Teaching Patience (Homespun) (4 page)

She looked at him questioningly.  “Why not?  He’s starting a full year after most children.  Do they start later in the east?”
  She balanced the soup on her knees and ate a cracker.

“No, I just didn’t want him to be subject
ed to the gossip.”  He took another bite of the soup, blowing on it carefully.

She turned to him fully, continuing to eat, but listening carefully.  “Why would he be subject
ed to gossip?”

He lowered his voice and spoke voluntarily about his wife for the first time
in years.  “My wife didn’t die.  She left me and got a divorce.  She’s married to a banker in New York City.”  He looked down at his food as he told her, too embarrassed to meet her eyes.

Patience’s eyes widened.  “A divorce?”  She wasn’t sure what to say.  She’d never known anyone who had been divorced before.
  No wonder he’d bristled when she’d asked him about Charlie’s mother.

“Yeah.  A divorce.  I haven’t told anyone here about it.  It’s easier to let people assume my wife died.”
  The fact that he didn’t want her to talk to people about it remained unspoken, but it was there as if he’d shouted the words.

“I can understand that.  How long ago did she leave?”  Her eyes found Charlie as she watched him play with the others.  She felt badly for him. 
Every child deserved a mother. 

“Charlie was four.  We’ve been on our own ever since.”  He took another bite of his soup.  “Our old church was understanding about it, but they were also always looking for a new wife for me.  They kept saying Charlie couldn’t be raised by just a man.  I wasn’t ready to remarry.  I needed to sort out how I felt about my first marriage, so I decided to keep Charlie home.  We moved out here to get away from the well-meaning people back east.”
  He waited for censure from her, but it never came.  She acted as if one of her students coming from a broken home was the most normal thing she’d ever heard.

“When my mother died, I was six.  My papa had to keep working to support us, so he left me with my younger siblings while he went to the fields.  He was always afraid to work so far from the house he couldn’t hear me yell.”  She nodded to Grace.  “My sister Grace was still in diapers.  It was a hard time.”

“When did your father remarry?”

She laughed softly.  “Right before I turned seven the ladies from church decided they’d had enough of Papa being a single father.  They were bringing meals to us every night, and we were living in filth.  It was my job to keep the house clean and take care of my three younger siblings.  It was too much for a six year old.”  Her eyes twinkled at him as she continued.  “So they held a bake sale to raise enough money for a mail order bride.  Papa wanted nothing to do with a new wife, but he couldn’t do everything we needed done, because there were four of us, and he had a farm to tend.”

Hugh smiled at the picture she painted with her words.  “Sounds like anyone coming into that situation would be destined to fail.”  In his mind he could see her pretty mother, and he knew she hadn’t failed.  She was well respected and considered one of the best mothers in the area.  He’d heard nothing but good about her.

Patience nodded.  “You’d think.  But not my mama.  She was young, younger than I am now when she got here.  Papa made it clear he didn’t want a wife.  He only wanted someone to cook, clean and take care of us kids.  She did it all, and she did it with a smile.  I’ve never seen a woman work so hard in my life. 
It didn’t take Papa long to realize he’d been fortunate enough to get a very special woman.”  She paused for a moment looking off into space.  “You know, she stills works harder than anyone I’ve ever seen.  She just never stops.  Even if she’s sitting visiting with friends, she’s doing it with sewing in her hands.”

“Sounds like all of you are fortunate to have found one another.”
  He’d never have guessed Patience wasn’t Millie’s daughter.  He’d seen the two women together, and the love between them was apparent even to a stranger.  He’d always had in the back of his head that a woman couldn’t love another woman’s children the way she would her own, which was another reason he hadn’t been willing to remarry.  Hearing about Millie made him think about that assumption.

“Oh we were.  Mama had four children of her own, but she never treated those of us who were there before she came along any differently.  I’m as much her daughter as Faith is.”  Patience dabbed at her eye as she spoke, the love for her mama obvious in her voice.

“Not many women are willing to take on another woman’s children and treat them as their own.  I’ve talked to her once or twice, but I don’t know her well.  I can see it in her, though.”

Patience smiled.  “Everyone can see how special my mama is.  I wake up every day hoping I’ll be half as good as she is.”  She stood taking his empty bowl from him.  “Do you want more?”

He shook his head.  “We don’t know how long the storm will last.  We need to make sure there’s enough to keep us going for at least a week.”  He was still hungry, though, and the soup had been good if a little bland.  He wouldn’t eat his fill, because they did need to make sure they had enough to last.

She nodded, calling
two of the older girls over leaving the others with the smaller children.  “We’re going to need to wash the bowls so we can eat again in the morning.”  She looked in the pot.  There was enough soup left for another meal.  “Will you girls wash the dishes for me, please?”

“Yes, ma’am.” 

She called Daniel and Amos over.  They were the two oldest boys in the school.  Most boys quit going to school by fifteen so they could start farming.  She handed them three lunch pails.  “Go and fill these with snow and put them on the stove to melt.  We’re going to need to wash the dishes.  Don’t walk more than two feet from the schoolhouse.  I don’t want you getting lost in the storm.”

Hugh got to his feet.  “I’ll go out with them and make sure they’re okay.”  He took one of the pails himself and the three went to bundle up and get the snow they needed for the dishes. 

Patience pushed the soup to the corner of the stove where it would stay warm, but wouldn’t cook any more.  It would need to be breakfast in the morning.  She thought longingly of pancakes, but knew she’d not be hungry, and that’s what truly mattered.

She went to her pantry and pulled out the blankets she’d brought.  There weren’t enough for everyone, but there were enough
for each pair of children to share one.  She and her mother had made the quilts together when she’d decided to teach school.  Her mother understood her fear of being at the schoolhouse in a storm with no provisions and had simply gotten to work helping her. 

