Grandfather's Dance Read Online Free PDF Page A

over to the driveway and bent down. Then he came back to where I stood. He took my hand and put a pebble there.
    “I . . . ,” he said.
    “Love . . .” He put another pebble there.
    “You,” he said as he placed the last one.
    I stared at them for a long time, then closed my hand over them. When I looked up again, Grandfather was gone.

10
    T he next day Aunt Lou was the very first up in the morning again.
    “I’ve driven a car,” she said to Papa. “Now it is time to ride a horse. Only five more days before we have to go back East. It’s time.”
    “‘Old lady on a dapple . . .’” began Jack before Mama put her hand over his mouth.
    Grandfather and Papa smiled.
    “Zeke, maybe,” said Aunt Lou.
    Papa looked at Mama.
    “I remember a long time ago,” he said softly. “Do you?”
    Mama nodded.
    “When I first came here I wanted to learn to ride your wildest horse, Jack, and to fix the roof . . .”
    “And to plow and almost everything else,” said Papa.
    “And she did,” said Caleb with a smile. “She wore overalls, too.”
    “I had a lot to learn,” said Mama.
    “Well, Sarah taught me how to swim when she first came here,” said Caleb.
    “In the slough?” exclaimed Aunt Harriet.
    “You bet,” said Caleb.
    “You bet,” echoed Jack, making everyone laugh.
    “I remember skinny-dipping in Maine,” Caleb said. “That water was cold.”
    “I’ll ride Zeke,” said Aunt Lou, starting to walk to the barn.
    “No,” said Papa, going after her and taking her hand. “I’ll saddle up Molly.”
    “I’ll go with you,” said Grandfather. “This time we’ll take a quiet and slow ride around the slough. If that’s possible for you,” he called after Aunt Lou.
    “Boppa,” said Jack to Grandfather. He held out his arms.
    “All right, all right. A short ride,” said Grandfather.
    Grandfather, Papa, and Aunt Lou went to the paddock to bring in the horses. Jack followed Grandfather, walking just behind him, his arms behind his back like Grandfather’s.
    “Little Boppa and big Boppa,” said Caleb, making Mama laugh.
    We watched them call in the horses and saddle up, Papa lifting Jack up to ride with Grandfather. Aunt Mattie had gotten out a set of paints and a small easel. She began to paint the prairie, the browns and greens of the land, with spots of wildflowers, the blue of the huge sky.
    Aunt Lou and Grandfather and Jack slowly rode out through the meadow. Birds flew up from the grasses where they rode, redwings and meadowlarks. A vulture wheeled high against the clouds. I watched Grandfather, tall and straight, Jack in front of him, pointing at something somewhere on the prairie.
    “I hope you paint that,” I said to Aunt Mattie.
    Aunt Mattie smiled at me.
    “You don’t need a painting,” she said. “If you close your eyes you’ll see that scene forever.”
    I closed my eyes and waited. Aunt Mattie was right.
    I could see it.
     
----
    It is nighttime. We sit under the tents, still there from the wedding.
    The aunts and William drink coffee by candlelight.
    “Sing, Boppa,” says Jack.
    There is a silence.
    “Please,” says Jack.
    Grandfather begins to sing “Billy Boy.”
     
    “Oh, where have you been, Billy Boy,
         Billy Boy.
    Oh, where have you been, charming
         Billy?
    I have been to seek a wife
    She’s the joy of my life.
    But she’s a young thing and cannot leave
         her mother.”
     
    Then Aunt Mattie sings, too, and Jack’s small voice sings the “billy boys.”
     
    “Can she bake a cherry pie, Billy Boy,
         Billy Boy?
    Can she bake a cherry pie, charming
         Billy?
    She can bake a cherry pie, quick’s a cat
         can blink its eye.
    But she’s a young thing and cannot leave
         her mother.”
     
    Jack leans back on Grandfather’s shoulder. Aunt Mattie’s knitting needles click in the dark. The moon rises. The candle flickers in the gentle prairie wind.
    I