The Bluebird and the Sparrow by Janette Oke

Author:Janette Oke [Oke, Janette]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2011-01-13T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Surprise

Glenna never again brought up the matter of the fine man she had met. Nor did she ever try to set Berta up with any other gentlemen.

Others did.

On more than one occasion Berta was invited to dinner by a kind family of the church and found herself seated at the table beside some eligible bachelor in whom she had no interest and with whom she had no intention of pursuing any type of a relationship.

She always went home disgusted and angry from such engagements. She began making excuses to turn down invitations—not knowing just which ones might turn out to be a matchmaking attempt. This only increased her reputation as withdrawn and unfriendly—but she did not care. She refused to let people interfere in her life.

She thought that now she was beginning to understand Miss Phillips better. Perhaps the older woman had gone through the same routine. No wonder she now stayed close to home in her evenings—with her books. At least she did not have to put on a show of pleasure when presented with some bachelor who had obviously already been rejected by most of the female population—and usually for good reason, thought Berta.

So Berta kept up with her activities. Her busy life kept her occupied and also provided her with an honest reason for not accepting invitations.

But Sundays presented a problem. She could not use the excuse that she had too much to do. Her duties in the Sunday school were over at an early hour. So Berta chose to use her mare for more frequent visits to her grandmother’s farm on Sunday afternoons, giving her another reason to be unavailable for those after-church meals. It also gave her opportunity to keep a more watchful eye on her mother and to help her with her duties for at least one day of the week.

Granna was almost totally bedridden now. Uncle John came to do the lifting, but other than that, her mother cared for the elderly woman day by day. Berta knew it was not an easy task. No wonder her mother looked pale and weary.

So Berta took over the duties on Sunday afternoons and suggested that her mother take a rest.

At first Mrs. Berdette had argued mildly, but when Berta insisted, she looked relieved and went off to her room. Berta was surprised at how long she slept each Sunday afternoon. While her mother rested, Berta read. As long as Granna stayed alert, Berta read aloud, but when it was plain that the elderly woman slept, Berta read to herself.

At day’s end, Berta prepared a light meal for the three of them, then hitched the mare to the buggy and made the trip back into town.

Often darkness was falling by the time she turned in at the stable and walked the remainder of the way to her little house. She was always weary when the day was over and was glad she didn’t need to go through the routine every day.

She could no longer look forward to Sunday as a day of rest and relaxation, though she did look forward to seeing her mother.

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.