Read Amish Christmas Joy for Free Online

communities. Similar to the border collie in size and coat texture, they were often sable and white or tricolor. Unlike many herding dogs, English shepherds were used to guard as well as herd cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and even fowl. They made excellent farm dogs.
    “Pete would be a good name,” Caleb suggested.
    “Not for a girl dog, Daddy,” Joy said in disgust.
    “Right. Not for a girl dog,” he conceded.
    Leah half turned in the seat to speak to Joy. “Can you think of another name?”
    Joy was thinking, so Caleb ventured a second suggestion. “Matilda.”
    “No.” Joy shook her head. “I don’t like that name.”
    “Okay, how about Tilly? It rhymes with silly, ” Leah said.
    He glanced at his daughter’s face in the rearview mirror. She grinned at Leah. “No, not Silly Tilly. I like Pickles.”
    “ Ja, I like pickles, too. Dill pickles, sweet pickles, even bread-and-butter pickles. Do you like pickles, Caleb?”
    “I do. I like pickles on sandwiches and on hamburgers. I like to eat the little crispy ones right out of the jar.”
    Joy shook her head. “Not pickles to eat. Pickles for a name. I want to call the puppy Pickles.”
    “ Ach, I see.” Leah nodded solemnly. “Pickles is an excellent name. If my Trixie has a girl puppy, her name will be Pickles.”
    They’d gone only half a mile down the highway when they came upon a buggy traveling in the same direction. Caleb slowed to a crawl, unable to pass on the hilly road.
    “Does your family know you’re coming?” Leah asked.
    “I wrote. I wasn’t sure when to tell them to expect us.” He hadn’t mailed the letter until the day they left. Up until the moment he dropped the letter in the mailbox, he’d hoped he could find a way to manage his life with Joy in Texas. Admitting that he couldn’t was a bitter pill to swallow. He simply didn’t know where else to turn.
    Leah lapsed into silence until he had the chance to pass the buggy. As they went by, she sat back and muttered, “Oh, no.”
    “What?” He looked in his rearview mirror but didn’t see anything amiss.
    “That was Esther Zook.”
    “The bishop’s wife?”
    “The same.”
    “Has she changed any in the past decade?”
    “ Nee, she has not.”
    “So gossip about you riding with an Englisch fellow will be spreading before the sun sets tomorrow. Good to know some things never change. Will it be better or worse for you when she learns it was me?”
    “You were not baptized. No one must shun you.”
    “Some people will think I should be.”
    “Not everyone has a forgiving nature, in spite of what we are taught.”
    He glanced at her. “Do you?”
    “Have a forgiving nature? I thought so, but I find it is something I must work on.”
    It wasn’t the answer he wanted. For some reason, he wanted to know that she had forgiven him for leaving the Amish, for straying so far from the path laid out from his birth. It was a foolish thought. He was grateful she was willing to consider teaching Joy. That was enough.
    “I live in the same house. It’s past the next hill on the right-hand side of the road, a short mile after the school.”
    “You still live with your folks?”
    “ Nee, they are gone now.”
    “I’m sorry.” He slowed as he topped the rise. The school building and schoolyard were just as he remembered them. He would have to tell Joy to look for his name carved under one of the desks. The lane to Leah’s home came all too quickly. He turned in and hoped Joy would say goodbye without making a fuss.
    Her face took on the mulish pout he dreaded, once Leah opened the door to get out.
    She held out her hand to Joy. “It was wonderful meeting you. I look forward to seeing you at school.”
    “At school?” Joy gave her a puzzled look.
    “Your father wants to enroll you in my school. If it works out, I’ll be your new teacher. Wouldn’t that great?”
    Joy folded her arms over her chest and stared at the floor of the truck. “I don’t like school. Other kids