Patchwork Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page A

to Daniel as closely as he should have, he thought instead of Susie, and his daed, and Mamm. His older brothers were all married with children, and they all worked on the farm with Daed. Jacob frowned. Mamm had always said that when Jacob married, she and Daed would move into the vacant dawdi-haus and let Jacob and his frau have the main house. After all, the family should be together. The way God intended it to be.
    Jacob kicked at a clump of black coal on the black gravel floor. This shop was a stinky mess. It smelled like smoke, but the odor was different from the annoying odor of cigarettes. This was heavier and thicker; it seemed to permeate everything.
    He couldn’t wait to get home and farm the nice, clean earth.
    But then, there was fire. Jacob watched the flames, fascinated, as he cranked the handle on the forge that Daniel told him to turn in a slow, steady manner while he dumped a bucket of coal around the fire that he’d begun with wood and crumpled paper. The coal made a dome around two sides of the fire.
    “There, listen to that. Hear the roar of the fire? That’s what we’re looking for.”
    ***
    Becky hoisted the laundry basket and the pail full of clothespins before hurrying outside to the clothesline. She shivered in the cold wind, wishing they could dry the clothes inside like some of their Englisch neighbors. After placing her load on the ground, she reached for a pretty little pink dress belonging to her four-year-old sister, Mary. Becky missed wearing the beautiful, bright colors permitted for little girls. She glanced down at her dark maroon dress, more suited for hard, potentially dirty work.
    At least she could enjoy the colorfulness of the quilts the women made. The tumbling block pattern on Becky’s bed featured various shades of blue, her favorite color. A double wedding ring quilt in lavender and purple covered her parents’ bed. She wondered what Jacob thought of the quilt she had spread across his bed. It was a log cabin pattern, and she’d helped to make it. It was supposed to have gone into her hope chest.
    No point in letting her thoughts go there. She forced her attention back to her task.
    Men’s voices carried on the breeze, but she couldn’t understand the words. She glanced toward the shop where Daed and Jacob worked. A couple of cars and buggies were parked outside the small, open building. Maybe they were customers needing some blacksmith work. Or maybe they’d come to shoot the breeze. She knew Daed had a lot of fun out in his shop, and sometimes it seemed like the local hangout.
    She picked up another dress—a bluish-gray one of her mother’s—and shook it out. What did Jacob think of their community? How did it compare to his own in Pennsylvania? More snow up north, maybe. But wouldn’t one district be pretty much the same as the next? She shrugged and deliberately pushed Jacob out of her mind, turning her attention to other chores that required her attention.
    Mamm needed a fruit cobbler to take to quilting on Monday, so Becky figured she’d make two. Her sisters and Daed wouldn’t be happy if she didn’t provide one for them to enjoy. She’d need to make the cobblers today, Saturday, as Sunday was a day set aside for the Lord and for family. The kitchen floor really needed to be scrubbed. Probably after she’d made the cobblers. Mary and Abbie would likely want to help with the baking, and the floor, table, and chairs would be sticky when they finished.
    Becky hung up the last dress and then hurried toward the house, eager to start the rest of the day’s work.
    Maybe, if she finished quickly, she could go visit her friend Annie and tell her about Jacob from Pennsylvania.

Chapter 5
    Jacob stared at the fire he’d finally managed to build according to Daniel’s specifications. Daniel’s lecture about the all-important blacksmith fire that he’d fed Jacob seemed to dissolve as fast as the sparks in front of him. He didn’t believe for a moment he’d