Read Abram's Daughters 01 The Covenant for Free Online Page B

to be prone to illness, seems."
    "Must be all those herbs you grow in your garden. Mamma says they have healing qualities."
    "The foxgloves, too." Lizzie pointed to an array of snowy white, crimson, and yellow snapdragons growing wild and a golden throng of buttercups vying for attention.
    "Ach, how's that?"
    "Them snapdragons open their little mouths and scare the sickness away." Lizzie burst into her jovial laughter.
    "Oh, Auntie, they don't really, now, do they?"
    Then Lizzie said unexpectedly, "You look a bit bleech sallow. Not feelin' so well?"
    Sadie was sure she didn't look any more washed-out than she usually did. After all, being a blonde, her skin was rather pale most of the time, except when she had a sunburn. "A little tired is all," she replied.
    Lizzie scratched her dark head, her hazel-brown eyes serious now. "Looks to me like you skipped near a whole night of sleep."
    "I was out a bit late," Sadie admitted.
    "Then I 'spect you'll be heading for bed bright and early tonight?"
    "Maybe so."
    Lizzie stopped rocking and reached a hand toward her. "Best be awful careful who you spend your time with, Sadie dear," she cautioned.
    The silence hung awkward and heavy in the hot air. This
    50 51o 0 e n a ni
    ^i M) peculiar, Aunt Lizzie poking her nose in where it
    Hll'l In-long.
    ^M Sin- was thinking what she ought to say, when who should w up just then but Hannah, carrying a loaf of bread. Her UPttT IukI appeared round the corner, grinning for all she was wnith iiiul coming up the porch steps.
    "Mamma just baked some raisin-and-nut bread." Hannah pliinlfd a kiss on Lizzie's cheek.
    SI in V there was only one rocker vacant, Hannah wanli red uvrr and sat next to Sadie, looking like a chipmunk
    11lining alter an elusive acorn.
    N    ipi brown eyes. Just how long had her younger sister been i Hiding round the corner of the cabin?
    I lannah found it ever so hard to sit still and listen to Mini Lizzie chatter about her plans to dig up yet another gar! u plui this time for marigolds when the talk had been i n more interesting before. So what she suspected was true.
    Slu- wanted to say something about the fun they would all
    11 ivi* lomorrow afthe picnic on the grounds at the Peachey I inn, hui Aunt Lizzie kept prattling on about herbs and flow-
    i i. Sadie only stared; her eyes, pale and vague, were focused
    >ii tin- deepest part of the woods.
    "'Iell your mamma I'll lend her a hand with plantin' kale nnl broccoli on Monday," Aunt Lizzie said.
    "We're always glad for extra help," Hannah replied.
    "I'll be down right after breakfast."
    "Ob, but Mamma will say to come have scrambled eggs niul waffles with us, won't she, Sadie?" Hannah said, turning hi her sister.
    52
    -lu J2e
    "Wha-at?" Sadie stumbled over herself.
    Hannah rose, eager to get home. "We'll see you for breakfast on Monday, Aunt Lizzie." She leaned down and offered her best smile, hugging her aunt's neck.
    Quickly Sadie stood and said her good-byes, too, and the two girls walked home, saying not a single word between them.
    52 53"TJ'T*-
    4 c--
    a?
    r
    -0--U'/l-
    ^wul tempting the woods again." Henry Schwartz muttered
    ^H Complaint to the wind. One by one, he proceeded to pick
    m^pherry brambles out of his son's jeans cuffs, glad to help
    irnlnc, his wife, whenever he could. Derek never could stay
    ii*y from that forest, he thought, wondering why his son had
    Ilr> I iiliout going to Strasburg with friends when it was clearly
    viil -iii where the boy had spent the bulk of his Friday eve-
    nitin.
    I lenry held high hopes for Derek, wishing he might grow lit of his aimless fascination with so many young women, i i tuldn't he stay home once in a while like his older brother, hi eX'GI back from the war? Except now that Robert was hnrtlly here safe and sound, he slept around the clock, and " -IMm he wasn't loafing in his bathrobe, he was staring at the in w television set. He also seemed to have lost any incentive l.ir job