A Surprise for Lily (14 page)

“Just because I can't see anything yet doesn't mean it won't go black,” Harvey said in a voice filled with warning. “Maybe you should just admit you were lying so you won't have to worry all day. Once those fingers go black, they'll stay that way for the rest of your life. Everyone will know that you're liars.”

During noon recess, Harvey checked their fingers again and told them they should confess now, before it was too late. Lily and Joseph refused, though they did get a creepy feeling up their spine when he told them. “It
was
Becky and Ephraim, wasn't it?” Joseph whispered.

“Yes! Absolutely!” Lily said, looking at her finger. “I think so, anyway. I'm almost positive it was them. Nearly one hundred percent. Maybe . . . sixty percent positive.”

After noon recess, Teacher Judith read a chapter from a book. Lily couldn't concentrate on the story. What if her finger did turn black? She looked over at Joseph. He sat at his desk with his hands spread on the table, staring at his fingers. She had never seen her brother focus so intently on something at school.

Teacher Judith closed the book, put it away, and asked the third grade to come to the front of the classroom for spelling. Lily stared at the clock. Only two more minutes until it would be one o'clock. The second hand never moved so slowly before.
Tick, tock, tick, tock
. Finally, it was one o'clock! Lily squeezed her eyes tight, then opened them to look at her finger. Why, it looked just like it always did! She
breathed a sigh of relief, turned to Harvey, and held up her hand with a smug smile. Then she went back to work on her math assignment.

At last recess Harvey checked their fingers one more time. “It's a mystery to me why your fingers didn't turn black,” he said, shaking his head. “A pure mystery. Because everybody knows you're lying.”

A
s soon as the last of the snow had melted away, Lily and Joseph started to plan for a visit to Teaskoota, the old Shawnee Indian. Mama said they had to wait until the weather warmed up. Finally, on a sunny afternoon in late March, Mama wrapped a chunk of fresh homemade cheese into a piece of cloth and put it into a brown paper bag. “Lily, you and Joseph can take this cheese and an apple pie over to Teaskoota this afternoon.”

Teaskoota was almost one hundred years old. He lived off the land in a little log cabin, just like a pioneer. No roads led to his home. Lily and Joseph set off to follow a dim trail in the woods and travel through a long, dark abandoned train tunnel to reach the clearing where Teaskoota lived.

Last summer, after Lily and Joseph had discovered Teaskoota, Papa had gone with them to meet him. Teaskoota liked having visitors. During autumn, on Saturday afternoons, Mama
had sent Lily and Joseph to visit with him and bring him gifts from the kitchen. Teaskoota was always happy to see them.

He showed Lily and Joseph how to do all kinds of interesting things, like how he made a wooden yoke for his team of oxen. He taught them the names of different types of plants and how they could be used for medicine or food. Lily liked learning about plants. He showed her how the leaves of mallow plants could be used for tea and the funny little button-like flowers on the mallow plants could be eaten.

Other days, Teaskoota sat on his front porch and showed Joseph how to carve and whittle wood while Lily petted Rufus, his big white dog. Joseph liked to whittle, even though the things he made turned out thick and clumsy. Nothing like Teaskoota's delicate carvings.

But when winter came, Lily and Joseph's visits to Teaskoota came to an end. Lily worried about how he would manage through the winter, but Papa assured her that Teaskoota had survived plenty of winters. He had promised that when spring arrived, they could start visiting him again. And today was that day.

As Lily and Joseph walked along the trail, Joseph said, “When I grow up, I'm going to live just like Teaskoota.”

Lily rolled her eyes. Joseph was one for cooking up ridiculous ideas. “You'd get tired of living like a pioneer by the end of a month. By the end of the first week.” Lily snapped her fingers. “By the end of the first day!”

“That's not true,” Joseph said. “I'd never, ever get tired of it. I would have lots of animals. I could walk around in the woods all day long. I could make everything I need and live in a log cabin. It'd be fun!”

“Well, you can live the way you want to, but I think it would
be too lonely and hard to live in the middle of the woods far away from Mama and Papa.”

“They could come visit,” Joseph said.

