Little Amish Lizzie

by Linda Byler

  “Emma, get up! We’re at Doddy Millers!” Lizzie said.

  “Oh, yes, we are—aren’t we?” Emma was wide awake, rolling off the couch in a tangle of pillows and blankets. Lizzie rolled off, too, landing on the pillows, and pulled on Emma’s toes.

  “Don’t!” Emma said. “Stop that!”

  But Lizzie was so happy to be in Ohio at Doddys, she just kept pulling Emma’s toes, until they were both helplessly laughing.

  Mam appeared in the doorway, holding a bowl in the crook of her arm, stirring something with a spoon. “Good morning, sleepyheads! We were going to have breakfast without you. Guess what we’re doing today?” she asked.

  Emma asked, “What?”

  “We’re going to Uncle Homers for dinner.”

  “Oh, goody!” Lizzie clapped her hands. Uncle Homers lived up the hill from Doddys and had only two children, who were older than Emma and Lizzie. But she loved Aunt Vera, who always cooked great big delicious meals and talked all the while she was preparing it. Her house always smelled like frying chicken and stuffing. They had real bikes with only two wheels, not tricycles like Lizzie had at home. She could almost ride a real bike, if someone helped her a little.

  Doddy came in from feeding his horse, and Mommy soon had their breakfast ready in the sunny little kitchen. The girls were allowed to eat without combing their hair or washing themselves, because they still wore the same wrinkly dresses they had worn the day before.

  Mam said they were sloppy little girls, but Doddy just laughed and rumpled their hair, saying, “Goobity, goobity,” in his teasing way. Lizzie looked up at Doddy’s smiling face and loved him with all her heart. He’s the best Doddy anyone could ever have, she thought.

  They had a delicious breakfast of soft-boiled eggs and toast, with homemade pancakes and maple syrup. The maple syrup was much sweeter than ordinary pancake syrup Mam bought at home. Doddy said this was the finest syrup anywhere in the world. Although Lizzie didn’t really agree, she never said so. It was awfully sweet—actually so sweet that Lizzie could never eat all her pancakes at Doddys.

  Doddy even put it on his fried corn mush. Lizzie could hardly watch him eat it, because it made her stomach flop.

  After breakfast Mommy washed dishes while Mam combed the girls’ hair. She pulled the snarls just as badly in Ohio as she did at home, putting Lizzie in a bad mood for a short time. They had to take a bath and put on clean clothes which Mam had laid out for them—green dresses with short sleeves. They didn’t have to wear aprons because it was a warm summer day. Lizzie thought Emma looked really pretty in her bright green dress with her dark hair.

  Lizzie looked long and hard in the oak-framed mirror in Doddys’ bedroom, but no matter how wide she opened her eyes, or which way she turned her head, her hair was not as dark as Emma’s, and her eyes were different.

  “Emma, do I look nice in my new green dress?” Lizzie asked.

  Emma eyed her carefully. “I guess.”

  “What do you mean, you guess?” demanded Lizzie.

  “Well, you’re kind of fat, Lizzie,” Emma said carefully.

  “Oh well, that doesn’t matter,” Lizzie said, shrugging her shoulders. “Come, Emma—let’s go see what Doddy’s doing.” And Lizzie was off.

  Doddy was out in the pasture catching his slow horse. He led him into the barn and put the harness on, with Emma and Lizzie chattering to him as he worked.

  The crow sat on its perch and watched them with its wide black eyes. Sometimes it tilted its head to one side to watch them better. Doddy was talking in a silly voice, and sometimes it sounded like the crow would answer in words of its own. Doddy’s eyes would twinkle and he would chuckle whenever the crow did this, but Lizzie wasn’t too comfortable with that crow sitting on its perch. She still thought the crow looked like that picture in the Bible story book, and it gave her the shivers.

  They all packed into the surrey, Doddy climbing in last. He slapped the reins gently on the fat horse’s big haunches, and he stepped out slowly. They turned left on the busy highway, with Doddy driving very carefully, as far off the road as he could, so cars could pass from behind. Emma and Lizzie got a fit of giggles, because they were squeezed together so tightly and everything went downhill to the right. They leaned so hard one way they could barely breathe, so it was a relief when they turned into Uncle Homers’ driveway.

