The Amish Doll: Amish Knitting Novel (Bonus Knitting Pattern Included) Read Online Free Page A

husband. Nice to meet you.”
    She smiled at the man, but couldn’t help gawk at his long black beard; it needed trimmed. “Shall we start the interview?”
    “Not until we eat,” Rueben chuckled. “I’ve been out choring since four this morning and I’m famished.” He looked at Joshua. “I smell pancakes. What else you got?”
    “Plenty of eggs and sausage. Toast, too, and left over apple pie from last night.”
    Rueben licked his lips and rubbed his hands together. “I’ll take the pie first.”
    Joshua cleared his throat. “Raven, what would you like?”
    “Pie for breakfast? I’ll take that.” She didn’t add that the stress she felt called for a comfort food. Joshua hurried around the kitchen like a master chef. He soon had all the plates on the table and she eyed her pie. It wasn’t a piece; it was a quarter of a pie. Oh well, she must need it. “Is it okay if I ask questions while we eat?”
    “ Jah , go ahead,” Rueben said.
    She saw Joshua tenderly help his mother move close to the table and sit in a chair with a pillow up against the back. “Now we’re ready,” he said.
    “Well, it appears no one here is a criminal,” she grinned. “Your background checks came back clear. Now I have to interview you to see why it is you want a foster child.”
    All eyes looked at Susanna. “I’m sick, as you can see. I have the blessed hope of seeing my Redeemer, so I’m not sad. But I want to leave this world with all the love I can give. What better way than to share my home and love with children who have neither?”
    Raven looked at Susanna tenderly. “That is a very special thought, but you’re so ill.”
    “I have more than thoughts; I have a plan. We have a wonderful goot church district that wants to pitch in and help. So, you see, I won’t be doing this alone.”
    Raven looked at Joshua. He already looked overworked. “Who will coordinate all the help?”
    “Well, our Gmay meets every other week and needs are brought up and made known. We’ll have plenty of help.”
    “What’s a Gmay ?” Raven asked.
    “It’s German for community. It’s what Englishers , like you, call church.”
    Raven thought of the clans in the Seneca Nation. She remembered the community they shared and how they worked together. They shared things in common. If someone had a good sewing machine all the women in the clan used it. The rules for the community were made by the wise elderly women. She looked over at Susanna and knew she’d be considered a wise mother to a clan.
    She didn’t want to ask the next question, but she knew she had to. “I don’t mean any disrespect, but what are your motives for wanting foster children? Are they to help you on the farm?”
    “A few boys can learn a lot on a farm, so yes, I’d be willing to teach them,” Rueben chimed in.
    Raven’s head spun. “A few boys? You want more than one? And for farm work?”
    “It’s goot for them. Makes them learn what real work is. It’s a gift to teach a child hard work.”
    Raven shifted on the hard wooden bench. “We can’t have children being exploited, made to work for your profit.”
    Susanna leaned forward and clenched her hands in her lap. “We don’t think ten year olds are wee ones. We let the little ones play all they want, but when they’re old enough to do a chore, we let them. It makes them feel important to the family.”
    Raven thought back to some classes she took on child development. The Montessori Method believed the same thing. When a child was old enough to do simple tasks, they were encouraged. “What type of work would you expect a ten year old boy to do?”
    “I milked the cow when I was ten,” Joshua said. “I fed chickens, collected eggs, cleaned the horse stalls, and fed the cattle. At harvest time there’s lots of wheat to stack and dry. “
    Raven let out a sigh. “So you decided to get some boys during the harvest season for help, right?”
    “It’s not a bad thing to work,” Joshua said.