A Gathering of Memories Read Online Free PDF Page A

the wall opposite the closet, but Mandy wasn’t interested in her reflection this morning. Her feet, with almost a mind of their own, moved to the place between the two windows where a bookshelf stood.
    Mandy went down on her knees before it and simply stared for long minutes. Finally, moving hesitantly as though someone would slap her hand, she reached to lightly touch the books. Her fingers skimmed over the bindings with reverence and something akin to awe.
    Amanda Jackson loved to read.
    She hadn’t always felt that way. With pain she remembered the teacher’s dark looks when she struggled long after everyone else her age had understood that mysterious art, despairing of ever catching on and being able to read with the ease of breathing, as her teacher did.
    But then one day, very close to her eleventh birthday, it became clear, as though a light had been turned on in her mind. The world of letters, words, and sentences became startlingly clear and Mandy read with a voracious appetite from that moment.
    Anyone watching her in the bedroom at the Cameron house this morning, would have been confused by her actions and the tears of joy on her face at just being able to touch these precious volumes. They would have wondered at the way her heart pounded at just the thought of asking Amy if she could read them, hoping she could make her see how careful she would be with each and every one.
    Yes, anyone watching her would have been confused unless they understood life in the Jackson household. There had never been enough money for food, let alone anything as extravagant as books, no matter how loved or coveted.
    Mandy was startled out of her position on the floor when someone knocked.
    “Come in.”
    “Hi,” Amy spoke as she came through the door. “I wasn’t sure if you were up. We’re about ready to eat.”
    “I better wake everyone.” Mandy spoke uncertainly from her place by the shelves.
    “Everyone is downstairs, dressed, and Becca tells me,
starving
.” Amy informed her good-naturedly.
    “Oh, I’m sorry you had to wait on me.”
    “Don’t apologize, you have time. I just wanted you to know that Silas will be in from the barn in about ten minutes and then we’ll be ready to eat.”
    “Thank you. I’ll be right down.”
    Mandy threw herself into her clothes and rushed down the hall to Carrie’s room for the hairbrush. Her hair was thick but not very long, falling only to her shoulders, enabling her to have it brushed and pulled back with a ribbon in a matter of seconds.
    Not until she returned the brush to the dresser did she notice how nicely the room was picked up. She walked back down the hall past her own room to the boys’ to find it as orderly as the girls’, with even the quilt hung perfectly across the bed.
    Amy.
    While swiftly making her own bed she was amazed to realize she was not jealous of her hostess stepping in to help the kids last night as well as this morning.
    Mandy couldn’t remember the last time she’d awakened without a list of jobs and duties as long as her arm hanging over her. How nice it felt to have someone else in charge, and Amy seemed to genuinely enjoy it.
    Well, she thought as she descended the stairs, best enjoy it, for it certainly won’t last.

7

     
    “Father in heaven, I thank you for the beauty of this day and the bounty of this food. Bless us, our conversation and surround us with Your love. Amen.”
    Silas was well aware of the eyes watching him as he served himself some eggs and then passed the bowl to Mandy. The children were a little less hungry this morning, whereas last night their concentration on food had made them much too preoccupied to be aware of a man thanking God for the meal.
    The four youngest Jacksons fell on the food with renewed hunger, but Mandy ate a little more cautiously. Silas, watching her surreptitiously, thought she seemed like an animal who had been teased and baited at every meal and forced to beg before being rewarded with