Angela's Hope (Wildflowers) Read Online Free PDF Page B

enough for everyone. Edith only allowed Angela to help with the frosting of the cake. So Angela sat in the kitchen and kept Edith company in the afternoon.
    The dinner and musical evening was perfect. Angela was asked by several of the soldiers to dance when the music was playing but she declined. It was still a little painful to walk. She knew that dancing would only irritate her poor leg even more. The soldiers all took it well when she explained. Soon the food was served and everyone was making a fuss over her. Edith and Henry stayed with her all evening watching to make sure she didn’t get worn out with the activity, but Angela seemed fine.
    The time came and a few gifts were brought out. There was no fancy wrapping to be had out here in the wilds of Missouri but several soldiers had little gifts for her.
    “Treasures!” Angela declared over them. Several young men had quite a talent for whittling. One made her a horse and another made a cute little dog standing at attention.
    From Henry and Edith she got a few gifts as well. The first was a stack of soft cotton handkerchiefs, all of them with dark green initials in the corner. AH.
    The next gift was a leather bound journal. On the front page was a summer daisy pressed into wax paper. The bright white and yellow standing out against the paper was beautiful.
    “So you can take a piece of this summer with you. As I will in my heart.” Edith said with tears in her eyes. “By next summer I know you will be gone from me but I will never forget you.”
    Angela accepted the gift and the embrace from the woman who had done so much giving to her. Bittersweet tears mingled for both women. Henry handed her the last gift from a small box. 
    It was a silver pendant watch with white mother of pearl behind the watch hands. Angela gasped at them when she realized it was the first piece of jewelry she had ever owned.
    “You don’t know what you both mean to me.” Angela said with a tight throat.
    “You say it with your eyes, lass.” Henry said and patted the girl’s shoulder.
    Edith laughed though she still had tears in her eyes. “Ya do, Angie dear. No one can know ya without seeing it. You probably don’t even know you do it. But you show love with every look.”
    Angela was overwhelmed and speechless. She just accepted the gifts and love with a humble heart.
     
    * * * * *
     
    The next day Angela was up early and excited to help Edith in the garden again. The work was making her stronger. She needed to be stronger for what lay ahead. She couldn’t do the work standing all day, at some point she pulled a crate out and sat while working until she got stiff and sore. But she knew with every day that passed she would eventually get her full strength back.
    She was counting down now. She would be leaving in six or seven months, give or take. She had discussed it with the Sparks family at length and they would strike a deal with a nice Christian family that was coming through. If they had no takers in the first train that went through there would be others. Western expansion was on the rise and every newspaper was talking about it. Every time the post would come by, the newspapers were pored over for news, even if they were old by weeks or months. It was treasured out in the wilderness. Though several families now lived near the fort. A few weary souls gave up the Oregon Trail and squatted near enough to the fort and built sod homes. Anyone that applied for land was usually granted the right to build and farm the land, but it was a dangerous business. There were lots of wild animals and this place was the hunting grounds for several different tribes of Indians. The fort was there to keep the Indians from warring as its main existence. The Indians traded with them at the Hudson Bay store and it had a pony express post and a telegraph office now but it was not any type of society. Having neighbors was exciting to Edith but she had little hope of any kind of town life.
    Angela