Amish Country Arson Read Online Free

the barn
door with one ear alert, waiting for the boys to come out. He'd
sprint to life quick enough with his tail whipping and follow them
as soon as they appeared.
    The happy wren in the maple tree chortled a
loud serenade. Weary as she was, Hal didn't appreciate the noise
this morning. She picked a shirt out of the basket and shook it at
the tree, shouting, “Hush, Wren! Go away.”
    The wet, blue shirt made a popping sound as
it straightened out. The wren quit singing long enough to climb
higher in the tree. As soon as he felt safe, he started his
chortles again.
    Hal shaded her eyes with her hand and
searched out the tiny bird, one of God's happy creatures. As she
stuck a clothes pin on the shirt tail, she instantly felt guilty.
She shouldn't take her bad mood out on that little bird. He had
given her hours of pleasure. “All recht, I'm sorry, Mr. Wren. Sing
your heart out for me, but could you keep the volume down? You
didn't lose sleep last night like I did.”
    Hal picked up the empty basket and noticed
the men and boys, peeking over the barn door, smothering laughter.
Hal headed to the back door as she yelled over her shoulder.
“Breakfast is ready.”
    After breakfast, Hal carried the last load of
clothes to the line. At the sound of slowing clip clops, her
attention focused on the buggy turning into the driveway. Bishop
Elton Bontrager pulled to a stop by the house yard. His wife, Jane,
and he climbed down.
    “ Wilcom, Elton. The men are in the
barn. They left the clean up until after breakfast. They should be
almost done,” Hal called.
    The short, rolly poly man waved over his
shoulder as he walked to the barn. The bishop acted like a man on a
mission. His wife walked across the yard toward Hal. Jane's hair
had more gray in the brown every time Hal saw her. “Gute Morgen,
Sister Jane. You're up and going early.”
    Jane looked solemn.“We had excitement in the
neighborhood last night, ain't so? Elton and I could not sleep
after the fire trucks woke us up for worrying about the Stolfus
family.”
    Hal brought a pair of trousers from the
basket and shook them out. “Jah, how scary that was when the fire
trucks went by in the night. The frightful noise woke everyone.
Scared the girls and Aunt Tootie worse than the rest of us.
Honestly, sometimes she's harder to calm down than Redbird and
Beth.”
    “ Even scarier yet is the fact someone
deliberately set that fire.” Jane picked up a smaller pair of
trousers and stuck her hand in the clothes pin bag as she shook the
trousers one handed. “We just came from the Stolfus farm. Jonah
sure was missing his barn this morning at milking time. The cows
are skittish, and they did not want to cooperate out in the
open.”
    “ I can imagine. His cows are used to a
milking machine just like ours. Hand milking seemed strange to
them.”
    “ Fortunately, between Jonah, his boys,
Eli Mast and Samuel Nisely they moved the cows down the road to
Samuel's barn. Samuel and Eli were going to helped finish the
milking.”
    “ Jane, you don't have to help with
this,” Hal protested half heartedly.
    “ You had a short night already with
lots more work ahead of you than I will have to do today.” Jane
turned and waved at the men as they walked up the porch steps and
went in the house.
    The dog was trailing along behind the boys.
He stopped at the steps, made three turns in the grass and curled
up to sleep. He'd patiently wait for the boys to come outside.
    Jane said, “Sure enough, I will help you
finish recht quick. As soon as we are done, we can join the men and
have a cup of coffee.
    We watched the fire trucks out the window in
the night and saw John and you go by. Recht after you left for
home, we drove to the Stolfus farm to see if anyone was hurt. We
prayed with Jonah and his family and the men helping them. So you
see our night was short, too.”
    “ Sure enough. We'll need a cup of
coffee or two to keep us going this day. When I think of the daily
needs for this