Read Life with Lily for Free Online

for the barn. The rope that Mama held on to Jenny with was wrapped around her hand. She tried to free herself, but Jenny was moving too fast. Lily and Joseph watched, wide-eyed. Lily screamed and jumped off the swing, running toward Mama, as Jenny dragged Mama over the hard ground and into the barn.
    Inside the barn, Lily found Jenny in her pen. She was calmly munching hay as if nothing bad had just happened. Mama was leaning against the gate, her apron torn, trying to catch her breath. Then Lily saw Mama’s arms. They were cut and bloody from getting dragged over the ground.
    Mama limped into the house and sat on her rocking chair. She winced as Lily tried to clean her arms with a wet washcloth. Joseph brought a little tub of homemade salve to coat the cleaned cuts. Mama smiled weakly and called them her little heroes.
    Later that evening, Lily and Joseph told Papa what had happened as soon as he came through the door. He checked Mama’s cut and bruised arms, concerned, told her to sit and rest, to not worry about making supper. He said he was sure that he could cook a meal if Lily and Joseph would help him.
    After supper, Papa went out to the barn and made a lock for Jenny’s pen. A simple latch wasn’t enough to keep a clever cow like Jenny penned up, if she had a mind to wander. On Saturday, Papa said, he would build a fence to pasture Jenny. “No more trips to the neighbor’s alfalfa field for you,” he scolded her as he double-checked the lock.
    Jenny blinked, batting her thick eyelashes at him. It was as if she wanted to answer Papa back: “Who, me?”

    Papa was up early on Saturday, digging holes for fence posts. Lily and Joseph had a quick breakfast and ran out to help him. Walking through the woods, Papa strung wire along the fence posts that he had set. Lily and Joseph followed behind. Lily carried a little pail filled with funny horseshoe-shaped nails. Every time they came to a post, she would hand a nail to Papa. He would take it and place it over the wire, give it several taps with his hammer, make sure the wire was fastened tightly to the fence post, then move along to the next one.
    At the edge of the woods, Papa dug a deep hole and planted a large corner post with wooden braces. Papa fastened a fence stretcher to the end of the wire. He moved the handle on the fence stretcher back and forth until the wire was so taut that it made funny pinging noises when Lily and Joseph tapped it.
    Suddenly, a man appeared, carrying a shotgun. It was the same cross man who had complained about Jenny moseyinginto his alfalfa field. Now he was angry that Papa was building a fence. He waved his gun and shouted at Papa. Lily grabbed Joseph’s hand and hid behind a nearby tree. They peeped out to see what was going to happen next. Would the man shoot Papa? Would he shoot a little boy and a little girl? Lily could feel tears running down her face, but she stood still. As still as a statue.
    Papa, though, didn’t seem at all frightened. Calmly, he listened to the man. Once the man had finished shouting, Papa asked him where he thought the property line was. The man showed Papa a marked trail. Lily was glad when she saw that Papa’s fence didn’t touch the trail. But the man told Papa that he didn’t like a fence so close to his land. He didn’t want animals to reach through the fence and eat his grass.
    After the man left, Papa loosened all the little nails that held the wire to the posts. He walked along the entire fence length and undid all the work he had done that morning. Then he pulled all of the fence posts out of the ground. It was hard work, and it was a warm day. Papa looked hot and tired. Still, he kept working. After all of the posts were removed, Papa dug more holes several feet farther away from the little trail. Then, again, he fastened the wire to each post. Now, even if Jenny stretched her neck as far as she could, she would not be able to reach