A Land to Call Home by Lauraine Snelling

Author:Lauraine Snelling [Lauraine Snelling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781441203021
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group

It’s Penny.” Thorliff ran to meet her.

“Now what is happening?” A galloping horse usually meant disaster.

Penny pulled her horse to a stop, her grin wide as the Dakota skies. “Good morning, good morning. Isn’t this a wonderful day?”

“Is Agnes all right? Joseph? What is wrong?” Ingeborg tried to match the joy on the girl’s face with possible catastrophes.

“Nothing is wrong. Why?”

“You were galloping.”

“Oh, I just couldn’t help it. Such a gorgeous day, and Tante Agnes wants to have a quilting bee—tomorrow, if enough people can come on such short notice. Kaaren can bring the twins if she thinks they are strong enough, Solveig, too, and you. Then I’m to ride on and invite the others.”

“She is feeling that much better then?”

“She says a party will help her feel even better. ‘A good visit is what the body needs.’ That’s what she said.”

“Such good news.”

Andrew attached himself to his mother’s skirt. “Penny, come play.” He pointed back to the designs in the snow. “Me angel.”

“That’s for sure. Sorry, I have errands, Andrew. Maybe another time.”

“You angel?”

Penny laughed. “That’s not usually what they call me, but if you say so.”

Andrew nodded, his cheeks red as his lips. “You angel.” He grinned up at her. “Ride horse?”

“You little beggar. Sure, but only a short ride.”

Ingeborg lifted Andrew and set him in front of Penny. “Have fun.”

His deep belly laugh floated on the breeze when Penny trotted the horse back the way she’d come. “Faster! Faster!” His shriek of pure joy as the horse broke into a lope added music to an already wonderful morning.

Ingeborg caught herself skipping back to the house. Hammers rang from inside the barn now as the men erected stalls for the horses and oxen and stanchions for the milk cows. They planned to wall off part of the lower section for a workshop, but the animals had to come first.

She glanced toward the pasture when she heard a horse whinny. The four work horses and Jack the mule were racing around the fence line, bucking and kicking their heels in the air. Soon the cows put their tails in the air and raced after the cavorting horses. Even the oxen lumbered heavily behind.

Thorliff and Baptiste came running out of the barn at her shout, and the men followed. Paws ran barking after the animals while Thorliff tried to whistle him back. That took some doing because it was hard to pucker and laugh at the same time. In fact, the pucker didn’t work at all, making Baptiste laugh so hard he rolled in the snow.

Haakan picked up a handful of the white stuff and formed a ball. It caught Thorliff full in the chest. With a shout, he scooped, formed, and threw. Snowballs pelted through the air, shrieks and shouts of “no fair,” “got you,” and “get Haakan” rang along with the snowballs.

Ingeborg made her way around the fringes of the fight, her own snowball formed solid in her mittened hands. “Haakan,” she called when within range. Turning, he caught a faceful.

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