Lily decided there was no point in telling him that Mama and Papa wouldn't be visiting him off in the deep woods. Or that he would starve if he had to cook for himself. One thing she had learned about Joseph, if she argued with him, he'd act only more stubborn. He'd probably move out to the barn and try to live like a pioneer right now, just to prove her wrong. Boys just weren't reasonable.

Fortunately, before any more words could be exchanged about living like pioneers, they came to the tunnel. There were still thick icicles hanging down from the ceiling, and they had to walk carefully around big chunks of rock that had fallen down during the winter.

Carefully they made their way through to the other side of the tunnel, and soon they reached the little log cabin. Teaskoota was sitting on the porch, as if he'd been hoping they might just mosey over today from Whispering Pines. He was happy to see them, and even happier to see Mama's treats.

He pulled the cheese out of Mama's bag and took a knife out of the pocket of his dirty overalls. He flicked the knife open, sliced a slab of cheese, and promptly started to eat it—using the knife as a fork. Lily tried not to shudder at the thought of everything else that knife had touched before it was used on Mama's fresh cheese. Disgusting!

After Teaskoota sampled a generous portion of the cheese, he disappeared into the cabin with it, along with Mama's apple pie. “I'm baking sourdough biscuits today,” he called to them. His gray head popped out of the cabin door. “Well, come on, then!”

Behind the cabin, Teaskoota had built a fire pit with stones. A small smoldering fire was burning in it. A cast iron tripod stood over the fire. It held a pot that was covered in red embers and ashes. “This is where I do my baking,” he said. As he poked at the pieces of burning wood, the fire popped and crackled. Sparks flew into the air and then settled back to gently licking flames. “Seeing as how your mama has sent me plenty of good food, I got to thinking that it might be nice to feed all of you for a change.” He straightened up and stretched, one hand on his back. “How would your family like to come over for a meal some fine spring day?”

“Oh, we'd like that just fine,” Joseph said quickly.

Teaskoota grinned, pleased. “So when can you come?”

“Papa is busy in his shop during the week,” Joseph said. “And on Sunday we'll have to go to church, but the next Sunday we could come over for lunch.”

Normally, Lily would silence Joseph with a look for speaking first. He needed constant reminding that he was not the eldest in the family and it was not his place to speak up. But this time, she decided to let him do the talking.

Satisfied, Teaskoota nodded. “I'll see you a week from this Sunday.”

Lily wasn't at all sure what Papa and Mama would think about having them accept a dinner invitation to Teaskoota's log cabin without talking to them first. But since Joseph was the one who had done all the talking, he would be the only one to get into trouble.

Two Sundays later, Papa harnessed Jim to the little open buggy. The family was heading out to Teaskoota's home for a meal. Mama hadn't been at all cross with Joseph for accepting Teaskoota's invitation without checking with her first. Lily was happy about that and a little bothered, too. Whenever she had accepted an invitation from Grandma or Beth without permission, she got a talking to. Joseph didn't even get a stern look, which Lily thought was quite unfair. On the other hand, she was excited to go out to Teaskoota's house. It was always an adventure and she was sure today wouldn't disappoint.

Everyone climbed into the little open buggy. Dannie and Paul sat on Papa and Mama's laps. Joseph and Lily stood by the front and held onto the dashboard while Papa guided Jim down the road. Before long they turned off onto a path
that used to be an old railroad trail. Jim walked slowly as the buggy bumped and swayed. Now and then, Papa would have to duck his head to keep a branch from hitting him. Papa was smart to use the open buggy. The top buggy would never have been able to get through to where they were going. When they got to the tunnel, Papa called to Jim with a long “whoa.” Everyone climbed out of the buggy and waited by the tunnel entrance while Papa tied Jim to a tree. They would walk the rest of the way.

Mama took a few steps into the tunnel, then stopped and looked at the ceiling and walls, which were dripping with water. “Daniel, are you sure this is safe?”

“I think it will be fine,” Papa said. “This tunnel has been here for a long, long time. Besides, it's the shortest way to get to Teaskoota's cabin—unless you want to climb over the mountain.”

Lily thought it was fun to have the whole family walk through the dark tunnel together but Mama seemed more and more uncomfortable. “What a spooky place. I didn't realize how long and dark the tunnel was. I can't believe how many times Lily and Joseph have walked through this tunnel.”

