PIECES OF LAUGHTER AND FUN (11 page)

"Not a thing," I said. "And for once I haven't even had to take my sewing out. This time everything is going to be perfect."

"Would you girls like some cookies?" ma called through the screen door. "I'm taking fresh ones from the oven."

"Oh, yes, ma! I'll come right in and get them." I picked up the apron to put it aside but it would not move. It was sewn to my pinafore!

Sarah Jane looked at it; then she burst out laughing.

"I'm sure I don't know what's funny," I said crossly. "Would you want me to laugh if you did that?"

"I'm sorry, Mabel. But you just finished saying that you hadn't taken any stitches out yet. And I said that nothing was going to go wrong. I guess we were both mistaken, weren't we?"

Ma appeared in the doorway to see what had happened. "I wouldn't say that it would be safe for either one of you to boast about anything being perfect," she commented. "I've seen things that couldn't possibly go wrong, fall apart when you two got mixed up in them."

She pointed to the apron on my lap. "If taking out a little sewing is the worst that happens, you won't have to worry."

"It had better be the worst," I grumbled. "I don't have the time to be doing things over."

It was a good thing that we couldn't see the future. The Bible is right when it says that each day's troubles are enough for that day. We don't need to know that more will follow.

Everything went well until April 23, the day of the party. If Miss Gibson noticed that her class seemed more restless that day, she didn't mention it. But for most of us, it was the longest day of the year.

At closing time, Reuben raised his hand. "A couple of us would like to stay and work a little longer, Miss Gibson. I'll be sure to lock up if it's all right."

"Why, that's fine, boys,' she replied. "I'm glad to see you so interested in your studies. I'll be happy to stay awhile, too, if you like."

We held our breath.

"Oh, no thank you, Miss Gibson. We'll get along just fine," Reuben answered her. "You can go right along home."

Fortunately, she agreed. When school was dismissed, most of us left the yard as she did. But when she was out of sight, we returned quickly.

"We'll put two tables together at the front to hold the presents," Reuben directed. "The cakes can go on the desks by the wall. Now let's hurry and put the streamers around."

Miss Gibson's desk was chosen as the ideal place for the happy birthday banner. Sarah Jane and I set to work at once to print it.

"Be sure you don't spell something wrong, Mabel," Roy called. "You've got four whole words to put on there."

"Ignore him," I told Sarah Jane. "He thinks he's so bright. He'd like you to believe that he'd never made a mistake in his life."

When we were finished, Reuben locked the door, and we hurried home to get ready for the party.

"Try to get your folks to leave a little bit early," Sarah Jane said. "Then we can be there to welcome everyone."

I assured her that we would be there by quarter of seven, and we were. By seven o'clock the others began to arrive. We hurried about, placing cakes and gifts in their proper places.

Soon the room began to fill up. Whenever the door opened, we looked expectantly toward it. But Miss Gibson did not appear.

"Do you suppose we should go and get her?" Sarah Jane asked me. "Or at least go over and see when she's coming?"

I agreed that we should, and we ran across the school ground to the minister's home, where Miss Gibson lived.

"But she's not here," the minister's wife told us when we inquired about Miss Gibson. "Her parents came and took her into town for dinner."

"Everyone is here for her birthday party!" I cried.

"Mabel," Sarah Jane said, "did you tell her about the party?"

We look at each other in silence.

"You didn't tell her, either," I said. "Nobody told her. What do we do now?"

"I'll tell her," offered Mrs. Brooke. "As soon as she gets home I'll send her right over there. Why don't you just go ahead with your party?"

There was nothing else to do. Slowly we went back to the school.

"You'd think we'd learn, wouldn't you?" Sarah Jane said sadly. "We can't even have a party that goes right. What are we going to tell them?"

"We'll just have to say that everyone kept the secret so well that Miss Gibson still doesn't know it.... I hope she gets back early."

Happily, Miss Gibson and her parents arrived at eight o'clock. The party was a huge success, and she was greatly pleased with her gifts.

When she thanked us, she said, "It isn't often that a surprise party is a surprise to the people who give it!"

"No," pa agreed, "not unless it's Sarah Jane and Mabel who are giving it. Then anything can happen!"

GRANDMA, UNCLE ROY, and I were enjoying fresh apple dumplings in the bright, cheery kitchen of grandma's old home.

"You sure have good apples in your orchard," I said to Uncle Roy. "Are the trees as old as you are?"

"Some of them are," he replied. "We've added trees over the years, but the original ones are still out there. When your grandma was little, she liked the apples from the Gibbs's orchard better than ours." Uncle Roy looked sideways at grandma and chuckled.

"Why, grandma? What made the Gibbs's apples so good?"

"I especially liked winesap apples," grandma explained. "And we didn't have any then. Now what made you think of that?" she asked Uncle Roy.

"I don't know," he laughed. "I guess maybe thinking about original trees. He had some of the oldest ones around."

I looked at grandma, eager for the story I knew was sure to follow.

"I suppose you want to hear about those special apples, don't you?" grandma asked me. I nodded eagerly, and she began....

The Gibbs's farm was between our house and Sarah Jane's. We passed it every day as we visited each other. The apple orchard bordered the road. In late fall the trees were loaded with beautiful red apples.

Mr. Gibbs didn't care how many apples we picked up from the ground. So we would often fill our pinafores with the windfalls—apples that had been blown off the trees—and munch on them while we played. One day I brought home the extra ones and put them on the table.

"I saved enough for you to make a pie or a cobbler," I told ma. "Wouldn't you like to do that?"

"I might," she replied, "If there were someone who wanted to peel them and get them ready."

"I will. I don't mind doing it at all. These sure are good apples."

"How many have you eaten already?" ma asked me.

"Oh, only five or six," I replied. "Not very many. And they're small."

