on, so she wasn’t taking any chances.

  Ada giggled when one of the smaller llamas tried to stick its head into the bucket Mom held.

  Fortunately, no one got spit on this time. Mattie was relieved.

  “Now we’re coming to the place where the giraffes are kept,” their guide announced. “They’re in a fenced-in area, and when we stop, they’ll stick their long necks over the fence so we can feed them.”

  “Just look at how big they are!” Mattie exclaimed. She’d never been this close to such a large animal before.

  Ike snickered when one of the larger giraffes gobbled up all the food in his bucket. “He sure is a hungry fellow.”

  When the tour ended and they all climbed down from the wagon, Mom said it was time to eat lunch.

  “Over there’s the picnic area.” Mark pointed in that direction. “That’s where we ate when I came here with John and his family.”

  They headed for the picnic tables, and then Mom opened the picnic basket, which she’d packed with ham and cheese sandwiches, a large bag of chips, and some cut-up veggies to munch on. She’d also brought several cans of soda pop, and for dessert there were brownies as well as some peanut-butter cookies. Everyone bowed their heads for silent prayer; then they dug into the food.

  “Yum! These sandwiches are sure good, Mom,” Mattie said, smacking her lips.

  Mom smiled and wiped a blob of mustard off the end of Perry’s nose. “I think food always tastes better when it’s eaten outside, and it’s nice that the weather is warm enough today so we can sit out here and enjoy our meal.”

  Ada giggled and clapped her hands when a sparrow hopped over and ate some of her bread crumbs.

  “There’s a farmhouse over there where people can visit to see what a real Amish home looks like,” Mark said, motioning across the way.

  Dad chuckled. “I don’t think we need to go inside since we already know what an Amish home looks like.”

  “That’s true,” Mom said with a nod, “but it might be kind of fun to see how it’s set up.”

  “Let’s go over there instead,” Dad suggested, pointing in the opposite direction. “Looks like there is a rock garden with a waterfall and small pond.”

  “Jah, that’s right,” Mark said, bobbing his head. “There are all kinds of ducks swimmin’ in there, and lots of fish, too.”

  After the family finished eating lunch, they gathered things up and took a walk through the covered bridge that led to the pond.

  “Hasn’t this been a fun day?” Mark asked, grinning as he looked over at Mattie.

  She nodded. “It’s been the best day I’ve had in a long time.” She wished they could do fun things like this every day, but then if they did, it might not seem so exciting.

  CHAPTER 9

  A Green Lesson

  For the next two weeks, Mattie kept an eye out for her bulbs to sprout. A week ago, on their way home from school, she and Mark had gone down to the creek where a bunch of ferns grew every year. Mattie had taken Mom’s small hand trowel with her that morning and kept it in their bicycle basket to use later that afternoon. Mark had dug the ferns out while Mattie took each bunch to the bicycle basket, which she’d lined with newspapers. Mark had said the trowel made it easy, and in no time at all, they had the basket filled. Mattie had hardly been able to wait that day to head home and get the ferns planted. She knew that once they grew they would complement her garden, and she thought Mark’s frog would like the ferns, too.

  At the time Mattie had planted the fiddlehead ferns, they were still curled up. The ferns were named that because they looked like the curled scroll on the end of a string instrument, such as a violin.

  Now, as Mattie helped Mom pull some weeds on a Saturday afternoon, she spotted some green growth in her little garden.

  “Oh, look, Mom!” she shouted, pointing to the spot. “My tulip bulbs are finally coming up.”

  Mom smiled and nodded. “I knew they would, Mattie. You just needed to be patient.”

  “I can’t wait till the flowers bloom and I
can pick ’em,” Mattie said. “Tulips smell so good, and Mom, I bet they’ll make the kitchen smell nice when I cut you a bouquet for the table.”

  “I’m sure you’re right,” Mom agreed.

  Mattie also noticed that the ferns she and Mark planted had unrolled and were starting to grow upward. Soon they would be feathered out and overlapping each other, creating a tropical-looking shaded area around Mark’s frog house. The ferns would also help to keep the water in the little frog’s pond cool from the afternoon sun during the hot summer months.

  Mattie looked across the yard and spotted a robin with a worm in its mouth. She smiled. Just like she’d hoped, a pair of robins had made a nest in the bush outside their living-room window. It had been fun to show Ada and Perry the robin’s blue eggs. Any day now, they should be hearing the peep, peep of baby robins after they’d hatched.

  Mom rose to her feet. “I need to see how the clothes on the line are doing. If you don’t want to continue pulling weeds, you’re free to do something else,” she told Mattie.

  “Danki, Mom,” Mattie replied. “Think I’ll stay right here by my garden for now.”

  “Okay.” Mom smiled and hurried away.