An Amish Barn Raising by Amy Clipston

Author:Amy Clipston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2021-04-06T00:00:00+00:00

chapter eight

For a little fellow Charlie weighed a lot. Delilah tried hefting him into her arms, but that didn’t work. His legs were too long. They settled on having him put his arm around her waist and lean on her. That way he could hop alongside her on his good leg. In his haste to find the perfect hiding place, he’d caught his boot under a gnarly tree trunk, tripped, and fell. He seemed to have sprained or broken his ankle.

“Did you know you weren’t supposed to go into the woods?” Delilah didn’t mean the words to sound accusatory. “You didn’t mention it when you suggested we play hide-and-seek.”

“I didn’t really want to play hide-and-seek.” Despite the pain, Charlie managed a cheeky grin. “I just like to go into the woods to search for animals. I look for chipmunks, wood rats, and voles. But there could be foxes, wolverines, or mule deer. Even black bears or grizzly bears.”

The child had quite the imagination. At least Delilah hoped he did. No wonder the school board didn’t want the children playing in the woods. Then again, surely the bears were hibernating. “It was wrong of you to go off like that.”

“I know, but I only go to school because Daed says I have to.”

“What do you think he’ll say about what you did today?”

“I reckon it’ll be a trip to the woodshed.”

Charlie still managed to sound amazingly cheerful.

The woodshed would be the least of Delilah’s problems.

They were about to find out. Several buggies were parked by the hitching post in front of the school’s porch. A group of men stood in a circle, talking. Probably organizing the search party. Surely they would be happy to see no search was necessary. Delilah raised her hand and waved. “I found him.”

Jack Moser whirled and marched toward them. He was a tall, lean man. Imposing. Delilah braced herself. As he came closer his expression behind dark-rimmed glasses became clearer. Relief, exasperation, disbelief, uncertainty, and yes, anger. “There you are. Are you all right, Suh?” His long strides ate up the snow-covered ground. “Where were you? What happened?”

“We were playing hide-and-seek—”

“I know what you were doing.” His tone icier than the December north wind, Jack shook his head. “I want to know where my suh was.”

“I meant to hide, but I fell and hurt my ankle.” Charlie frowned and took Delilah’s hand. “I wasn’t lost. I knew where I was. I just couldn’t get back.”

Jack dropped to one knee and examined the boy over from head to toe. His frown eased. “Let’s get you into the school, get you warmed up. I’ll take a look at your ankle. It’s probably just a sprain. Mudder will put an ice pack on it.”

Jack picked up Charlie with the ease of a big man built to do hard labor daily. He didn’t look at Delilah. Not wanting to remind him of her presence, she trod a few steps behind him.

“He’s found. He’s fine,” Jack hollered to the other men. A few came forward to commiserate with him and check on Charlie.

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