A Place for Peter by Elizabeth Yates

Author:Elizabeth Yates [Yates, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0890847487
Publisher: JourneyForth
Published: 1994-02-15T08:00:00+00:00

Shep and Dusty sat on the doorstep together and watched unconcernedly as Andrew loaded the box with the two puppies in it into the truck, and Peter climbed in with the third pup on his lap. Benj came from the garden with a basket containing the first radishes, some spinach, and a few small lettuces. They were fresh, green, and shining with the dew still on them, and he wanted Mary and Gran to share the garden’s first yield.

They were driving down the road to the village when Peter remembered to tell his father that one of the hens, Squawker, had shown no interest in her food that morning.

“Perhaps she had a full crop,” Andrew said.

When they reached the stone house in the village, it was hard to tell which caused more excitement—the puppy with Mary or the basket of vegetables with her grandmother; but school was still in session, whether it was the last day or not, and soon Mary and Peter, waving good-by, raced off to the schoolhouse. The puppy barked excitedly and wanted to follow them, but Gran held it tightly in her arms.

Mary looked back longingly.

“The puppy will be here when you get back,” Gran said.

“Don’t wait supper for us, Peter,” his father called after him. “We may not be back until late.”

“I’ll see that he has a good stout meal this noon,” Gran said, “then he won’t be needing too much later on.”

Andrew laughed. He could remember having one of Gran’s meals when he’d been a boy. There were no empty places within him to be filled then. He had felt firm and tight all over and ready for a job of work.

“There’s time for you and Benj to have a cup of coffee and a piece of my cinnamon cake,” Gran said, “and to give me the news of Martha.”

Andrew thought, as he sat at the table, that at Gran’s house there always seemed to be time for such things. “I don’t expect Martha back now until the end of the summer,” he said. “She’s got her hands full there and she’s doing a fine piece of work.”

“You and Benj must have your hands full, too, to get your work done as well as hers.”

“Peter has been more of a help than I ever thought he could be.”

“That’s the way with the young ones,” Gran said. “Let them know you rely on them and they’ll show you how much they can do.”

“Sometimes I think it was almost a good thing that Martha had to go away.”

Gran nodded. “We never know how strong a candle’s beam may be until we try it in the dark.”

Peter walked jauntily up the road that afternoon, thinking that the next two months and more were his to do with as he liked. Free time made him feel like a man, and the challenge before him to open up the path through the woods made him want to respond with everything in him. He had already cleared a small piece,

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