  Uncle Homers lived in a low white house with a porch along the front. The grass was so thick and green it looked like a carpet. Brightly colored flowers grew in perfectly shaped flower beds, with birdhouses put neatly in little corners.

  The door on the porch was flung open, and Aunt Vera came hurrying down the stone walkway.

  “Oh my, I just told Homer, now you watch, they won’t come in time to help me with dinner. And here you are. I’m so glad you’re here. Annie, I do declare, you look thinner since you had Jason. Did you lose all your weight? And this is Jason. Oh my grounds. Isn’t he a big boy already! Curly hair! Well, I would say his hair is curly—like a metal sponge!”

  She lifted Jason down from the surrey. “You poor boy, what did they do to your hair? Annie, he doesn’t look one bit like the girls!”

  “Vera, he’s our only boy—of course, he looks different,” laughed Mam.

  “Different? Why if I saw him sitting alone at the train station, I’d probably leave him there,” she laughed back.

  “Oh, here are my girls. Hello, Emma! Are you all better after having your rheumatic fever? I hope. Lizzie, how are you? Do you like Doddy’s crow any better?” She laughed again, and hugged the girls tightly, including Mandy, then starting her endless questioning again.

  Mommy was quietly smiling, pinching some dead flowers from a bright red geranium plant. She knew Aunt Vera would prattle on, so she took to the background and held Mandy, waiting until Vera’s talking slowed down.

  Doddy took the horse and surrey to the barn, and they all went into the house. The kitchen was large and everything in it was shiny. It glowed, with varnish on the kitchen cupboards, wax on the linoleum, and a glistening coat of white paint on the walls. Wonderful smells came from the oven, and a large layer cake stood on the countertop. The table was stretched out with added leaves, and a lovely blue tablecloth was spread on it. Vera had used her best dishes so everything would look pretty.

  “Ach my, Vera!” Mam held her hands up in mock dismay. “You will never change. You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble, just for us!”

  “Oh, I didn’t, I didn’t. I just told Homer, now they probably won’t be hungry after Mommy’s breakfast, so I won’t make ham—just chicken and filling. And I didn’t, no sir—I didn’t make any ham!”

  Mam threw back her head and laughed such a genuine, deep laugh that Lizzie laughed with her.

  “Vera, I tell you, I’m sure you have plenty. You probably have five desserts, because you didn’t make ham.”

  “No, no, I didn’t! Just date pudding, but you know, it didn’t get right this time—too dry. Oh, I made a nut cake and Jell-O. Some tapioca—nothing fattening, mind you. But we have to have pie. Can’t have company without pie, Annie, you know! Just raspberry and apple, nothing rich. Nothing too rich this time,” Vera stated.

  So they all sat down to Aunt Vera’s dinner. Uncle Homer bowed his head to say a silent prayer, and Lizzie had a chance to peep at his head. It was bald, except for a ring of hair around the large bald spot on top of his head. Lizzie knew it wasn’t polite to stare, so she just looked at his head while it was bowed. She wondered why no hair grew there anymore.

  When Uncle Homer looked up, everyone else did, too. He smiled his slow, quiet smile, telling everyone to dig in and help themselves. He teased Mam, and Lizzie could tell Mam was pleased when Uncle Homer teased her. Lizzie loved to hear them—it made her feel all warm and happy when Mam was so happy. Uncle Homers was just a place she liked to be, with all the good food and exciting things to do. Aunt Vera was, indeed, a very interesting person, because she hardly ever quit talking, and when she did,
Lizzie wished she’d start again. She had an Ohio accent, which Mam said came from Switzerland, wherever that was.

  chapter 20

  The Keims

  Today they were all going to Mam’s other sister, Franie, and her family. They had to go with Doddy’s slow, fat horse and his surrey again, and Emma and Lizzie looked at each other and smiled. That surrey was so tight full with all of them packed in together—they could not imagine driving very far like that.

  But that was alright, because they were in Ohio with Doddy Millers and everything was fun—even crowded surrey rides. Lizzie had helped Doddy feed his horse and the black crow earlier. She decided the crow was funny, and didn’t look too bad. She just couldn’t look at its black eyes too long or she felt strange.

  The water still bubbled into the trough in the pasture, and no matter how long they watched, it never stopped flowing. Lizzie wondered where all the water went, and if it flowed out of the earth anywhere again.

