When Breaks the Dawn (Canadian West) Read Online Free PDF

door for our guests, and I began to dish up the food for the table. On the back of my stove stood a bubbling pot of potatoes. I just couldn’t wait to taste some. We had been without potatoes for weeks! I had told myself as I peeled them before breakfast that I would cook them to fry up for our noon meal. Now as I sniffed their fragrance, I knew I had been fooling myself—I’d never wait for dinner. A bit shamefaced, I put them in a dish and set them on our breakfast table.
    After everyone was seated and the morning prayer said, I reached first for the bowl containing the potatoes. Yes, the oatmeal would surely taste good, the oranges would be a wonderful treat. And I could hardly wait for a bran muffin with real butter rather than dry biscuits. But the thing I wanted most was a good helping of potatoes, even if it was breakfast.
    “This is silly, I know,” I said, blushing, “but I just can’t wait for a taste of potatoes again. I never realized how much I missed them until I saw them there this morning, all fresh and round, without wrinkles in their skins or sprouts all over them.”
    Ian smiled and winked at Nimmie in understanding. I sprinkled salt and pepper, dabbed on some real butter and lifted a forkful of potatoes to my mouth. They were just as good as I had expected them to be. I savored the mouthful, enjoying it to the full.
    Wynn, too, bypassed the oatmeal and reached for the steaming bowl. “You’re going to have potatoes, too?” I asked, surprised.
    “Sure am,” he laughed. “I was afraid when I smelled them cooking that you were going to make me wait for our noon meal. I was wondering how I might sneak a few from the pot without getting caught.”
    We all had a good laugh. Nimmie and Ian allowed us our potatoes, and they ate the oatmeal and muffins.
    After breakfast Ian went for the team and wagon so their things could be taken to the cabin in a single trip. The rain had slackened, but their belongings still needed to be tucked under canvas.
    With the removal of all that belonged to the McLains, and our things being put in the storage room, Wynn had more room to organize the rest of the supplies. Little by little he was getting it cleared away to the room he called his office.
    I did my best to help him. He would not let me lift the heavier things, and I had to ask about most of the items I did move, to be sure that I stacked them where he would be able to find them.
    By midday we had some paths through our living area, and the cot was discovered and unloaded. Kip was even able to get back to his favorite place before the fire.
    I went back to the kitchen to prepare our meal, again cooking potatoes. I also cooked carrots and parsnips and turnips. It was a strange combination, but they all looked so good to me. I made up some cole slaw and informed Wynn that our dinner was ready. It wasn’t until we sat down that I realized I hadn’t prepared any meat. I was really tired of meat, but I wondered if Wynn would miss it. If he did he didn’t mention it. Instead, he talked about how good the vegetables were.
    In the afternoon Wynn finished stacking the supplies for the villagers. Almost every inch of his office floor was covered, and the stacks reached almost to the ceiling.
    Then Wynn went to work at the one little window in the room. Curious, I watched to see what he was doing. He was making a shelf that extended both inside and outside at the bottom edge of the window. He didn’t wait for me to ask what it was for.
    “I’m making a shelf so I can distribute the supplies from here and then people won’t need to enter the house to get them.”
    I pictured a long line of hungry, cold, damp people, standing in queue for their daily rations.
    “But they can’t wait out there in the rain,” I protested, willing to forego the clean floors for their comfort.
    “They have to wait in the rain anyway,” Wynn explained. “They can’t all fit in our living room at once.”
    Realizing he was right, I