The Blizzard Brides by Christine Sterling

Author:Christine Sterling [Sterling, Christine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-19T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Not long turned into three days.

The sun was starting to melt the snow, but not at a pace fast enough to suit Heather. She was ready to scream. The snow only lasted a full day and night. In that short time, nearly six feet of snow had fallen. Millie and Heather took turns pushing the snow off the back porch with the broom. Unfortunately, the pump froze, and they were stuck without water. They resorted to melting snow to keep water available.

She hoped her horse was alright. She had left plenty of food, and there was a bucket full of water. Heather prayed the water bucket in the barn didn’t freeze. Altar had already used the second bone and the last of the potatoes and carrots to feed the hungry children. Heather could see the frustration on Millie’s face as she tried entertaining her class.

The children sat quietly and played games such as dominos and checkers. Millie had disbanded classes for the few days, much to the delight of the children.

Fox and Geese appeared to be popular, but it was a one-person game. A green peg represented a fox and white pegs represented geese. The children moved the geese around and the fox had to jump over the goose peg so it could be removed from the board. The object was to just have the fox remaining on the board. All the children wanted to play. Millie kept a list on the chalkboard, so the children knew the order when they could play the game.

Altar entertained the children by teaching them songs, such as Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and Go Down Moses and teaching them how to knit with the bits of thread and needles she had in her bag.

The children entertained the adults by teaching them Camp Town Races and Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Heather didn’t know how Millie kept it all together. By now, she just wanted to cry. She was tired of sleeping in a chair. They had resorted to breaking apart the chairs, so they had firewood to burn. At least they were warm. She desperately wanted to take a bath, or at the least, wash her face.

The children appeared to be taking it in stride. They all cried at some point. Each at different times and between Altar, Millie and Heather, no child went without a hug, or someone rubbing their back while they cried about being stuck at the school.

Heather was looking through the window out towards the river when she noticed that the snow was melting. Quite a bit of snow and ice had fallen in the water and was now making its way downstream in large chunks. She was just about to say something when she thought she heard what sounded like scratching towards the front of the schoolhouse.

“Did you hear that?” Heather asked Altar.

Altar tilted her head. She bit her bottom lip as she strained to hear any sound. “I don’t hear anything,” she said.

“Shhh!” Heather directed the children. “Everyone be quiet for just a minute.

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