A New Home for Lily Read Online Free PDF Page A

looked nice, but something was wrong with this covering. Terribly wrong.
    It was noisy! Every time Lily talked or moved her head she could hear her covering. Coverings weren’t supposed to make sounds.
    Mama smiled at her. “Well, how do you like it?”
    Lily hesitated to tell her that it was broken. After all, Mama had spent time making it. “It is pretty,” she said. “But it rattles.”

    A puzzled look came into Mama’s eyes. “It rattles?”
    â€œEvery time I move, even a little, it makes a rattle.”
    Mama removed the covering and held it to her own ears. She grinned. “It’s the thick fabric. I think you’ll get used to it. Before long you won’t even think about it. You can wear it to school tomorrow.”
    Lily wondered how she was supposed to concentrate on her lessons if she had to wear a covering that rattled all day long. She removed the new covering, glad to get away from the noise it made, and replaced it with her old, comfortable, quiet covering. She wished Mama had waited a little longer before making her a new one. Like everything else in this new town, it was strange and uncomfortable.

4 The Mirror at Midnight
    L ily glanced at the clock on the schoolhouse wall. Only ten more minutes until recess. Teacher Rhoda was busy with the first graders, who were trying to learn a new letter and its sound. Lily liked watching the first grade class. They were cute and little and their schoolwork was easy. Much easier than the math problems she was working on. Rain beat against the windows. The gentle patter of raindrops made Lily feel sleepy. She yawned as she turned her attention back to the last few subtraction problems. Only three more.
    â€œPut your books away for recess,” Teacher Rhoda said.
    The room was filled with the sound of books closing, papers shuffling, and the opening and closing of desk lids. Lily tucked her arithmetic workbook and pencil into her desk. She wished she had hurried to finish those stupid math problems. She would have to finish them after recess.
    She closed her desk lid and waited as Teacher Rhodadismissed one row of students at a time. She wondered what they would be playing today. They couldn’t play outside in the rain. It had been raining for weeks now and she was tired of indoor games.
    The children gathered at the back of the schoolhouse, but nobody had any ideas of what to do. Someone suggested they could play Still Waters, but that suggestion was met with groans. Lily was relieved. She didn’t like when it was her turn to be it and she had to wander around the schoolhouse blindfolded, hunting for children. They could walk and run away from her until Teacher Rhoda called out “Still Waters” and everyone froze in place. They had to hold still until Lily had found them. It always took her a long time to find everyone. Last time, Aaron Yoder had stuck out his foot and tripped her.
    Jay Troyer, one of the first grade boys, opened up his umbrella and walked around the schoolhouse with it.
    Effie planted her hands on her hips. “Close that umbrella right now!”
    Jay kept right on walking. “Why?”
    Effie didn’t like for her orders to be ignored. “Don’t you know bad things happen to people who open umbrellas indoors?”
    Jay’s mouth opened in a silent O . He quickly closed the umbrella, horrified. Lily hadn’t known that, either. She tried to think back and remember if anything bad had ever happened to her after she had opened Papa’s big, black umbrella in the house. Once, she had stubbed her toe as she put the umbrella away. But she often stubbed her toes, even when there was no umbrella in sight.
    A few children started to talk about other things that were bad to do. Marvin Yoder—who was nice, unlike his youngerbrother Aaron, who was not—said that when a lamp chimney broke or cracked while the lamp was lit, it meant that someone in the family had