A Promise for Ellie Read Online Free PDF Page A

seeding in oats for cattle feed. He and Lars worked in tandem, one team plowing just behind the other, both with doublebottom plows and four up. When the sun stood straight up, they’d head for the house, both eating here because Kaaren’s school for the deaf was still in session. Both schools would be out tomorrow afternoon. Most of the deaf students would be picked up or put on the train to go home on Saturday morning.
    Ingeborg added more wood to the firebox and gave the soup kettle a good stir so the vegetables wouldn’t burn on the bottom. Taking two eggs from the basket on the table, she whisked them to a froth and, after measuring it in the palm of her hand, dumped salt into the eggs and beat in flour until she had a dry dough that she could drizzle into the soup to make spaetzle, tiny dumplings that looked like fat strings.
    Elizabeth washed her hands at the bench outside and entered the kitchen. “Much better. Oh, it smells so good in here. Ingeborg, you bake the best bread. No matter how hard I try, mine just doesn’t measure up.”
    “Thank you. I’ll have those loaves out in a minute or two, and you can take one home with you.” She gave the soup another stir. “Sit down. Rest yourself in that rocking chair.” She glanced down at Elizabeth’s feet. “Those boots look a mite tight. Better get your feet up too.”
    “I know. My feet started to swell last week when the warm weather hit. I can’t take long here. I’m sure I have folks lined up at the office.”
    “Just for starters.” Ingeborg handed Elizabeth a cup of coffee with a cookie on the saucer. “How’s Thelma working out there?” She smiled as she remembered the woman who had arrived on the train one day looking for a job.
    “She’s a godsend.” Elizabeth laid her head against the chair back. “What with Thorliff gone again, I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
    “He’ll be back for the graduation.” He was going to be the speaker at the service, so she knew he would be.
    “Of course. He said he’d be back on the train tomorrow.” Elizabeth closed her eyes with a gentle sigh. “Guess I never realized how carrying a baby would make me feel so tired.”
    “You might want to cut back on taking care of other folks and look to taking care of you.” Ingeborg opened the oven door, and the fragrance of baking bread filled the room. She inhaled deeply and heard Elizabeth do the same. Don’t you go giving advice where it may not be wanted, she reminded herself. She’s the doctor, not you. Ah, but she is carrying my first grandchild, and surely that gives me some kind of reason for my concern .
    “Now you sound just like my mother.” Elizabeth opened her eyes and smiled. “And yes, I know I should. Especially after we lost the first one. But that was so early in the pregnancy that the baby hardly seemed real.” She rocked gently. “But I’ve so often wondered, was it a boy or girl? And did I do something to make it happen?”
    “I still think about the baby I lost so many years ago.” Ingeborg paused in turning the loaves out of the pans and onto a wooden rack so they could air. “And when I had no more after Astrid, for a while I wondered if God was punishing me for my willfulness.”
    “And what did you decide?”
    “What I read in the Old Testament was about a vengeful God, but in the New Testament Jesus said His Father is love and that whoever has seen Him has seen the Father. I reread all the Gospels, and the only people Jesus spoke harshly to were the Pharisees for their hard hearts. Everyone else He loved and healed. I reminded myself of those verses over and over. ‘Come onto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Love one another, as I have loved you. . . .’ That’s running them together, but I chose to believe them all. And I did what the Psalms and Paul said. I ate those words. I meditated on them day and night. I had no choice, and it seemed that thinking on the Word in