Abram's Daughters 01 The Covenant Read Online Free PDF Page B

modern."
    Boyfriend . . . Her heart had leaped up at the thought. I Very must truly care for her already.
    She decided right then that Derry was a very wise young niiin. For him to say outright that she didn't have to bother
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    impressing him with fancy English clothing any longer. Jah, this was quite a burden lifted off her shoulders. She could be herself with him. Dress Plain, if he didn't mind. No more games to be played. Maybe she'd found the man of her dreams. Who knows, maybe he'd want to join church with her. Maybe he'd be asking more about life in the Plain cornmunity. Why else had he asked her to meet him for a second walk in the woods? Then again, maybe she would join his world and leave the Amish life behind.
    She would know the answers soon enough. Now, if Mamma would just stop poking her head in the room, looking at her as if she was trying to figure out what in the world was twirling round in Sadie's head. No, she wouldn't go and spoil things by sharing her secret with either Mamma or Leah about the boy with dark wavy hair and shining brown eyes. Not just yet. Mamma would put her foot down hard about seeing a boy outside the church, heaven knows, especially when she was planning to be baptized here before too long. And Leah . . . well, she knew her sister would flat out tell her she was playing with fire. In the boundless forest, yet. Best keep all this to herself.
    Mamma had often accused Mary Ruth, jokingly of course, that once she got started chattering she just didn't know when to quit. And she had been doing her share of talking this morning while helping Mamma cook breakfast.
    I'll make a gut schoolteacher someday, she thought. But Dat and Mamma would be alarmed if they knew.
    Her whole life, Mary Ruth had dreamed of becoming a teacher. But how could such a wonderful thing happen? Higher education past the legal age of fifteen was a no-no
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    mnongst the People, according to their bishop. Yet it was impossible to quiet her overwhelming desire to communicate learning skills to youngsters.
    Mixing the pancake batter, she allowed her mind to wander. Tomorrow at Preaching service over at the Peachey place, there would be many little children in attendance. She hoped to spend time playing with some of them at the picnic lollowing the church meeting. How many youngsters would I he Good Lord give her and her future husband? And what sort of young man would share her love for books?
    Eagerly, she looked forward to helping with the Lord's Day menu with Mamma and Sadie after breakfast. Unlike Sadie, she was only slightly interested in boys. As for Leah, well, that was the sister who captured her attention, especially when it ciime to Smithy Gid. He seemed to have his eye on their tomboy sister. Mary Ruth had suspected this for a year or so. I )l" course she hadn't, and wouldn't, utter a word to anyone. I ,eah was a very private sort of girl practical, too so there was no inkling of anything romantic in store, far as she knew.
    Glancing overeat Hannah setting the table, Mary Ruth could see that he? twin was more curious about Sadie's glazed expression. It reminded Mary Ruth of the selfsame look in i lie eyes of worldly girls at the public one-room schoolhouse on Belmont Road, near Route 30, where she and Hannah attended. There, Amish, Mennonite, and English students recited their lessons together, and at recess some of the girls whispered about certain boys.
    Mary Ruth didn't like the idea of comparing Sadie to worldly girls, though it was true that Sadie had attended the public high school over in the town of Paradise till she was seventeen. These days, Dat declared up and down it hadn't
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    been such a gut idea for his eldest daughter to cultivate friendships with Englishers at school, an environment that promoted individuality so frowned on by the People. Had those years encouraged Sadie to have herself a wild rumschpringe?
    It wasn't Mary Ruth's place to