Vows Read Online Free PDF Page B

suffer.
      It took the better part of an hour to heat the water, and a lot of knuckle-work to remove the bloodstains. Emily was still at it when Frankie came home with two black spotted trout gill-strung on a forked stick.
      "Look what I got, Emily!"
      He was the prettiest boy Emily had ever seen—she'd often said Frankie got the looks in their family-with long-lashed blue eyes, twin dimples, a beautiful mouth, and a head of dark hair that was going to make plenty of female fingers itch to touch it within a very few years. Once he'd lost the last of his baby teeth he'd grown a set of the most remarkably large and perfect ones. They never failed to startle Emily, for though they were the only part of him that had attained their mature size, they brought with them the promise of complete maturity in the very near future. His limbs were stretching already, and if the length of his toes was any indication, Frankie would soon gain the height of their mother, who topped Papa by a good two inches.
      Emily felt bad for Frankie. He was still only twelve, but with Mother so sick, the last of his boyhood was being robbed of the happy abandon he deserved. It wasn't fair; but then this trial wasn't fair to any of them, least of all Mother, was it? They had to pitch in and handle the housework the best they could, like it or not. So Emily steeled herself against the appeal she knew was forthcoming as she admired Frankie's catch.
      "Mmm … nice fish. Who's going to clean them?
      "Me and Earl. Where's Papa?"
      "Still at the livery."
      "I gotta go show him!"
      "Wait a minute!"
      "But Earl's waiting!" Frankie halted impatiently, his face skewing as he realized his mistake in stopping by the kitchen.
      "You promised to be home by three to help me."
      "I didn't have any watch."
      "You can see the sun, can't you?"
      "I couldn't." His eyes widened to best advantage. "Honestly, I couldn't, Emily. We were down by the big cottonwoods in the empty lot behind Stroth's place and I couldn't see the sun behind the trees!"
      She pitied the poor girl who tried to tie this one down. Dressed in a straw hat, wearing neither shirt nor shoes beneath his overalls, with his wide eyes shining and his lips open in feigned innocence, Frankie presented a charming picture, one Emily had difficulty resisting. Still, she tried.
      "Here." She released the agitator lever on the washing machine. "Your turn. My arm is ready to fall off."
      "But I want to take my fish uptown and show Papa. And besides, Earl's waiting and soon as we show Papa we're gonna come straight back here and clean these so you can fry them for supper. Please, Emily … pleeeease ?"
      She let him go because when she was twelve she had not had to wash clothes at four o'clock on a warm summer afternoon. Without his help, the washing took longer than she'd planned, and she was just finishing up when Papa came home for supper True to his word, Frankie had cleaned the trout, and tonight he and
    Papa took over the cooking while Emily put the washroom in order and stacked the wet laundry to wait till morning.
      Papa's cooking left room for improvement. The potatoes were mushy; the trout was a little too brown; the coffee boiled over; and the biscuits stuck to the pan. But worst of all, Mother was absent from the table. Edwin took a tray up to her but returned to catch Emily's eye across the room and give a sad shake of his head. The empty chair cast a pall over the meal, as usual, but Emily tried to brighten it.
      "From now on, I'll do the cooking and you can clean up the washroom," she chided.
      "We'll do as we've been doing," Edwin returned. "We'll get along just fine."
      But when his eyes met those of his daughter she caught a momentary hint of despair such as she'd witnessed in his private midnight session on the porch. As quickly as it appeared, Edwin hid it and lurched to his feet, reaching for dishes to carry to the sink.
      "We'd better clean up. Charles said