Alice's Tulips: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Bull-head.” I laughed out loud at the molasses story, although Mother Bullock didn’t think it so funny, and I know she wondered if he has been true to the pledge he signed. There is a Good Templars’ Lodge in camp. I know because Jennie Kate says Harve attends regular. But Charlie did not mention it.
    Then Mother Bullock came to the end of the letter, whichsays, “I hope the two of you and Doll Baby’s ‘constant companion’ are enjoying good health,” and she looked at my belly, and I grinned like a fool. She didn’t seem so surprised, and I wondered if Charlie had told Harve, who had wrote it to Jennie Kate, who had told Mother Bullock.
    Or maybe Mother Bullock heard me and Charlie fussing about it. I lied when I said I surprised Charlie with the news of the baby the night before he left. (You know what a liar I can be when it suits me.) I told him about my condition when he first talked of joining up. I says, “Charlie, you got three reasons to stay at home now. The Union has twenty thousand soldiers from Iowa already, and I have got only one of you. You should think of my comforts. It’s your duty to take care of me, not to go running around the country hunting Rebs.” But Charlie doesn’t know duty from his left foot.
    Mother Bullock is not pleased about the baby. “Things will get hard before they get better again, and who’ll work Bramble Farm in the spring?” Well, why can’t she and the hired man? They did it before I came along. I do not believe the Negro will stay long, because copperheads have been riding around at night scaring darkies.
    Oh, and the cleverest thing: Charlie says he gave three dollars for the fanciest pair of boots you ever saw so that he could protect his dancing feet.
Affectionately your sister,
    Alice K. Bullock

 
     
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Lowa Four-Patch
Most patchwork is geometric and begins with squares—squares used alone, sliced into rectangles, or cut on the diagonal into triangles, called half-squares. The most common quilt patterns are simple groupings of squares, assembled into blocks of four or nine or sixteen. The blocks are often paired with solid squares of the same size, called sashing blocks. Or the blocks of squares are pieced into vertical strips, to alternate with solid strips of fabric. The variations of squares are infinite. So is their placement. Squares can be set straight or on point, also known as on the diamond.
     
    February 27, 1863
    Dear Lizzie,
    I do not know if you can read this. Try your best. It is so gloomy out I can scarce see to write.
    I have been uncommon anxious not hearing from you when I have wrote so many letters, and I hope you are not out of patience with me and still keep me in affectionate remembrance. I guess I should not have been so frank about James, and if you took offense, I give you my apology. It has nothing to do withmy regard for you. You know I have never thought quite as highly of James after the time he said someone ought to give me a whipping. Remember? It was after that business with the vile Carter boy, which wasn’t my fault. I was only fourteen. James damaged my reputation bad. But it’s past, and Charlie never heard about it, for which I am glad, and no harm done, I guess. So if I can forgive James, you can forgive me, for my offense is the lesser.
    Besides, I am writing to give you a good laugh. Me and the others have finished and sent off ten quilts in Iowa Four-Patch, which is what I named our pattern. I’m not saying they’re good enough to win a prize, but they are satisfactory—warm, good quilts, and that’s what’s called for. A soldier doesn’t want fancy stitching. I heard about a mother sending a nightgown to her daughter, who was one of those Dorothea Dix nurses. The field hospital was in terrible need of supplies. So instead of wearing the nightdress, which the mother had embroidered in the most difficult designs, the nurse tore off the tails for bandages and gave the top to a soldier for a nightshirt.