Excerpt
“It’s not that they disapprove, Sarah. My goodness, they have no
reason to disapprove of you, of all people.” Penny plucked a dead
leaf off a lily plant. She avoided Sarah’s eyes. “They’re strange, you
know. Sometimes I think they’re stuck-up. And it takes a long time
for them to accept anyone new. Look at me, I’ve been here four
years and they still treat me like I’m from Mars or somewhere.”
“Well,” Sarah said, taking Penny’s arm, “we won’t worry about
them, will we? If they don’t go to the fair that’s their loss because it’s
going to be the best one, ever.”
“You said it, love,” Penny said firmly as they walked arm in arm
to the house for a cup of tea.O
During the weeks of August and early September Sarah had no
time to worry about either her flowers or the fall fair. The amount
of work required to harvest and preserve garden vegetables surprised
her. Peas, beans, corn, beets, cauliflower and cabbage all
needed to be picked and prepared for either canning or pickling.
And there were Saskatoon berries to pick from the bushes around
the farm, as well as chokecherries and pincherries to be preserved
or made into jam.
Then there were the hungry threshing crews. As was the custom
Ben shared work at harvest time with farmers in the neighbourhood.
The crews, or threshing gangs as Sarah learned to call them, had to
be fed dinner, supper and afternoon lunch. The latter she learned to
pack into baskets and transport to the fields in the pickup.
Dave McNeill had always been a part of the crew and, this year,
Alan also came to work for three out of the four days that the
threshers were on the Fielding farm. After each meal he lingered
for a few minutes to talk while the other men made their way back
to the fields. Sarah marvelled at how relaxed and happy she felt in
Alan’s company. Not since Danny had she felt so admired by any
man. And if, at times, she had a brief insight into the possible danger
lurking there, she always managed to brush it aside.
Libros Libertad 