A Big Year for Lily by Suzanne Woods Fisher, Mary Ann Kinsinger

single day.
    â€œHe batted a home run.”
    â€œSo did a few of the other boys. And they aren’t as much of a pest as Aaron is.”
    Hannah ignored her. “Aaron is so smart! He gets his lessons done faster than anyone else in school. He has such excellent penmanship. Just excellent. Haven’t you noticed?”
    Lily wondered if Hannah might be getting slightly addled. Aaron’s handwriting wasn’t neat and tidy. Just the opposite! Teacher Rhoda scolded him for messy writing nearly every other day.
    After the sandwich switch, Lily was so happy to spend time with Hannah again that she politely tolerated her ridiculous talk about Aaron. Plus, Aaron had done her one nice thing when he told Teacher Rhoda that Effie was the culprit. But that was the only nice thing Aaron had ever done for Lily, and now he was back to being his pesky old self. Lily couldn’t stand listening to Hannah moon over Aaron Yoder. She actually felt relieved when they reached the path where Hannah turned off.
    Lily burst into the house and galloped up the stairs. She didn’t even stop to see if Mama had a snack waiting on the kitchen table. When she reached her bedroom door, she stopped abruptly. There it was! Her very own desk. Mama had picked a bouquet of flowers and put them in a vase on the corner of the desk. On the other corner were her oil lamp and her little apple-shaped candy dish. All the furniture in her room had been rearranged to allow room for the desk. Even the floor looked as if Mama had given it a new coat of wax.
    Lily walked over to the desk and opened a few drawers. All delightfully empty—just waiting for her to put something inside.
    Dannie came running into her room. “I helped Mama wax your floor. I helped pick the flowers too and fill your candy dish.”
    â€œThank you,” Lily said. She lifted the lid off of the candy dish and was pleased to see it was almost full. She would make this candy last for a long time. She would eat a piece only on Saturdays. Maybe Sundays, too. Only twice a week would she eat candy.
    Dannie stood at the doorjamb, watching and smiling. Finally, Lily asked, “Is there something else I should see?”
    Dannie clapped his hands. “Open the drawer. I shared some of my treasures.”
    Lily opened another drawer. “Oh, Dannie,” she said when she saw what he had tucked inside: a pile of small stones, several pinecones, and some wood scraps from the shop.
    He was so pleased! But Lily didn’t want any of that junk messing up her beautiful desk. “That was kind of you, Dannie,” she said. “But I know how much these treasures mean to you. Why don’t you keep them for me?” She scooped them out of the drawer and handed them to him.
    Somehow, Dannie seemed even more pleased.
    Just as he left, baby Paul toddled into her room. Lily scooped him up into her arms. “Did you climb the stairs all by yourself?” Lily said. Paul was getting to be quite a climber. Mama said every time she turned around, he was climbing up on something.
    Lily couldn’t work at her new desk with Paul bothering her. She took him downstairs and helped Mama get supper ready. She plopped him on the floor beside the toy box and started building a tower with the wooden blocks. As soon as Paul became interested in the toys, she quietly got up to set the table.
    After the table was set, Lily sat on a stool at the end of the kitchen counter to watch Mama cook and talk to her. This was one of Lily’s favorite times of the day. She had Mama all to herself and could tell her about her day at school. Today, she admitted how frustrated she felt with Cousin Hannah. “She just doesn’t see Aaron Yoder in the right light!”
    â€œIt’s called wearing rose-colored glasses,” Mama said. “It means you see things the way you want them to be.”
    That was a new phrase to Lily and it suited the situation perfectly. Hannah