Amanda by Anna Balmer Myers (popular books to read TXT) đ
- Author: Anna Balmer Myers
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âAch, I guess not. Sheâs a little fancier than I like to see girls, but then sheâs a nice girl and canât do Amanda no hurt.â
âShe means herself too big, thatâs what! And them folks ainât the right kind for Amanda to know. It might spite you all yet for takinâ her in to board. Next thing sheâll be playinâ round with some of the country boys here, and mebbe take one that Amanda would liked to get. Thereâs no trustinâ such gay dressers. I found that out long aâready.â
âAch,â said Millie, âI guess Amanda donât like none of the boys round here in Crow Hill.â
âHow do you know? Guess Amanda ainât no different from the rest of us in petticoats. You just wait once and see how long it goes till the boys commence to hang round this fancy Isabel.â
Millie hadnât long to wait. Through Mrs. Landis, who had been to Mennonite church and noticed a stranger with the Reist family, Martin Landis soon knew of the boarder. That same evening he dressed in his best clothes. He had not forgotten the dark eyes of Isabel smiling to him over the pink azaleas.
âWhere you goinâ, Mart?â asked his mother. âOver to Landisville to church?â
âNoâjust out for a little while.â
âTake me with,â coaxed the littlest Landis, now five years old and the ninth in line.
âAch, go on!â spoke up an older Landis boy, âwhat dâyou think Mart wants with you? Heâs goinâ to see his girl. Na, ah!â he cried gleefully and clapped his hands, âI guessed it! Look at him blushinâ, Mom!â
Martin made a grab for the boy and shook him. âYouâve got too much romantic nonsense in your head,â he told the teasing brother. âNext thing you know youâll be a poet!â He released the squirming boy and rubbed a finger round the top of his collar as he turned to his mother.
âIâm just going down to Reistsâ a while. I met Miss Souders a few weeks ago and thought it would be all right for me to call. The country must seem quiet to her after living in the city.â
âOf course itâs all right, Martin,â agreed his mother. âJust you go ahead.â
But after he left, Mrs. Landis sat a long while on the porch, thinking about her eldest boy, her first-born. âHeâs goinâ to see that doll right as soon as she comes near, and yet Amanda he donât go to see when sheâs alone, not unless he wants her to go for a walk or something like that. If only heâd take to Amanda! Sheâs the nicest girl in Lancaster County, I bet! But he looks right by her. This pretty girl, in her fancy clothes and with her flippy waysâI know sheâs flippy, I watched her in churchâshe takes his eye, and if she matches her dress sheâll go to his head like hard cider. Ach, sometimes abody feels like puttinâ blinders on your boys till you get âem past some women.â
A little later the troubled mother walked back to the side porch, where her husband was enjoying the June twilight while he kept an eye on four of the younger members of the family as they were quietly engaged in their Sabbath recreation of piecing together picture puzzles.
âMartin,â she said as she sat beside the man, âIâve been thinkinâ about our Mart.â
âYes? What?â
âWhy, I feel we ainât doinâ just right by him. You know he donât like farminâ at all. Heâs anxious to get more schoolinâ but he ainât complaininâ. He wants to fit himself so he can get in some office or bank in the city and yet here he works on the farm helpinâ us like he really liked to do that kind of work. Now heâs of age, and since Walter and Joe are big enough to help you good and weâre gettinâ on our feet a little since the nine babies are out of the dirt, as they say still, why donât we give Martin a chance once?â
âWell, why not? Iâm agreed, Ma. Heâs been workinâ double, and when Iâm laid up with that old rheumatism he runs things good as I could. We got the mortgage paid off now. Howâd it be if we let him have the tobacco money? I was thinkinâ of puttinâ in the electric lights and fixinâ things up a little with it, but if youâd rather give it to Martââ
âI would. Much rather! I used oil lamps this long and I guess I can manage with them a while yet.â
âAll right, but as soon as we can weâll get others. Martâs young and ought to have his chance, like you say. I donât know what for heâd rather sit over a lot oâ books in some hot little office or stand in a stuffy bank and count other peopleâs money when he could work on a farm and be out in the open air, but then we ainât all alike and I guess itâs a good thing we ainât. Weâll tell him he dare have time for goinâ to Lancaster to school if he wants. Mebbe heâll be a lawyer or president some day, ainât, Ma?â
âAch, Martin, I donât think that would be so much. Iâd rather have my children just plain, common people like we are. Martâs gone up to Reistsâ this evening.â
âSo? To see Amanda, I guess.â
âHer or that boarder from Lancaster.â
âThat ruffly girl we saw this morning?â
âYes.â
âAch, donât you worry, Ma. Our Mart wonât run after that kind of a girl! Anyhow, not for long.â
At that moment the object of their discussion was approaching the Reist farmhouse. The entire household, Millie included, sat on the big front porch as the caller came down the road.
