Abiding Peace Read Online Free PDF

shall be gone for an hour or two. Read a chapter with the children and send the girls to bed. Abby, you will have to help Ruth undress.”
    “Might I stay up with Ben, Father?” John asked.
    “Aye. And if you need any help, run over the way for Miss Christine.”
    Ben picked up Ruth and her doll from the rag rug. “We’ll be fine.”
    “Here, Father. Take this with you.” Abby ran to the table and plucked a biscuit from his untouched plate.
    Samuel smiled and accepted it from her. “Thank you, Abby, dear. Be good and help put the dishes to rights, won’t you? But let Ben pour the hot water.”
    He went out into the dusk with Chapman, shoving the biscuit into his pocket. As they walked, he sought to calm the worried father. “Be Philip in sore distress?”
    “Aye, sir. He bellowed like a cow moose. Awful pain.”
    Samuel shook his head. “I’m sorry, Edward. I hope one day a physician will feel called to settle here among us. My ministrations are far from expert.”
    “You’ve a better touch than anyone else in the village, and twice the heart.”
    Samuel bowed his head and sent up a prayer for wisdom beyond his skill. Lately it seemed his theological studies were interrupted more and more often. Of course, summer brought more accidents with all of the farming activity.
    Word had gotten about the first year he and Elizabeth moved to Cochecho, after he stitched up a man’s gashed scalp. The new preacher was as good as a doctor, some insisted. Samuel knew better. He acted because someone had to, and so they believed he had a special aptitude for it. As the village grew, so did the calls for his medical assistance. When he could, he steered people to Captain Baldwin’s wife, who acted as midwife and herb woman. But serious injuries were beyond her, she’d told him early, though she often helped nurse Samuel’s patients after he had done what he could.
    Chapman seemed calmer by the time they came in sight of his cottage near the river. “I expect the boy will be fine once you set his leg,” he said.
    Samuel nodded. “Let us pray so. If it needs setting, I’ll have you fetch me the splints.”
    “I can do that.”
    “Good. How has your catch been this summer?”
    “The Lord has been quite generous,” Chapman said. “I’ve been out on the boat much of the time. By chance I was home tonight when the boy went to milk the cow.”
    “God knew you would be needed,” Samuel said.
    They reached the path to the house. “Well, he’s quit screaming,” Edward noted. “I made sure I was home ere nightfall. The wife says there’s been pilfering in the neighborhood. Like as not, some Indians are skulking about, she says.”
    “I’ve heard as much from some others,” Samuel admitted. “I have no explanation … but I’ve heard of no raids or attacks since the one at the church. Just small things gone missing. Food, mostly.”
    As Chapman opened the door, he heard weeping, and the fisherman’s wife cried, “Bless you, Parson! Our boy is in bad straits. I told him you would come and make it better.”
    Samuel winced, wishing he had a stock of medicines and a physician’s manual. But God had called him to be a minister, not a doctor. He closed the door firmly and smiled at Mrs. Chapman. “I will do my best, ma’am. Have you any comfrey or boneset?”

    “What do you want?” Christine’s voice croaked. Her heart drummed as though it would leap out of her chest.
    The man stood in shadows, with his bearded face muffled in darkness. The pale skin below his eyes stood out, and as he shifted, she caught a metallic glint in his right hand.
    “Don’t you yell.”
    “I won’t.” Christine bit her bottom lip to still its trembling.
    He raised the knife just a bit, making sure she saw it. “If you squawk, you’ve had it, that’s all.”
    She nodded.
    “Good, then. Bring me something to eat.”
    “We … don’t have much.”
    “Oh, I know. I’ve seen you go back and forth to the house over yonder. But