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MIn the darkness of a November night Katherine O’Connell woke suddenly. For a moment she lay without moving, wondering if some- thing was wrong.
MA sliver of moonlight slanted across the upstairs bedroom she shared with her sister Tina. The little girl still breathed evenly, her sleep peaceful. Kate slid farther beneath the quilt, trying to put aside her uneasiness.
MSince moving to northwest Wisconsin, Kate had lost sleep more than once. Sometimes it was only a rooster that wakened her. Other times a screech owl shattered the peaceful woods around Windy Hill Farm. Then there was the night when Kate watched from the storeroom window and spied the disappearing stranger.
MNow twelve-year-old Kate had no reason to stand watch, or so she thought. Closing her eyes, she tried to go back to sleep.
MA moment later a murmur of voices brought Kate upright. Slipping out of bed, she reached for her robe and tiptoed across the cold wooden floor. Slowly, quietly, she turned the knob and opened the door just enough to pass through.
Still tiptoeing, Kate started down the stairs, keeping to the side of steps that squeaked. Mama and Papa’s bedroom was on the first floor next to the dining room. Tonight, though, the voices came from the front room just beneath Kate and Tina’s bedroom.
MFour steps from the bottom Kate stopped. Hidden by the wall be- tween the stairs and the front room, she sat down. As she pushed back her long hair, she leaned forward to listen.
M“We need seed money for next year’s crops.” Papa Nordstrom’s voice was low.
Money! thought Kate, disliking even the word. Kate’s Irish father, Daddy O’Connell, had died in a construction accident. In the year that followed, Mama and Kate struggled to earn enough money for
food and rent. Then Mama married Papa Nordstrom, and she and Kate moved from Minneapolis to Windy Hill Farm.
M “He needs help with his three children,” Mama had told her. “As we work together, I’ll grow to love him.”
MKate knew that had happened. Papa Nordstrom and Mama, Anders, Lars, Tina, and Kate had become a family.
MBut Kate hadn’t expected to be the only one in the family and in her school who didn’t speak Swedish. She hadn’t expected to have to earn the respect of Anders, the new brother her age.
MNow Papa Nordstrom spoke again. “Wages in the lumber camps are good this year.”
For a moment there was silence. As she thought about his words, Kate felt an emptiness in her stomach. “I’m just getting to know you!” she wanted to cry out.
MPapa Nordstrom’s voice sounded sad. “I’d be gone two or three months during the worst part of winter.”
MKate moved down another step, but couldn’t hear Mama’s answer.
M“Yah” came Papa’s Swedish yes. “Anders will help, and Lars, and Kate.” His voice was gruff, the way it sounded when he cared deeply about something. “But I don’t want to leave you.”
M“Can you think of any other way?” Mama asked softly.
MFor a time, Kate heard only the ticking clock. Then Mama spoke again. “If there isn’t any other way, we’ll do it. We’ll handle it because we have to.”
M“But with the baby coming—” Papa said.
A baby coming? In her excitement Kate leaned farther forward, trying to hear more. Suddenly she tumbled down the remaining steps.
MAs she fell into the doorway of the front room, Papa Nordstrom jumped up. “Kate! Are you all right?”
MMama jumped up too, but her voice was stern. “I’ve told you, Kate, you aren’t supposed to listen to other people’s conversation.”
M“But, Mama, is it true you’re going to have a baby?”
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MMama’s smile softened the sternness in her face. Standing up, she reached out and pulled Kate to her in a hug.
MMama was tall for a woman, and Kate short for her age. Kate also knew her own eyes were a deeper blue than Mama’s. Yet now, as Kate looked up, Mama’s eyes were shining.
M“The baby will be born in the spring,” Mama answered. “You’re the first one to know.”
The next morning at breakfast Mama and Papa Nordstrom told the
other children the good news about the baby. But Anders and Lars and Tina also heard the sad news that Papa would go away to work in a lumber camp that winter.
M“When you were at school yesterday, I butchered the pig,” Papa told twelve-year-old Anders.
MAnders nodded, his face solemn below his shock of blond hair. Like his father, his shoulders were muscular from farm work. But Papa had brown hair and a neatly trimmed mustache and beard.
MPapa went on. “With this weather the pig should stay frozen. It’s on the cookstove in the summer kitchen. The meat saw is there for you to cut off pieces when you need them.”
MAnders pushed his hair out of his eyes and nodded again. When days grew too warm for a fire in the house, the family cooked meals in the summer kitchen. In winter the small building wasn’t heated.
MAs Papa turned to Lars, the nine-year-old looked just as serious as Anders.
M“Lars, you and Anders split the wood and carry it in the way you always do. Take good care of the cows.”
MA tuft of hair stood up at the back of Lars’s red head. Papa reached out, smoothed it down, and smiled. Lars blinked, then blinked again, as though holding back tears.
MAs five-year-old Tina slipped down from her chair, Papa set her on his lap. Tina’s white-blond hair was pulled back in pigtails, and her blue eyes widened as Papa talked. “My little one, when the others are in school, you can help Mama all day long.”
MThen Papa looked at Kate and smiled gently. In that moment she remembered how he had helped her become part of his family. “Papa, I’ve been thinking. If I stopped taking organ lessons, could you stay home?” Even as Kate spoke, the words brought a pain within her. For years she’d wanted to take lessons and had only just begun.
MPapa shook his head. “Playing the organ means too much to you, Kate. And even if you stopped, the money wouldn’t be enough.”
MThen Kate saw the tears in Papa’s eyes.
“Kate, my newest daughter, God will hold you with His special love.”
MKate blinked as her own tears welled up. Surprised that he hadn’t told her what work to do, she swallowed hard.
MClearing his throat, Papa turned back to the rest of the family. “If I bring a team of work horses, I’ll earn more money. I’ll take Dolly
and Florie and get back sooner. You can put Wildfire to good use now, Anders.”
MAs Papa mentioned the horse, Anders sat taller, pride shining in his face. But as he looked his father in the eyes, there was more. “We’ll be all right, Papa. I’ll take care of everything. Kate and Lars will help.”
M“All of you must be responsible,” Papa continued. “Keep your head on your shoulders. Don’t make Mama worry. Take good care of her and each other.”
MAfter praying for each one of them, Papa went out to the barn and harnessed the horses. Kate knew that when they came home from school, he’d be gone. A lonely ache crept into her heart.
MIt wasn’t hard to remember what it was like after her first father, Daddy O’Connell, died. The rooms that Kate and Mama rented seemed silent and empty. Before, their lives had been filled with laughter. When Daddy came home from work, he often swung Kate off the floor with a big hug. Sometimes he danced around the kitchen, doing an Irish jig.
MNow Kate wondered, Will it feel just as empty with Papa Nordstrom gone?
MAs Kate, Anders, and Lars started down the trail to Spirit Lake School, Kate turned to her oldest brother. “What will we do without Papa?”
M“We’ll make it,” answered Anders. “We have to.”
MBut Kate saw his eyes, and guessed how Anders felt. “I’ll miss Papa,” she said. She swallowed, quickly wiping away the tears that welled up.
MThen she thought of all the things that could happen on a northwoods farm in 1906. What if something goes wrong?
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