  When they arrived at the Keim farm, Emma and Lizzie were thrilled. Honks, squawks, whistles, and all kinds of bird sounds greeted them. There was a pond with weeping willow trees surrounding it, and rows of pens that held lots of different bird species.

  Uncle Dan was an avid bird enthusiast, so his farm had lots of different geese, pheasants, swans, and other interesting things to see.

  The white farmhouse was set among old maple trees. The lawn was kept neat, with flowers growing in borders along the house. The big white barn had a cow stable and big Belgian horses that pulled the plow and other farm implements.

  The Keims had seven children, but only Hannah was their age. Hannah was tall for her age and she giggled easily when they were together. Ivan was younger than Emma or Lizzie, and always tagged along, teasing them and being a nuisance.

  Uncle Homers arrived soon with their horse and surrey. Leroy and Bertha were along today, too. They were older than Emma and Lizzie, so they were a bit shy whenever Bertha was there. She was pretty and almost a teenager, so Lizzie was in awe of her. She was a bit shy of Leroy, too, because he was a lot older.

  The Ohio people dressed differently. They wore round coverings that were stiffer than Mam’s. Even the little girls wore coverings, and sometimes they wore black ones. Their hair was not rolled and combed back sleek and wet like Lizzie’s. They just combed their hair loosely up over the top of their heads. Lizzie wished she wouldn’t have to have her hair pulled back so tightly, because the Ohio girls’ hair was prettier.

  Their dresses were made a lot different, too. Even their aprons were not the same. When Hannah wore an apron, you could hardly tell, because it was the exact same color as her dress.

  Uncle Dan and Aunt Franie met their company at the door. Mam was so happy to see them, laughing with Aunt Franie about Jason’s mop of curly hair. Hannah came shyly from behind Aunt Franie’s skirts, politely saying, “Hello,” to Emma and Lizzie. They smiled back, replying with a, “Hello,” of their own.

  “Do you want to go down to the pond?” Hannah asked.

  “Oh, yes,” Lizzie said eagerly.

  “We’d better ask Mam,” Emma said, in her responsible, grownup way.

  So they stood, waiting to ask Mam if they were allowed to go to the pond. All the grownups were talking so fast and so loudly that the girls could not make any sense out of anything. Hannah began to giggle, so Emma did, too, but it provoked Lizzie. She didn’t know why the grownups had to talk so fast and loud. She yanked on Mam’s apron, but she went right on talking. Lizzie yanked again and said, “Mam!”

  Mam kept on talking to Aunt Franie.

  “Mam!” Lizzie said, as loudly as she could without being downright rude.

  “What, what? Lizzie, stop pulling on my apron like that. What do you want?” Mam asked with a frown.

  Lizzie felt hurt and left out for some reason. How could Mam be so friendly if she talked so grouchy to her? She did want to go to the pond.

  “May we go to the duck pond with Hannah?” she asked.

  “Is someone going with you?” Mam asked.

  “No.”

  “Then you can’t go; not by yourselves,” Mam said. Uncle Dan heard Mam and told her that there was a fence all the way around the pond because of the swans. He smiled at Lizzie. “Those big black swans could bite your fingers off if you provoke them. So don’t try to go inside the fence, okay?”

  “Alright,” Hannah said, and they raced across the yard and down the grassy incline to the duck pond. There were all kinds of waterfowl living together on the pond. Stately black swans swam slowly by, leaving a perfectly-formed V of ripples on the surface. White swans swam in among the black ones, and different-colored geese kept to their side of the pond. There were big ducks, little ones, brightly colored ducks, and ordinary white ones. They all quacked or honked, seemingly taking turns. Lizzie watched them quietly, thinking the ducks and geese were more polite than Mam and her sisters.

  Hannah and Emma sat quietly, with their hands clasped around their knees. The breeze blew Hannah’s black covering strings across her face, and she flipped them back with one hand. Her hair was loose and little strands blew across her forehead.

  Emma looked over at Hannah and asked why she had a bandage on her hand.

  Hannah glanced at the bandage and her eyes opened wide. “Oh, Emma. I didn’t think for one minute that you wouldn’t know. Everyone else knows what happened to me, but of course, you and Lizzie wouldn’t know.” She took a deep breath and began.

  “This isn’t one bit funny. It was the most awful thing that ever happened to me.” She coughed and started again. “You know my dad is a beekeeper?”

