Read Abram's Daughters 03 The Sacrifice for Free Online

many knickknacks that accumulated dust in both the living and sitting looms of the Schwartz residence. So far Leah hadn't jumped at I he opportunity to assist Lorraine with additional tasks, mainly In'cause Mamma's strawberries were coming on awful fast now niid there would be plenty to sell at the Ebersols' roadside stand. In diet, at this moment, Mamma and Miriam Peachey were out
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    in the hot sun picking berries while Hannah and Mary Ruth completed the washing. And Lydiann, more than likely, was babbling to Dawdi John next door in the Dawdi Haus. Only occasionally did Mamma ask her father to watch her youngest, but since Leah was expected home in time for the noon meal, Lydiann would be in Dawdi's charge only a short time. After that Leah herself would help tend to her baby sister, along with her afternoon chores outside. By taking Lydiann along with her to the barn and whatnot, she hoped to develop a strong love of the land and the farm animals in the wee toddler. And, too, it wouldn't be long and Lydiann would be someone to talk to while working outdoors someone besides Gid, that was, and Sam Ebersol's older brother, twenty-year-old Thomas, recently hired by Dat to help with fieldwork part-time.
    During a lull between patient appointments, Leah got up the nerve to mention the doctor's grazing land, "not so far from the Peacheys' place," interested to see what Dr. Schwartz might say about it.
    When there was little or no direct response to her cornment, she forged ahead. "Have you ever thought of putting cattle out there? Such nice grazing it would be."
    The good doctor scratched his head and looked nearly disoriented for a few seconds. Then he said, "I've thought of different things over the years. Everything from building a house and barn on it ... to putting up a stable for horseback riding. In the end, I always come back to its being too great an effort to bother with putting cattle or anything else on it, though."
    She paused to study him. Tall and lean, he was a man with plenty of options flitting in his head. But he fell silent, and in
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    |;i short time another patient came up the walk and in the I door.
    1 Leah was surprised to see her mother's cousin Fannie iMast, with young Jake and Mandie in tow. She at first felt Isheepish standing there, then pained, remembering Fannie [was to have been her mother-in-law. Without meaning to, she (found herself gawking at the twins; she hadn't seen them in two years and they'd grown so much.
    This woman, equally as plump as Mamma now, if not
    I more so, had always been a bubbly hostess when the Ebersols
    I visited the Mast orchard house on Grasshopper Level, not but
    la thirty-minute buggy's ride from Gobbler's Knob. Today,
    though, when Fannie caught Leah's eye, her mouth drooped
    and she turned away, taking the twins' hands and guiding
    them to the far corner of the waiting room.
    Undaunted, Leah slipped into the short hall, hoping to watch her little cousins toddle with their mamma to one of the examination rooms. She stood behind the doorjamb and peered out as the threesome made their way.
    Jake was tall an^ skinny, much like his big brother Jonas, though his hair was a deep brown and he limped slightly as he tottered along. Leah couldn't tell if he'd hurt himself or if he was still discovering his own stride as a two-year-old. She recalled the first time she'd held him, how she had sensed his helplessness as an infant a frail one at that.
    But it appeared his mother's nurturing touch had made all the difference, just as it had for the sickly lambs and struggling houseplants Fannie was known to nurse back to health.
    Dr. Schwartz appeared in the hallway and called Jake's name, then scooped him up in his arms. He touched the top
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    of Mandie's head, speaking quietly to Fannie.
    Observing Mandie now, Leah was taken with her dainty features, though altogether different from Jake's her blue eyes and blond hair showing hints