Sarah's Choice by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Author:Wanda E. Brunstetter [Brunstetter, Wanda E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60742-215-0
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2010-04-18T12:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

When Sarah awoke the following morning, she had a pounding headache. Oh, how she wished she could stay in bed and sleep all day. But duty called, and already, at just a few minutes after five, a conch shell was blowing.

Sarah hurried to get dressed and tiptoed down the stairs so she wouldn’t wake the children. Amazingly enough, the blowing of the conch shells didn’t usually wake them, but if Sarah moved about the house too loudly, they were wide awake.

The conch shell blew again, and Sarah stepped outside just in time to see Bart Jarmon’s boat approach the lock. Bart was not her favorite person—especially not this early in the morning when she hadn’t even had a cup of coffee yet. She hoped he wouldn’t make any rude remarks, like he’d often done in the past. He’d have never done that when Sam was alive, because Bart, along with all the other canalers, respected Sam and knew better than to smart off to him the way some of them did to Sarah.

As Sarah prepared to open the lock she prayed that God would give her the right words, should Bart say anything crude. She was relieved when his only remark was, “It’s already gettin’ warm. Looks like it’s gonna be another hot one today.”

Sarah nodded and called, “Summer’s here. There’s no doubt about it.”

“Yep.”

She stood silently while the water level rose and was relieved when Bart’s boat was on its way. She hurried back to the house to start breakfast.

By the time Sarah had some bacon and eggs cooking, the children were up.

“Somethin’ sure smells good, Mama,” Willis said. “I’m hungry!”

Sarah smiled. “If the three of you will take a seat at the table, I’ll dish up your breakfast.”

The children clambered onto their chairs with eager expressions.

“Sure don’t understand why I haven’t seen Elias lately,” Sammy said. “Makes me wonder if he’ll ever take me fishin’.”

“The last time he came through the lock, he was having trouble with his new mule,” Sarah said, placing a platter of eggs and bacon on the table. “Maybe the mule’s still acting up, and that’s slowing him down.”

Sammy’s forehead creased. “If I was leadin’ his mules, bet I could make that stubborn mule go faster.”

Sarah frowned. “Don’t get any ideas about leading Elias’s mules, because that’s not going to happen ever again.”

“But Mama, I could make us some extra money.”

Sarah shook her head. “We don’t need extra money that bad, and I won’t have any of my children walking the dusty towpath from sunup to sunset.” She placed an egg and a hunk of bacon on Sammy’s plate. “Now please stop talking and eat your breakfast.”

Sarah dished up an egg and some bacon for Helen and Willis, as well as some for herself. She’d just started eating when a knock sounded on the door. “That must be Ruby,” she told the children. “You need to help her out today and not make any messes.”

Sarah hurried to the door, and when she opened

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.