The Amish Princess by Patrick E. Craig

Author:Patrick E. Craig
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9965334-7-8
Publisher: P&J Publishing
Published: 2016-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Choices

Joshua Hershberger closed the gate behind the recalcitrant cow and leaned against the corral fence. He had chased the wretched animal through the woods for two hours before he got her back to the farm and into her pen. He smiled as he turned and walked back toward the new log cabin that stood where the first farmhouse had burned down. Since his escape and return home, the old Hershberger farm had prospered under his willing hands. As he walked through the barnyard, he looked around at the changes he had wrought in two years. Besides the rebuilt main house, he had added a new barn and several out buildings, and he had cleared another acre of forest for fields. He went up on the porch and dipped a drink of water out of the barrel standing by the door. Then he sat down on the bench under the window and surveyed his domain. He thought back to the days when the Hershberger family had worked and toiled together to carve this farm out of the wilderness. He could hear the repaired water wheel turning and splashing in the millrace that he and Jonathan had dug in the riverbank with their daed. Joshua smiled. “Papa, Sie woulde stolz auf mich.”

The sound of a horse racing down the trail disturbed his reverie. He stood as Albert Clark, a boy from the fort, came riding up to the house and pulled his horse up short. Albert was disheveled, as though he had left home in a hurry.

“What is it, Albert? Was hat, erregten Sie so? ”

Albert looked at him strangely.

Joshua smiled. “Sorry, you don’t speak German. What’s all the excitement about?”

“Two extraordinary things have happened, Joshua.” The boy seemed like he would burst.

Joshua motioned for the boy to get down, but Albert shook his head. “I can’t stay, Joshua. I must ride to the other outlying farms and spread the news.”

“What news, Albert? Don’t keep me waiting all day.”

“The colonies have declared independence from England. We have been fighting the Redcoats for a year and now we are going to be our own nation.”

Joshua took a step down to stand by the horse. “What? Independence?”

“Yes, Joshua. George Washington forced the British out of Boston in March, and the Continental Congress took courage and signed the declaration two weeks ago in Philadelphia.” Albert pulled a sheet of paper out of his saddlebag and handed it to Joshua. “Thomas Jefferson wrote it. Read the second line.”

Joshua looked down at the paper and read. “‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’” He looked up. “What does that mean for us, Albert?”

Albert shrugged. “I guess they will be raising a militia to join the fight out here, and the reddys certainly aren’t going to be happy. After all, it’s the British who have been holding back settlers in the north part of the Ohio territory.

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