Renewal 3 - Your Basic Swiss Family Read Online Free PDF

carry. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but looking back, I think part of the plan was to strengthen us up as fast as possible. It was just like Dad to kill two birds with one stone – pun intended. Tommy and Jimmy, having napped while we cut and lifted wood, were still quite energized, and managed to carry a respectable pile of smaller stones. They trotted while we trudged, and sometimes staggered. Even Lucy stopped complaining when she ran out of extra energy to speak. We had an impressive collection of rocks piled near the tents by the time we heard the distant lumping sound of the tractor again.
    Mr. Carroll drove in with two white plastic barrels tied to the mower deck of his tractor. We could see the water sloshing around inside through the translucent material. As he pulled to a stop, I noticed that each one had a hose spigot near the bottom. There was a stack of blue plastic tarps wedged in between the barrels. He pushed a little lever to drop the mower deck and its cargo to the ground before he shut down the engine and swung his stiff leg to the ground. He plucked the walking cane from its PVC pipe sheath, which he had cleverly bolted to the tractor’s left fender. Then he turned to face us.
    We had unconsciously lined up as a family, and it reminded me of a scene from the “Sound of Music” movie we were forced to watch at least once a year. My dad made the introductions. “Mr. Carroll, you’ve met my wife. This is my oldest, Lucy.”
    Lucy smiled and said, “Hello, Mr. Carroll. It’s nice to meet you.” She was the picture of pleasant politeness, and none of the disinterested attitude that normally came with meeting adults.
    “This is my oldest boy, Kirk.”
    Kirk stuck out his hand, and Mr. Carroll gave it a firm single shake. “Pleasure to meet you, sir.”
    “This is Bill.” Dad said.
    I adopted Kirk’s example and said, “Glad to meet you, sir.” Mr. Carrolls grip was iron strong to me.
    “And this is my youngest, Tommy.”
    Tommy picked up on the formality, and greeted the old man, who was smiling down like a proud grandfather at that point.
    “This little rascal is Arturo’s boy, Jimmy.”
    Jimmy broke under the pressure. He hopped forward twice, gave Mr. Carroll a grinning high five, and then fell theatrically on his butt. We all laughed at his performance, as the little fellow got to his feet and made another show of shaking and dusting off his rear end. He had instinctively transformed us from strangers into instant friends, and all awkwardness dissolved.
    “I’m happy to meet you all,” Mr. Carroll said, still chuckling. “I figured I could save you some trouble with the water. Me and Martha bought a stack of these water barrels to collect rain water from the roof, and we only ended up needing two of them for our little garden. I got these out of the barn, washed ‘em up, and filled them on the tractor. Might need some help getting them off, though.”
    “Thank you, George. You just made our lives a whole lot easier,” Dad said. He said it with such sincerity that Mr. Carroll actually blushed.
    “Aw, well. We didn’t have any use for ‘em,” George replied, shuffling his feet a bit. “Me and Martha talked it over last night, and we don’t have any room in the house, but if you want, you can come up and live in the barn. The truth of it, though, is if you’re willing, I like the idea of having ya’ll out here, watching the back forty. Might get cold in the fall, if things don’t settle down by then.”
    “Well, George... I think you’re right. We’ll spend the summer out here, at least. It’ll work better for everyone until we know the lay of the land,” Dad said.
    George nodded in agreement. “Well, I want you to know we appreciate it. We’ll do whatever we can to make it easier. Feel free to work things as you see fit.”
    “Likewise, George. If you need any help, we’ll come running.”
    George shook hands with my dad, and I could see the powerful promise