The Rebel Read Online Free PDF

about it?” The question was gentle, but somehow Barbie suspected no one ever failed to respond to it.
    â€œIt’s nothing,” she said quickly. “Well, it’s foolish anyway.” Maybe a little part of the truth would be best. Grossmammi had a delicate ear for falsehoods. “Benuel Kauffmann stopped by the café while I was working today.” She made a face. “I don’t think he approves of me.”
    â€œMaybe he fears it’s not a gut place for you to work,” Grossmammi suggested.
    â€œWell, maybe so, but he didn’t need to act as if I’d committed every sin in the Bible.” Her annoyance was like a prickly rash, impossible not to scratch. “Anyway, he’s not my daad. It’s not his business.”
    Grossmammi didn’t speak. She just looked at Barbie until Barbie couldn’t handle that clear gaze any longer.
    â€œJa, I know he’s one of the ministers. I guess he means well, but everyone knows how strict he is. You’d think a younger man might be more flexible, but not Benuel Kauffmann.”
    Somehow she didn’t think Grossmammi was going to join in her criticism of Ben. Sure enough, she didn’t.
    â€œI think, my Barbie, that you wouldn’t be so annoyed with Benuel unless there was some truth in what he said, ain’t so?”
    No matter how long she delayed, her answer would have to be the same. Grossmammi saw too much. “Maybe so. But I don’t need him pointing it out to me.”
    Grossmammi reached out to pat her hand, the touch as gentle as the brush of the spring breeze on her skin. “Ach, Barbie. So restless and eager. I trust that soon God will lead you to whatever it is you are seeking.”
    The words went right to her heart and settled there. How could God know what it was she sought, when she didn’t know herself? But Grossmammi seemed confident.
    She nodded, afraid her voice might wobble if she tried to speak.
    â€œNow, let’s get to the reason I wanted you to stop by today.” Grossmammi’s voice became brisk. “Komm. We’ll go into the living room, and I’ll show you.”
    â€œShow me what?” Barbie moved the tray out of the way asher grandmother got up. With her grandmother’s heart problems, she was supposed to take it easy, but that never seemed to slow her down at all.
    â€œYou’ll see.” Grossmammi led the way, her small body in the black dress somehow indomitable. “You must have thought I’d forgotten to pick out a family gift for you, but I haven’t. Here it is.”
    She stepped aside, leaving Barbie confronting the object that sat right in the middle of the living room floor. A dower chest. But not just any dower chest. It was Grossmammi’s own, the one that had come to her from her own grandmother.
    â€œBut . . . you shouldn’t part with something you treasure so much, Grossmammi. Something else will be fine for me, that’s certain-sure.”
    Since last spring, Barbie and her two cousins, Rebecca Byler and Judith Wegler, had been helping Grossmammi to dispose of the collection of objects belonging to the Lapp family—objects that seemed to summarize the history of the Amish in America. Grossmammi had always been the family’s storyteller, keeping the stories alive, and she was determined that Barbie and her cousins would take over that role. She had given family pieces to Rebecca and Judith already, but not to Barbie, until now. Barbie had begun to wonder if Grossmammi had forgotten about it.
    Grossmammi sat down in the corner of the sofa, her small figure dwarfed by its high back, her gaze resting on the chest. It was large even for a dower chest—big enough that an Amish bride would be able to store all the linens she’d need for her new home. Chests were usually either passed on in families or built by fathers for their daughters, so that from the timeAmish girls hit their