A Lumberjack for Christmas by Julia Ridgmont

Author:Julia Ridgmont [Ridgmont, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Laura L. Walker
Published: 2020-07-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Sadly, Hildy and Roy had to leave for Milwaukee the next week. Now that the weather was turning colder, they wanted to get up there before the heavy snows came. Tears sprang to Molly’s eyes as she bade them goodbye. She surreptitiously wiped them away with her sleeve before disentangling herself from the woman who had been such a dear friend in this new place. “We’re going to miss you.”

Hildy didn’t bother to hide her tears. “And we will miss you, dear. Roy and I simply can’t express how happy and grateful we are that you joined our family. To know that our boy is being taken care of does a mother’s heart good.”

“I was doing just fine taking care of myself,” Brandt grumbled behind them.

“Oh, phooey,” Hildy refuted. “If it wasn’t for this little lady here, you’d still be climbing a hundred feet into the air, risking your life for nothing.”

Brandt harrumphed good-naturedly. “Nothing like it, being able to see for miles around. Now that I’ll be working at the lumber mill, debarking the logs that are brought in, I’ll probably never get to see the world like that again.”

Molly watched this exchange in silence, knowing that Brandt was only half-teasing. Did he resent being taken away from a job that he had loved so much? Her heart sunk. He was an honorable man. He’d sacrificed for the sake of two children, and for her. She dared not complain about having to “rough it” here in Arizona Territory where life was vastly different than in New York. What little she had sacrificed to come out here. He had given everything. How could she make it up to him?

***

Brandt stood all dressed up in his Sunday go-to-meeting clothes, waiting on Molly to hurry and finish getting ready. As a family, they had tried to make it to church services several times before, but every time, something happened that prevented them from going. The first week after they were married, Everett threw a conniption fit over having to stand still to get his hair combed. Brandt had been tempted to discipline the boy the same way his father had disciplined him as a child, with a hand to his rump, but at the last second, he realized that the boy was acting out because of anger over his pa dying. Setting the boy gently on his lap, he’d spoken soft words to him until Everett broke down in tears and sobbed for over fifteen minutes. By then, his clothes were ruined and his face was a mess.

The next week, Lindy had an accident in her clothing and needed to be changed. By the time Molly got her cleaned up, church services were almost over. Today he was bound and determined to take his new family to church. Molly had started reading psalms to the children at night. He was also feeling the need to commune with the Lord more often. As a lumberjack, he hadn’t taken the time to read the Word as often as he should.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.