FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33  
34   35   36   37   38   >>  
ha admitted, speaking in the dialect they'd both been reared to. "While you had only the alien speech to study, I spent my time learning to grow the buglets and tell the various sorts apart. Besides, _unser guutie Deitschie Schproech, asz unser Erlayser schwetzt, iss guut genunk fa mier_." (Our honest German tongue, that our Saviour spoke, is good enough for me). Aaron laughed. "So _altfashuned_ a _Maedel_ I married," he said. "Woman, you must learn the Hausa, too. We must be friends to these _Schwotzers_, as we were friends with the English-speakers back in the United Schtayts." He pushed aside the bolt of Murnan cloth to sit beside his wife, and leafed through the pages of their _Familien-Bibel_, pages lovingly worn by his father's fingers, and his grandfather's. "Listen," he commanded: "_For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord they God for the good land which He hath given thee._" Aaron closed the big book reverently. "Awmen," he said. "Awmen," the woman echoed. "Aaron, with you beside me, I am not fretful." "And with the Lord above us, I fear not in a strange land," Aaron said. He bent to scrape a handful of earth from beneath Martha's pine-twig carpet. "_Guuter Gruundt_," he said. "This will grow tall corn. Tobacco, too; the folk here relish our leaf. There will be deep grasses for the beasts when the snow melts. We will prosper here, wife." The next morning was cold, but the snowfall had ceased for a spell. The Stoltzfooses had risen well before the dawn; Martha to feed herself, her husband, and the chickens; Aaron to ready the horse and wagon for a trip into Datura. He counted out the hoard of golden cowries he'd been loaned as grubstake, did some arithmetic, and allowed his wife to pour him a second cup of coffee for the road. "You may expect the Sarki's wives to visit while I'm gone," he remarked. "I'd be scared half to death!" Martha Stoltzfoos said. Her hands went to the back of her head, behind the lace prayer covering. "My hair's all strooby, this place is unti
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33  
34   35   36   37   38   >>  



Top keywords:
Martha
 

friends

 

beasts

 

morning

 

prosper

 

grasses

 
fretful
 
strange
 

echoed

 
closed

reverently

 

scrape

 
Gruundt
 

snowfall

 

Tobacco

 

Guuter

 

carpet

 

handful

 
beneath
 
relish

husband

 

remarked

 
scared
 
Stoltzfoos
 

expect

 

strooby

 

covering

 
prayer
 

coffee

 

chickens


Stoltzfooses

 

Datura

 

counted

 

allowed

 
arithmetic
 

golden

 
cowries
 

loaned

 
grubstake
 

ceased


Maedel

 

altfashuned

 

married

 
dialect
 

laughed

 

Saviour

 

tongue

 

pushed

 

speaking

 
Murnan