and eighties—were indeed cleaning up the debris. Jo parked beside the other flatbed wagons, where women were setting out a midmorning snack.
“Fine,” Mamm muttered as she stepped down, “but I’ll never understand why the church wants to take on all the responsibility of running shops in this old place. What if you can’t get rid of the smell of horses and manure? Who’ll want to buy all those pastries you’re planning to bake, Josephine?”
Sighing inwardly, Jo focused on the smiles of the friends who’d already arrived. “Hey there, Anne! And Rose, it’s gut to see you this morning—and you too, Gracie!” she added as Rose’s blond daughter ran up to her.
“We baked brownies and sticky buns—and for lunch later, Mamma made a big ole pot of chili,” Gracie blurted out. “And I helped!”
“Of course you did, sweetheart,” Jo replied. “You’re the best helper ever—and we’re glad your mamm’s going to sell her candles in your mammi’s quilt shop, too.”
“She says I can help in the store—until I get to start at the new school!” Gracie, who would soon turn six, beamed like the sun. “It’s gonna be so much fun, Jo.”
“Jah, it is. I loved school,” Jo agreed as she took two pans of coffee cake from a box on the back of the wagon. She glanced at her mother, happy to see that she’d struck up a conversation with Martha Maude. After she cut the warm coffee cakes into large squares, she pulled the big cooler full of lemonade to the edge of the wagon and arranged some cups, plates, and forks near them.
Cora Miller, Preacher Clarence’s wife, rang a cowbell to get the workmen’s attention. “Come on down for coffee and treats,” she cried between blasts of their air drills.
As the men on the roof clambered down their long extension ladders, a few other fellows emerged from inside the stable. Glenn, Preacher Ammon, and Teacher Elam brushed cobwebs and sawdust from their hair as they approached. Jo noticed dark circles under Glenn’s eyes and wondered if his wife—or baby Levi—had kept him up most of the night.
“Here’s apple cinnamon and chocolate zucchini coffee cake,” she offered. “Rose brought sticky buns and brownies, and there’s plenty of coffee and lemonade. Looks like you fellows have made great progress this morning.”
“Shoo! Get away from this food!” Jo’s mother said, stomping her foot as Riley approached with a hopeful look on his face.
Glenn smiled as he lifted a large square of chocolate coffee cake onto a plate. “We hauled all the old hay out of the loft earlier this week, and we’ve swept out the entire interior,” he said as Ammon and Elam nodded. “I suggest you put your office and some storage room upstairs, so the main floor will have more space for shops.”
“Jah, the loft floor’s solid, and you’ll have a window or two up there,” Preacher Ammon remarked as he poured coffee. “Wouldn’t take much to put up a few walls and doors so you could close that area off.”
“It would keep you warmer in the winter, too,” Elam added. “And shoppers couldn’t wander into your office.”
Jo liked that idea. “I’ll ask Lydianne what she thinks when she comes for the lunch shift.”
Pete, Gabe, and the other men who’d been on the roof joined them, talking and laughing as they loaded their plates. Jo was pleased that so many men had come today, because they all worked well together—and because The Marketplace would be ready for its grand opening. When Reuben stepped up to the cooler with his cup in one hand and a big brownie in the other, Jo pressed the spigot lever for him.
“What’s Elva doing today?” she asked as he watched the liquid rising in his cup.
“Whatever she wants!” he replied without missing a beat. The men around them burst out laughing. It was a local joke that Reuben lost few opportunities to get out of the small dawdi haus at Glenn’s place, where he and his outspoken wife lived.
After Reuben gulped his lemonade, however, he sobered. “Truth be told, the wee one was fussy last night,” he said softly. “Elva’s looking after him and Billy Jay today while Dorcas gets some rest.”
“Dat and I will head home in another hour or so to help her out,” Glenn put in wearily, but then he brightened. “Before I leave, though, would you come inside and show me how you want things arranged? We can pace off the area for the shops and put down some markers so the rest of the crew knows what’s going on if I can’t be here all the time.”
“We’ll do that whenever you’re ready, Glenn!” When Jo saw her mother nearby, she slipped an arm around her shoulders. “Would you like to go in with us, Mamm? It’ll give you a better idea about—”
“It’ll give me a nose full of dust and dirt, and I’ll be sneezing the rest of the day,” Mamm objected. “I’m not setting foot in there until the shops are ready to open—and even then, Josephine, I’ll not be working in your bakery.”
“Jah, so you’ve told me,” Jo murmured patiently. “I’ve got ideas about who might help me—but meanwhile, Glenn, I’ll give you all the help I can this morning.”
About fifteen minutes later, the men were tossing their plates and cups in the trash, thanking the women for the snacks. When Jo started toward the stable with Glenn, Preacher Ammon, Elam, and Martha Maude joined them—and so did Anne, Rose, and little Gracie.
“It’ll be gut to get an idea of how much display space we’ll have,” Martha Maude remarked. “What with Lenore Otto joining us, we’ll have quilts from the three of us, as well as tables and shelves for your candles, Rose.”
“If we have room, we could put a quilting frame in the shop—or just outside it,” Anne suggested as they all approached the stable doors. “I think folks would enjoy watching us work when we have a few spare minutes.”
“What a great idea!” Jo agreed.
“And it’ll help us keep up with our quilting so we’ll have more pieces to sell,” Martha Maude pointed out. “Our closets might empty out faster than we anticipate!”
As they stepped into the large building, Jo stopped to look all around her. The men had cleared a lot of debris and old straw since she’d sketched her floor plan, and with only the stalls remaining in place, it was much easier to picture how The Marketplace would take shape. She felt deliriously excited, even though a lot of work was still ahead of them.
“Can we reuse these sturdy beams and partitions?” she asked, running her hand along the top of a stall. “If we could clean up this wood—”
“We’d save a lot of money, and it would preserve the look of an old-fashioned stable,” Glenn said with an enthusiastic nod. “If we follow your plan of having the shops in a U around three of the walls—mostly open, except for the stall dividers between them—and we put down some easy-to-clean flooring and paint the wood and the walls to freshen them up, that’s all we’d really need to do, ain’t so?”
“Let’s keep it simple,” Martha Maude agreed as she walked partway down the center aisle. “This stable’s a lot bigger inside than I’d imagined, so even the painting will cost us some cash. Will it look . . . underwhelming if we only have seven shops in here?”
Jo shrugged. “We have to start somewhere. I really like your idea about renting out the
