Abram's Daughters 03 The Sacrifice by Unknown Page B

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    Hilly sicpped gingerly into August, and soon after September Kdiiic in on wild turkeys' feet, surprising the local folk with |)in. li cooler temperatures and buckets of rain. The unsus|'i i ing gobblers wandered brazenly out of the woods, becomIih unwelcome visitors to the cornfield, as if daring someone li> -.hoot them before small-game hunting season.
    I Mamma observed her forty-fifth birthday on the second Ui iv >l September without much ado other than a card shower fliiin the women^folk. Leah said the hydrangea bushes near IIH- house had seen fit to mix their brilliant hues with some lit 111 bronze on cue for Mamma's special day, the first hint of I'tn; and lazy autumn days leading the way for the harvest and fli lilling.
    i V'tober's gleaming red and yellow apples rapidly turned \ applesauce, cider, and strudel, and the musty scent of wet l-iws led smack-dab into November's wedding season and
    II m i;lory of deepest autumn.
    I 11 was the Sunday evening before Thanksgiving Day when Iiil) consented to ride along with Smithy Gid to visit his
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    ailing uncle Ike. She was glad for the heavy woolen lap robe protecting them, since the open carriage provided no shelter from twilight's falling temperatures.
    Gid held the reins with one hand and steadied his har-
    monica in the other, playing one tune after another as they rode along. In between songs, he whistled, as cheerful as she'd ever known him to be.
    We're practically betrothed, she thought but instead quickly brought up the subject of his uncle. "Has a doctor seen him for his pneumonia yet?"
    "Aunt Martha wants to call in the hex doctor, but Uncle Ike won't hear of it. Seems they're at a standstill, but I'm sure my uncle will have his say-so."
    Leah thought on this. "What do you think of powwowing, Gid?"
    "I don't rightly know. Pop says there ain't nothin' wrong with having the hex doctor have a look-see when somebody's sick, but Mamm, now, there's a whole 'nother story."
    "She goes to the medical doctor, then?"
    "I believe Mamm would rather die than have white witch-
    craft goin's-on in our house. And that's just how she says it, too."
    White witchcraft? Leah pondered that. Seemed her own mamma lined up with Miriam Peachey on this matter. Dat, now, he didn't seem to care one way or the other neither did Dawdi John. Aunt Lizzie, though, liked to have had a fit when Leah mentioned it some time back in regard to the day she was born. "Was there an Amish midwife or hex doctor on hand?" she'd asked, to which Lizzie had replied, "No midwife . . . not the powwow doctor, neither one," turning an 95IV.
    C n e Cjacri/ice
    iJiLiiarumt shade of peach when Leah mentioned the latter.
    "Wlint do the ministers say 'bout powwowing?" she asked.
    ' lid shook his head. "They'd prob'ly say they have more m.>i irrniit i lungs to think about."
    | -Veined to her the brethren ought to have an opinion one h i .11 i he other. Still, such a topic would never be preached :iuy Sunday sermon.
    Recalling that Jonas used to write her about certain Scrip:li\rn not being used in sermons here in Gobbler's Knob, she iIii'IIKIu "I asking Gid what he thought of that. But she kept in pence, not wanting to touch on the past good or bad.

The road from Quarryville was particularly deserted this vci in i|_;. Most folk were indoors keeping warm on such a brisk h in, Robert Schwartz assumed. He wanted to surprise his | nis by arriving early for Thanksgiving but had been just ifier to attend the Oak Shade Mennonite Church before i: I'linjj; northeast to Gobbler's Knob.
    I I ie minister had begun by speaking slowly to the congrejttii'Hi in an almost conversational tone. As time passed, it. nii'Ji, his discourse had become swift and strong in its delivts, .iinl Robert had been enthralled by the message, "Finding <."l'\ I'Ian for Your Life."
    "As sons and daughters of Christ Jesus, we have an oblijfiiiim to seek out His will and live it," the preacher had ii i mi ted. "We must delve into the Word of God