“We don't mind walking through it,” Lily said. “You should have seen it two weeks ago. Icicles hung from the ceiling all the way down to the floor.”

Mama shuddered. Lily wondered if she shouldn't have told Mama about the icicles. What if she didn't let them visit Teaskoota until summer?

Dannie loved the tunnel. He hunted for every muddy water puddle he could find to stomp in. Lily thought it would be fun to splash in the mud. If only she were a boy or if only she were a little younger and didn't mind if her dress got dirty. But she would be eleven soon and she did mind.

Finally, they came to the end of the tunnel and Mama sighed with relief. When they reached the clearing in front of Teaskoota's log cabin, Mama's eyes went wide. “It looks just like you said it does, Lily. Like a picture right out of a history book.”

Like always, Teaskoota sat on a rocking chair at the front of his cabin with his dog, Rufus, at his feet. He rose to meet them and Rufus trotted right behind him. Dannie was all eyes and ears, taking in everything.

“Welcome, welcome,” Teaskoota said.

“Something smells good,” Papa said, pumping Teaskoota's hand.

Teaskoota couldn't stop grinning. His teeth were missing and his face reminded Lily of a wrinkled apple doll. “I'm making sourdough biscuits and baked potatoes for lunch. It will be ready before too long.” He told everyone to follow him to his kitchen—the fire pit behind his cabin.

Mama looked stunned.

“Nothing beats warm sourdough biscuits,” Teaskoota said. He carefully raked back ashes and red hot embers to uncover some potatoes. “I think these are ready,” he said. Using a rake, he rolled the potatoes out of the ashes and onto the grass.

Lily reached down to pick up a potato. Just as her hand touched it, she heard Teaskoota, Papa, and Mama yell “Don't!” but their warning came too late. She dropped the hot potato, but it had already burned her hand.

Papa and Mama bolted over to examine Lily's hand, which was angry red. It was terribly painful. She tried hard not to cry, seeing as how she would be eleven now and too grown-up to cry, yet she couldn't help but let a tear leak down her cheek. First one tear, then another and another.

Papa ran to get some cold water for her while Teaskoota disappeared into his cabin. He came back outside with a jar of honey and poured some on Lily's hand. Next he put some leaves on it and wrapped it with a long strip of cloth. Lily's hand still hurt, but the honey and the leaves made it feel much better.

“What kind of leaves did you use?” Mama asked.

“Burdock leaves,” Teaskoota said. “They help soothe and heal burns.” He scraped the ashes off the lid of the cast iron pot. With a metal rod, he lifted the lid off to reveal a pan full of golden brown sourdough biscuits. Despite Lily's injury, her mouth watered at the sight. Teaskoota took them out of the pot and placed them into wooden bowls, then he poured a generous amount of honey over each one.

Teaskoota handed the first bowl to Lily. With her unhurt left hand, she carefully touched the biscuit with her finger to make sure it wasn't too hot before she picked it up. It looked delicious. She took a big bite and started to chew. Then she stopped. The biscuit didn't taste anything liked it looked. It was sour! She managed to choke down the rest. When Teaskoota asked if she would like another, she smiled sweetly and said, “No, thank you.” Even Joseph and Dannie and Paul didn't eat more than one bite. Papa and Mama quietly ate everyone's leftover biscuits and burnt potatoes.

After lunch, Teaskoota offered to show the family around his property. He led them down a little path through a patch of trees to a meadow. At the edge of the meadow were several hives of bees. “This is where I get all my honey.”

“They look like little box houses,” Dannie said. He ran closer to get a better look.

“Dannie!” Papa warned. “Don't get too close.”

“Little fella, if you want to see something, let's go look at my chickens and turkeys,” Teaskoota said. “I put them in the barn so they didn't disturb our lunch, but I can let them out now.” He opened the barn door and the chickens hurried out. The turkeys strutted around in the barn. They looked so silly—as if they were the bosses of the barn.

Dannie chased them and waved his arms. “Shoo turkeys, shoo turkeys! Go out and eat grass.” A few turkey hens ran away from him and ducked out the door into the barnyard. The tom turkey stayed put, glaring at Dannie with his beady little eyes. He lowered his head and charged at Dannie, flapping his wings and screeching. Dannie screamed and fell down, then started to cry.