Patience
did her best to group siblings together with the blankets.  The big boys and Mr. Walker pushed the school desks to the sides of the room, and they all camped down in the middle of the big room.  They had to sleep on the hard floor, but they were all thankful to have a place to sleep.

Patience took a spot near the stove so she could feed it throughout the night.  As the children drifted off to sleep, she lay awake listening to the wind howl almost as if it were jeering at them, laughing
as they were stuck away from home.  She smiled to herself.  The storm wouldn’t get the best of them.  She was ready and determined to make it feel like an adventure.

There was a lot of fidgeting throughout the long night.  She and Mr. Walker, by unspoken agreement, took turns feeding wood to the fire.  They kept two of the lanterns burning in case anyone needed to get up to use the outhouse.  Patience got very little sleep as she tried to keep track of each of her students at all times.

Finally, just before dawn, she got up and stirred the soup, moving it to the center of the stove.  It wouldn’t be the best breakfast, but it would be sustenance. 
They’d have good meals when they got home again.  She would keep them alive until they could go home.

She looked out the window and saw the snow swirling around.  She shivered as she added another few logs to the fire.  The pile was still high enough she wouldn’t need to send any of the boys out for firewood yet.

Susan, Amos’s youngest sister, tugged on Patience’s skirt.  “Miss Stevens?  I have to go, and my buddy is still sleeping.” 

Patience looked over and saw Susan’s older sister, Jane, curled on her side sound asleep.  Grace had just sat up and looked around the room.  Patience caught her eye and nodded at Susan.  Grace nodded, understanding what her sister needed immediately.  She stood and walked over to where Susan and Grace were in front of the stove.  “Let’s go to the outhouse, Susan.”

Patience smiled gratefully.  She knew she was asking a lot of her younger sister, but Grace kept saying she wanted to teach school as well.  Taking on responsibility for some of the younger ones in a crisis would help her prepare for it.  Grace took Susan by the hand and led her to the cloak room to get their coats and scarves on before they made the short walk.

She heard Mr.
Walker stretch behind her, and turned to see him sitting up next to the stove.  “Is it still snowing?”

She turned and nodded.  “It’s still pretty fierce out there.  I hope today is the end of it.”
  She leaned over to feed a few more logs to the fire, wanting the children to wake up in a nice warm room.

“Will we have enough food if it isn’t?”
  The worry in his voice made her smile.  She had quite a stockpile ready, and it was time they used it.

She thought about what she had stored and nodded.  “The soup I made last night will work for breakfast.  I started a pot of beans soaking last night, and we’ll have those for lunch and dinner.  I think we’ll have enough for about five days if we’re careful.”

“Then we’ll be careful.”  He stood and checked out the wood pile, just as she had.  “I think I speak for all the parents when I tell you how grateful I am you prepared like you did for a storm.  I was really scared when I saw the clouds rolling in.”  He smiled at her, wondering if she realized how pretty she was with her hair all mussed and coming down from her careful braid. 

“I couldn’t not prepare.  I know that sounds silly, but ever since I decided to teach, I started making a list of what I thought needed to be in a classroom to be ready for a storm.”  She pointed to the small closet in the corner of the room.  “I even had my papa come here and build that pantry for me so I could be sure to always have enough food on hand.”

He looked her up and down.  He was ready to admit he’d been wrong about her.  He’d assumed she’d be some hoity toity little thing, just because she was young, pretty, and a school teacher.  The way she’d talked to him about Charlie when they’d spoken last week had just confirmed that.  Now, as he watched her not only handle the emergency situation she found herself in, but turn it into an adventure for all the children, he knew he’d been very wrong.

“Well, I still appreciate it.  I’ll thank God for you every day for the rest of my life.  If you hadn’t been ready, I don’t know what would have happened to Charlie and me.”

“We’d have melted snow and prayed a lot.”  She continued to stir the soup.  “Which reminds me, I’d like for you to lead our prayer time this morning.  You’re the only parent who is accounted for, and I’m sure many of the children are worried about their own parents.  Would you mind doing that for us?” 

“Of course not.  When will we do that?”
  He remembered his school days always started with prayer, but they’d never eaten breakfast at the school.  Would they pray before breakfast as a group?  Or wait until the school day started?

“We start school with a prayer each morning.  I usually take prayer requests from the children, but today I think everyone will be praying for the same thing.  Safety for their parents and the storm to be over.”

He nodded.  “That sounds simple enough.”

Charlie woke then, and she watched as
Mr. Walker went over and knelt down next to his son, speaking to him in a soft voice.  She wasn’t sure what was said, but as soon as the girls came back, they headed out toward the outhouse. 

When it was almost time to serve breakfast, so they could start school on time, she went to the children who remained asleep and woke them quietly.  They went outside by twos and came back in.  The older girls folded the blankets and put them back into the chest at the back of the school where they’d been stored. 

Mr. Walker led the morning prayer time as promised, and Patience found herself drawn to his deep voice.  He was a gentle man, as she could see by how he treated all the children, but a hard worker.  After their first meeting the previous week, she’d been certain they’d never see eye to eye on anything, but she now found she truly liked him.  She was glad he was the one to find them in the storm.

Once they were finished with breakfast, and had cleaned the dishes, she glanced at the clock.  They still had an hour before school usually started.  The children all needed some sort of physical activity to keep them able to focus.  She went to the front of the room and called Daniel and Amos up to join her.  She whispered quietly to them, explaining what she needed, and they grinned happily.

Patience called the school to order and explained that Daniel and Amos would be teaching them for an hour before regular classes began.  All of the children looked surprised, but gave the two older boys their fully attention.