"They eat that many every time they pass the orchard," Roy put in. "Don't forget, Mabel, if you swallow the seeds, you'll have apple trees growing out your ears."

"Why, Roy!" ma exclaimed. "What an outlandish thing to tell your sister. You know that isn't so."

"I was just teasing, ma. Mabel doesn't believe it."

"You shouldn't say it if you don't want me to believe it," I said primly. "You might say something you do want me to believe, and I won't."

"All right, Mabel. It won't be necessary to preach a sermon. Get started on the apples, please."

A few days later, Sarah Jane stopped by the house after school. "Can Mabel come home to supper with me? We have lots of studying to do.

"Does your mother know you're asking her?" ma inquired.

"Yes, she said I could. Caleb and I will walk her home. Is it all right?"

"I guess so," ma replied. "Be sure you take care of your studying before you play." "Yes, ma'am," we replied. "We will."

On the way to Sarah Jane's, we stopped at the Gibbs's orchard.

"Some of these apples hit the ground pretty hard," Sarah Jane commented. "We'll have to eat around the bruises."

"It would be nice to have a whole apple straight from the tree, wouldn't it?" I said. "Of course, I'd rather have the windfalls than nothing."

Sarah Jane agreed, and we each picked up several. "I'd like to be around when that one falls," she said, and pointed to a dark red apple, about halfway up the tree. "Wouldn't that be a good one to take to Miss Gibson?"

Miss Gibson was a most beloved teacher. As we gazed at the apple we could imagine her delight at receiving it. She would undoubtedly hug us as she thanked us for it.

"Maybe if I just leaned on the tree a little, it would come down," I suggested. "Then you could catch it."

But my weight didn't budge that tree one bit. The apple hung solidly on its branch.

"Well," Sarah Jane sighed, "come on. Let's go home. We'll keep an eye on that one. Miss Gibson really would like it."

We watched that apple daily, making a special trip after school to stand under the tree and look at it longingly.

"I think it's going to spend the winter there," I said toward the end of the week. "Whatever is taking it so long to fall?"

"Tomorrow's Friday. If it isn't down by morning, we can't give it to her this week. It would be just like that stubborn apple to fall on Saturday or Sunday. Then it would be old by Monday."

I nodded. Neither of us thought her statement was ridiculous, in spite of the fact that winesaps stay crisp and crunchy, stored in the cellar, all winter long.

"You're a good climber, Mabel. Why don't you go up to the branch it is on?"

"Oh, I couldn't! We can't pick any of Mr. Gibbs's apples. That would be stealing."

"I didn't say to pick it, silly. I just said, 'go up on that branch.' If you shook it just a little bit, the apple would fall. A windfall doesn't necessarily mean the wind blew it off, does it?"

I had to admit that this was probably true.

Seconds later I was climbing awkwardly up the tree and inching my way out on the limb. A few gentle shakes, and the apple was loosened. Sarah Jane caught it as it fell.

"Oh, Mabel, watch out!"

Startled, I slid hastily downward. Then I heard a ripping sound. But this didn't stop me.

Once my feet were on the ground, I felt secure enough to look up.

A large piece of my skirt was flying from the branch.

"Now what did you have to go and do that for?" I demanded. "I thought sure someone was coming."

"I just wanted you to know that your skirt was caught on the branch," Sarah Jane said meekly. "I didn't know you'd just come sliding down without looking."

"I was looking," I said irritably. "I was looking to see if Mr. Gibbs was in the orchard. That's what you made it sound like."

"I'm sorry. I wasn't even thinking about him."

"You didn't have to. You weren't in his tree. And that's part of my school dress hanging up there. Now what will I do?"

"Go back up and get it?"

"You sure are a big help," I said crossly. "Of course I'll have to get it. But that won't fasten it where it belongs. What will I tell ma?"

"If it were me, I'd just say a branch caught my skirt."

"It almost never is you, so you can afford to think of dumb things like that to say. Ma knows that branches don't just reach out and catch things."

"Go on and get it. My mother will sew it for you. And you don't have to explain anything to her."

This seemed to be the best solution. Soon we were carrying the apple and the torn skirt to Sarah Jane's, where her mother mended it as best she could.

"At least it's in the back where you'll be sitting on it most of the time," Sarah Jane tried to comfort me.

"That's not all I'll be sitting on when ma finds out what I did. She'll tan me good."

"Why tell her?" Sarah Jane shrugged. "Turn your dress around so that it's in the front and put your pinafore back on. No one will ever know the difference."

"That might work until washday," I replied. "But whenever I try to keep anything from ma, she can tell right away. Anyway, we got the apple for Miss Gibson. I'll think about the dress later."

Ma didn't notice the mended spot that evening, and I said nothing about it. The next morning we presented our prize to the teacher. She was as pleased as we thought she'd be.

At recess time, Reuben came to where we were sitting. "Where did you get that apple you gave the teacher?" he asked suspiciously.

"In Mr. Gibbs's orchard," I replied promptly.

Reuben looked at me sharply. "That didn't look like a windfall to me."

"Well, it fell, all right. Besides, it's not your business."

"You know what ma would say if you picked any of his apples. It better have fallen."

I tossed my head and muttered something about interfering brothers. But to tell the truth, my conscience was twitching. And I still had ma to face.

Sarah Jane broke into my thoughts. "Did you remember that this is class meeting Sunday?"

I nodded sadly. "What are we going to say when the class leader asks us if we've been walking in the ways of the Lord this week?"

She was silent for a moment. "Maybe we better not go to class meeting."

"We have to, unless I'm sick," I reminded her.

"I am sick, every time I think about it. What are you going to say?"

"I'm glad Miss Gibson ate that apple at noontime," Sarah Jane said. "I sure don't want to look at it."