Hidden Mercies Read Online Free PDF

could mend them while she was in labor. Kathleen does not allow any grass to grow under her feet.”
    Maddy grinned. “She is a bit of a show-off, that one is.”
    “True.”
    Maddy’s competent presence freed her to take on more maternity clients than she could have managed otherwise—especially with two-year-old Daniel at home. In her opinion, taking in her brother’s two orphaned daughters had been an even greater blessing to her than to them.
    “I cautioned Kathleen about trying to do too much too soon.” Claire stepped out of the buggy and began to unhitch old Flora. “I doubt she will listen.”
    Her married son, Levi, appeared in the doorway of the nearby workshop wiping his hands on a rag. “I’ll do that for you, Maam .”
    “ Denke, Son.” She gathered the two shoulder bags in which she kept the supplies she needed to attend a birth and headed for the house.
    Amy, Maddy’s thirteen-year-old sister, looked up from a small table on the porch where she was busy practicing her newest hobby, calligraphy. “We had some tourists stop by today.”
    “Oh?”
    “They saw the signs down by the road and came in to buy one of Levi’s baskets. The woman said one of his big ones would be perfect for storing the quilts they had purchased.”
    Amy, with her freckled face and sweet smile, tried hard to be enthusiastic about life, in spite of being confined to a wheelchair. Claire appreciated the girl’s valiant spirit. It would havebeen hard on everyone if Amy gave in to the despair Claire knew she sometimes felt.
    “Is that all they wanted?”
    “No. Once they got inside the house and saw all the jars of honey and maple syrup on the shelves, they bought some of that, too. And . . .” Amy liked to draw good news out and savor it. “The wife saw the greeting cards I made and bought all of them!”
    “All of them?” Claire said.
    “Every last one. I had a dozen made up at two dollars apiece. She gave me two twenties and refused the change because she said my cards were worth more than I was charging. She and her husband were from Arizona. They were nice.”
    “Did you mark it on your map?”
    “The Englisch lady did it for me,” Amy backed her wheelchair away from the table and maneuvered it to a large map of the United States tacked to a board. She pointed out where the woman lived. “And she told me all about their hometown. She says it’s very dry there right now.”
    “So what are you going to do with your riches?” Claire asked.
    “I’m going to save up until we can go to Walmart and get more supplies. I’m in great need of card stock and a fine-point paintbrush.”
    Claire had not loved the idea of setting up a corner of her living room as a store, but it did give Amy an outlet for her homemade greeting cards and a steady stream of new people to talk to. In spite of her disability—or perhaps because of it—the girl was usually as sociable as a puppy. Every day was an adventure for Amy as long as someone came to purchase something. One customer had been thoughtful enough to send her a postcard of a Florida beach, which now adorned the wall of the bedroom she shared with Maddy.
    She supposed the little store—really just some shelves Levi had put up in one corner of the front room—was the equivalent to Amy of what a television would be to an Englisch child, except the store brought in a small stream of cash.
    Maddy joined them on the porch. “I’m glad you’re home. Rose is down in the back worse than usual, and the restaurant gave her permission to see if I could come in and take her place. Do you mind?” Maddy worked at Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen a few hours a week, and the income she brought in was very much appreciated.
    Claire sat on the porch swing, took off her shoes, and massaged the arch of her right foot. Standing for hours, helping a laboring mother-to-be, took its toll. “If you like, as soon as Flora has a short rest, it would do you good to get out.”
    At that moment,