âLook,â said Philip, and began to sing softly. âHere comes a beau a-courting, a-courtingââ
âPhil!â chided Millie and Amanda in one breath.
âDonât worry, Sis,â said the irrepressible youth, âweâll gradually efface ourselves, one by oneâweâre very thoughtful. Iâll flip a penny to see whether Isabel stays or you. Heads you win, tails she does.â
âPhil!â
The vehement protest from his sister did not deter the boy from tossing the coin, which promptly rolled off the porch and fell into a bed of geraniums.
âSee,â he continued, âeven the Fates are uncertain which one of you will win. I suppose the battleâs to the strongest this time. Oh, hello, Martin,â he said graciously as the caller turned in at the gate, âNice day, ainât it?â
âWhat ails the boy?â asked Martin, laughing as he raised his hat and joined the group on the porch.
âMartin,â said Amanda after he had greeted Isabel and took his place on a chair near her, âyouâd do me an everlasting favor if youâd turn that brother of mine up on your knees and spank him.â
âNow that Iâd like to see!â spoke up Millie.
âYou would, Millie? Youâd like to see me get that? After all the coal Iâve carried out of the cellar for you, and the other ways Iâve helped make your burden lighterâyouâd sit and see me humiliated! Ingratitude! Even Millie turns against me. Iâm going away from this crowd where Iâm not appreciated.â
âOh, you neednât affect such an air of martyrdom,â his sister told him. âI know you have a book half read; you want to get back to that.â
âSay,â said Uncle Amos, âthese women, if they donât beat all! They ferret all the weak spots out a man. I say it ainât right.â
Later in the evening the older members of the household left the porch and the trio of eternal troubleâtwo girls and a manâwere left alone. It was then the city girl exerted her most alluring wiles to be entertaining. The man had eyes and ears for her only. As Mrs. Landis once said, he looked past Amanda and did not see her. She sat in the shadow and bit her lip as her plumed knight paid court before the beauty and charm of another. The heart of the simple country girl ached. But Isabel smiled, flattered and charmed and did it so adeptly that instead of being obnoxious to the country boy it thrilled and held him like the voice of a Circe. They never noticed Amandaâs silence. She could lean back in her chair and dream. She remembered the story of Ulysses and his wax-filled ears that saved him from the sirens; the tale of Orpheus, who drowned their alluring voices by playing on his instrument a music sweeter than theirsâah, that was her only hope! That somewhere, deep in the heart of the man she loved was a music surpassing in sweetness the music of the shallow girlâs voice which now seemed to sway him to her will. âIf he is a man worth loving,â she thought, âheâll see through the surface glamour of a girl like that.â It was scant consolation, for she knew that only too frequently do noble men give their lives into the precarious keeping of frivolous, butterfly women.
âWhy so pensive?â the voice of Isabel pierced her revery.
âMeâoh, I havenât had a chance to get a word in edgewise.â
âI was telling Mr. Landis he should go on with his studies. A correspondence course would be splendid for him if he canât get away from the farm for regular college work.â
âIâm going to write about that course right away,â Martin said. âIâm glad I had this talk with you, Miss Souders. Iâll do as you suggestâ study nights for a time and then try to get into a bank in Lancaster. It is so kind of you to offer to see your father about a position. Iâd feel in my element if I ever held a position in a real bank. Iâll be indebted to you for life.â
âOh,â she disclaimed any credit, âyour own merits would cause you to make good in the position. I am sure Father will be glad to help you. He has helped several young men to find places. All he asks in return is that they make good. I know youâd do that.â
When Martin Landis said good-night his earnest, âMay I come againâ soon?â was addressed to Isabel. She magnanimously put an arm about Amanda before she replied, âCertainly. Weâll be glad to have you.â
âOh,â thought Amanda, âIâll be hating her pretty soon and then how will I ever endure having her around for a whole month! Iâm a mean, jealous cat! Let Martin Landis choose whom he wantsâI should worry!â
She said good-night with a stoical attempt at indifference, thereby laying the first block of the hard, high barricade she meant to build about her heart. She would be no child to cry for the moon, the unattainable. If her heart bled what need to make a public exhibition of it! From that hour on the front porch she turned her back on her gay, merry, laughing girlhood and began the journey in the realm of womanhood, where smiles hide sorrows and the true feelings of the heart are often masked.
The determination to meet events with dignity and poise came to her aid innumerable times during the days that followed. When Martin came to the Reist farmhouse with the news that his father was going to give him money for a course in a Business School in Lancaster it was to Isabel he told the tidings and from her he received the loudest handclaps.
The city girl, rosy and pretty in her morning dresses, ensconced herself each day on the big couch hammock of the front porch to wave to Martin Landis as he passed on his way to the trolley that took him to his studies
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