  “What is a beekeeper?” Lizzie asked nervously. She bit her lip and looked around at the fence and the pond. Those black swans seemed enormous all of a sudden, so Lizzie quickly asked Hannah if swans could fly.

  “No,” Hannah said. “Dad clips their wings.”

  “Oh,” said Lizzie, although she didn’t know what that meant.

  Emma told Hannah to continue her story, so Hannah settled herself more comfortably in the grass.

  “Why, Dad has lots of bees living in hives.”

  “What’s a hive?” Lizzie asked.

  “Shhh!” Emma told Lizzie.

  “A hive? That’s a box, or a house where all the bees live. They make their honey in there. Every group of bees has one queen. She’s bigger than all the others and the boss over all the bees in her hive. Well, you have to be really careful around all the hives, because the bees will sting if you get too close to their house.

  “Every once in a while, the queen bee decides to move, I think, and they all swarm around her and fly somewhere else.” Hannah paused for breath.

  “Where do they go?” Lizzie asked.

  “I don’t know. Sometimes to a tree, sometimes further away—just different places, I guess. Anyway, I was walking to the hives to tell my dad supper was ready, and this big cloud of bees came flying through the air.”

  Lizzie’s eyes opened wide. She pinched pleats in her black apron, and her heart beat faster, thinking about a whole cloud of angry bees. One bee was terrifying, especially if you stepped on one in the little white clover blossoms.

  “Anyway, my dad started yelling as loud as he could for me to go back, and I did! I took one look at those bees and ran as fast as I could go, screaming as loudly as I could.”

  “Hannah!” Emma was terrified, just listening to her tell the story.

  “Then, just as I reached the porch, a whole bunch of them settled on my head, neck, and back. They stung me many times—actually, about a hundred times.”

  “Did it hurt?” asked Lizzie.

  “Of course.” Hannah rolled her eyes, and slapped her hands on her knees. “It was just horrible.”

  “What happened then?” Emma asked, wide-eyed.

  “Oh, Dad ran up and started scraping them off. They didn’t all sit on me, just some of them. But I had to go to the doctor and everything. He gave me a shot, and I even had to stay in the ho
spital overnight.”

  “Did you really? Did you get another shot in the hospital?” Lizzie asked.

  “Oh yes—two of them.”

  “Were you sore?” asked Emma.

  “I hurt all over. It hurt for days, but I’m all better now. Except here on my hand I had an infection. So the doctor had to give me pills and stuff.”

  “My!” Lizzie sighed. “I’m glad Dat doesn’t have bees. I’d be too afraid I’d get stung.”

  “Let’s go over in the pasture and look at the hives,” Emma said.

  “No! You aren’t allowed! I’m going to tell Mam, I mean it!” Lizzie yelled.

  “Stop yelling!” Emma said.

  “Well, you just said that to be big.” Lizzie started to cry.

  Hannah was so concerned, she patted Lizzie’s shoulder. “Don’t cry, Lizzie. We won’t go over if you don’t want to,” she said kindly.

  Lizzie was terribly ashamed of herself for crying, so she swiped fiercely at her wet eyes. She sniffed, bowing her head, and thought how unsafe the world was. That was just the trouble with living. You never knew what terrible thing might happen to you. Hannah was just walking along in the green grass, never thinking about a whole pile of angry bees. More tears welled in Lizzie’s eyes, and she sniffed because her nose was starting to run. Everything just gave her the blues at that moment. Even the duck pond that had seemed so safe and serene seemed black and scary. The swans’ eyes looked like Doddy Miller’s crow’s eyes, and Lizzie shivered.

  “Let’s go in,” she said.

  “No, I want to see where the beehives are,” Emma said.

  Suddenly Emma made Lizzie so angry she couldn’t see straight. She got up, walked quickly around Hannah, and pinched Emma’s arm as hard as she could.

  “Ow!” Emma howled.

  “You just want to go see those bees to make me afraid,” Lizzie said.

  “No, I don’t! I just want to see a beehive!” Emma shot back.

  “Well, then go! I hope a whole pile of bees sting you, too!” With that, Lizzie marched off to the house, wishing Emma understood how it felt to get the blues so bad you could hardly be happy about ordinary things, even if you were in Ohio. Emma just was that way—always happy and never being very troubled by anything. She just didn’t understand.