Listen To Me Honey Read Online Free PDF Page A

night's sleep last night?” Tansy asked as she
put a pan of biscuits in the oven.
    “After I got used to the mattress I did,” Amanda said
honestly.
    Tansy set a cast iron skillet on
the stove. She shaped sausage patties with her hands and put them
in the hot grease. “What was wrong with the mattress?”
    “I
fell into it and stayed in a hole all night. You need to get a new
mattress,” Amanda told her.
    Tansy grinned as she hunted the
long handled turner out of a drawer. “I reckon ya sleep at home on
a bed that's hard as a board.”
    “Yes. I didn't know there was any other kind.”
    “Not
going to happen around here. That mattress is stuffed with
feathers. It's supposed to be soft. Ya will get used to it. Trust
me,” Tansy declared, turning the sizzling sausage patties
over.
    “Great! I have to sleep on feathers,” Amanda grumbled.
“What birds furnished the feathers?”
    “Geese. I pull the down off some that I butcher
every fall and save it to plump up our mattresses and
pillows.”
    Amanda scrunched up her nose. “The
pillows are filled with feathers, too?”
    “Yes. When I was a youngun, we slept on straw mattresses. I
never did think that was as soft as feather ticks.” Tansy dished
the sausage patties onto a plate and set the plate in the warming
oven. She turned her attention back to Amanda. “Ya have to sleep on
that mattress, because that's the only other bed we have except
ours. It has feathers in the mattress, too. If ya'd rather sleep in
the hayloft on loose straw that's yer choice.”
    “No,
thanks. Too many strange noises outside last night. I'd rather not
meet up with what makes those noises. Not even long enough to go to
the restroom in the dark,” Amanda cried.
    “Outhouse,” Tansy corrected, breaking eggs into the
skillet. “What did ya hear?”
    Amanda made the yipping
sound.
    Tansy grinned. “That's coyotes on
the run in the timber. They hardly ever come around people and
buildings.”
    Amanda's head came up. “It's that
hardly ever part that worries me. I don't want to be the exception.
I need to go to the restroom before I set the table.”
    “Outhouse,” Tansy corrected.
    Amanda didn't stop to reply back.
She didn't take too long outside, either, since Grandma wanted her
to set the table. She did remember to look around her to make sure
she didn't step on a copperhead. Grandma wouldn't have to remind
her about watching for snakes.
    Later, Tansy scraped all the
breakfast dishes off into the pail. “While I'm fixing the dish
water, ya take this pail out and dump it in the chicken yard. Ya
can open the door to let the chickens out. Pump some water in the
pail and clean it out before ya bring it back. If that old tire in
front of the chicken house is empty take some water and fill it up
for me. That way my chicken chores are done.”
    “All
right.” Amanda was glad to get outside. She took a deep breath of
air that smelled like timber. She liked the country smells here
better than the smells in Chicago. As she dumped the pail and
banged the side of it against the chicken house, she turned her
head and took another deep breath. Some of the scraps had dried on
the sides, and the pail smelled awful. She'd have to wash it
out.
    The squeaky pump handle worked hard
as she moved it up and down. The noise got Art's attention at the
barn. “Mandie, take that cup attached to the pump spout and get
some water from the drinking bucket in the kitchen. Ya need to pour
it down the pump to prime it. Might take more than one
cup.”
    Amanda primed the pump. That
worked. She filled the pail with water. Once, she swirled the water
around, she emptied the pail on Tansy's petunia bed near the well.
She filled the pail with fresh water to take to the chicken
yard.
    When she opened the chicken house
door, the chickens tried to fly out all at one time. Cackling
loudly, the hens sounded excited about getting their freedom.
Amanda got a whiff of the hot, dusty building and didn't blame the
chickens