Heathersleigh Homecoming by Michael Phillips Page B

anew.”
    â€œTo what do you owe this day’s outbreak of gratitude?”
    Hope motioned her closer, pointing outside. Gretchen smiled and nodded. She had noticed the change in their guest too.
    â€œI heard our dear Amanda singing as she was gathering a few flowers for the table,” said Sister Hope.
    â€œThe transformation is indeed remarkable,” returned Sister Gretchen. “When I saw her in the station at Milan, never had I seen such despondency on a girl’s face.”
    â€œObviously it is nothing we have done,” rejoined Sister Hope. “It is never anything we do. Yet once again we are privileged to behold one of God’s flowers beginning to unfold. All it takes is a little warm human sunshine, and it is astonishing how the human plant blossoms of itself.”
    â€œThe Lord is good to allow us to watch him fill people with hope.”
    â€œMy thankfulness to him never ceases.”
    â€œSuch was your vision in the beginning, Hope. I can only imagine how gratifying it must be for you.”
    â€œI could not carry out this work without all of you, and you especially, Gretchen. I am so glad you brought Amanda to us. Although I do not think she is meant to remain long.”
    â€œNor do I,” rejoined Sister Gretchen. “I sense that the Lord has another destiny awaiting her.”
    â€œMy thought exactly. Somehow she will become a significant woman in his plan. I do not see what it is, but the Lord has a wonderful future of service marked out for her.”
    â€œHas she spoken more to you about herself? Do you know anything about her?”
    Sister Hope shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “Her background is not important for now. If the Lord desires for us to know more, Amanda will tell us in her own way and at the proper time.”
    â€œThough she appeared as forlorn as a waif, almost from the moment I saw her,” said Sister Gretchen, “I had the impression that she was a young lady of breeding and culture. The way she expresses things, her mannerisms, how she carries herself, they all speak of parental care and training.”
    â€œI have noticed it too.”
    â€œIt would not surprise me to discover that she is a young lady from an important family.”
    â€œThe moment I heard her name I immediately thought of the seventeenth-century Scottish covenanter Samuel Rutherford.”
    â€œDo you suppose there is some relation?”
    â€œI have no way to tell. Whoever she is, it is clear the Lord brought her to the chalet for a higher purpose than we are able to see at present.”
    Meanwhile outside, having no idea she was the object of such a discussion, Amanda was walking with Sister Galiana in the direction of the barn. They were chatting freely as they went.

 15 
Jilted Farmer’s Daughter
    Amanda entered the cool dark of the quiet barn. Sister Galiana immediately set about cleaning the stalls of the three cows who were outside enjoying a few final days of fresh grass before winter’s cold set in for good. As they talked, Amanda unconsciously slipped on a pair of boots from near the door, then picked up a pitchfork and began to help.
    A few minutes went by. Sister Galiana gradually began to stare, as had Sister Marjolaine a day or two earlier, at her new assistant.
    â€œYou handle that fork like you know how to use it,” she said.
    â€œDo I?” laughed Amanda. “I didn’t think about it.”
    â€œYou have done this before.”
    Again the words caught Amanda off guard.
    â€œI just picked it up,” she said slowly, “and . . .”
    Once more the years fell away. Suddenly she was a girl of nine again. Instead of a barn in the Swiss Alps, in her mind’s eye she was now standing in the small familiar barn beside the cottage in the woods between Heathersleigh and Milverscombe.
    A faint image came to mind of her attempt to gather courage to let the cow whose domain