he had hired her for, would she smile and call that a “misunderstanding,” too?
* * *
Ruthy climbed into the front seat of the strange-looking black buggy. The ones at home had gray covers—just one of many differences she would have to adjust to, she decided. Gathering her shawl closely around her, she buried her chin in its folds. Indiana was colder than the winter weather she had left at home in Bird-in-Hand.
She peered out the front window of the buggy at the man walking into the train station with the warming pan. Levi Zook wasn’t what she had been expecting. When he described himself as a widower and said his daughter had been caring for him since her mother died, she had assumed he would be nearly her father’s age, but this man looked closer to thirty than sixty.
The boys were a surprise. Her mind skirted around the glaring omission in Levi Zook’s letter. He had mentioned that he expected her to care for his children, but he never said how many children he had. What did it matter? How many could he have? Five, maybe six? After growing up with three brothers, Ruthy knew how to handle boys. Washing muddy trousers and feeding hungry, growing young men was nothing new to her. And then there was his daughter, Waneta. So one girl to help out, at least.
The back door of the buggy opened and the biggest boy jumped into the middle seat, and then two of his brothers followed. They all wore identical dark coats and navy blue knit caps.
“I got here first, David. Let me sit by James.”
“Ne, I want to sit in the middle.”
“Sam, you sit up front with her.”
“Ne, ne, I don’t want to!” This last cry came from the smallest of the boys, still standing on the buggy step.
Ruthy turned her face toward the front of the buggy, trying to stay out of the squabble. They made the buggy sway as they pushed at each other, like a bunch of half-grown puppies.
So these were Levi Zook’s children. Mam had urged her to learn more about her position before traveling all this distance, but staying another day in Bird-in-Hand was out of the question. How could she stay there after what Elam and Laurette had done?
“Boys, you know where to sit.” Levi’s deep voice broke through the noise. “Stop this arguing, now. Jesse, move over so David can sit in his own place.”
Levi slid the warming pan across the floor of the buggy and Ruthy tucked her feet up to it. The January air had a bite to it, even in the shelter of the buggy, and she craved the heat that seeped through the leather shoes to her toes.
“But Dat, I don’t want to sit by her.” The littlest boy still stood on the buggy step, his face glaring at Ruthy as she turned to smile at him.
“If you sit between your daed and me, you’ll be able to share the warming pan.”
Ruthy knew her words had struck gold when she heard the envious groan from one of the boys behind her. The young boy heard it, too, and his face lit up.
“Can I really?”
“Ja, for sure.” Ruthy tucked her skirt in close as he scrambled onto the seat next to her. She glanced up to see Levi Zook giving her a grateful look. It seemed her job was starting out well so far.
As the buggy jolted over the railroad tracks, Ruthy smiled at the boy next to her.
“You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”
“I’m Sam. I’m five years old, and I like cows.” The words burst out of him as if he had been holding them in all day. “And that’s James. He’s eleven and doesn’t like girls. David is nine and likes school. And that’s Jesse. He’s seven.” He nodded toward the backseat as he introduced his brothers. “And at home...”
“How was the train ride?” Levi Zook interrupted, his face red as he concentrated on driving the horse through the town traffic.
“It was long, but comfortable.” Ruthy glanced out the window. The roads were smooth with packed snow. “How far is your farm from here?”
“We’re about six miles from Shipshewana, down in Eden Township.”
“It’s the biggest farm around,” Sam said, and then his pink cheeks reddened even more and he ducked his head into the collar of his coat. “I mean, it’s plenty large for our family.”
Levi cleared his throat, drawing Ruthy’s attention away from Sam’s boasting words. “I hope the arrangements I mentioned in the letter are to your liking.”
“Ach, ja,” Ruthy said. “There’s a Dawdi Haus I’ll be living in?”
“Ja. It’s attached to the main house, and there’s a passageway in between. It’s handy to the kitchen and cellar.”
Ruthy shivered as the horse trotted swiftly down the snow-covered road. The farm fields were January bare, with flat expanses of snow between the fence rows. As the buggy grew colder, she drew her shawl closer to her neck. Even the boys in the back fell into silence in the frigid air.
By the time Levi turned onto a farm lane, the coals in the warming pan had lost all their heat. Sam pressed against his daed to keep warm, but Ruthy looked up the lane, anxious to get the first glimpse of her new home. The house was large, with additions made over the years like train cars, and the little Dawdi Haus a tacked-on caboose following behind. Smoke poured from a chimney at the end of the house closest to the Dawdi Haus, a sign someone was home. Levi pulled up to the back door.
“Sam, take Ruth in to the kitchen while the boys and I take care of the chores.” Levi looked over Sam’s head at her, with an apologetic look in his brown eyes. “We’ll be in for supper.”
Ruthy nodded, looking forward to getting into the warm kitchen. The look in her employer’s eyes mystified her, though. Why would he feel bad for leaving her alone with little Sam?
She climbed down from the buggy and took her suitcase from the back, then followed Sam to the door. The back porch was enclosed, with a wash bench along the outer wall, hooks for coats on the wall next to the kitchen door and planks to hold muddy boots off the floor below. Warmth seeped into the porch through the closed kitchen door and Ruthy unwrapped her winter shawl as Sam hung his coat on a hook.
The door opened to welcome them in, and a young girl smiled shyly at Ruthy.
“Nellie, close the door!”
Ruthy stepped into the kitchen quickly as the girl, about eight years old, obeyed the voice of an older girl who stood with her back to Ruthy as she removed a loaf of bread from the oven. It must be Waneta, the oldest. Four boys and two girls? So, Levi Zook had six children she was to care for? She should have asked more about the children in her letters.
“Hallo,” the older girl said as she closed the oven door. “You must be Ruth. I’m Waneta.”
“It’s good to meet you,” Ruthy said, smiling at her. The heat of the oven had given Waneta’s face a pretty flush.
“You’ve had a long journey, and I’m sure you want to get settled. Martha built a fire in the Dawdi Haus when she went to make up your bed, so it should be warm in there for you by now.”
“Martha?
