Maggie sighed.“Probably, but she keeps adding to what she wants to do.We can’t seem to stop her.”
“All right.I’ll try not to worry.”Agnes quickly washed the teacups.“I’m ready when you are.”
“We’ll need baskets,” Maggie said.“I fill two every morning and every afternoon.”
“That’s a lot of forage!”
“It’s plentiful if you know where to look.”
“Am I allowed to forage without you?At least until we get my smokehouse built and the goats come in.”
“Absolutely.Any way you can help is good.I would try to spend a day with Sally if I were you.You can learn the process of smoking the salmon and help her with her garden.It’s a really busy time for her.”
“I will do that tomorrow.I’m not looking forward to talking to Jasper about buying goats.”
“Mrs.Johnson will order them for you.Talk to him tonight.We can pool our money if we need to.”
Agnes shook her head.“I have a good amount of money saved up.”
“Even better.”Maggie pointed in the direction of the store.“We’ll go to the store, and I’ll introduce you to Katie, and then we can forage.She should be able to tell you what the goats will cost, so you have an idea when you talk to your husband.”
The chat with Katie was quick.She didn’t seem to have a problem with dividing the profits by one more person, and she was very helpful about the price of goats.“Any time you bring me something to sell, let me know if it’s for you or all of you.That way I’ll be able to credit everyone properly.”
“I should buy some eggs if you have any.”
“We don’t have many left.Let me check.”Katie took a basket out from under the counter.“We have four left.How many do you want?”
“I’ll take them all.I want to bake a cake for dessert tonight,” Agnes said.
“Next time, talk to Belle before coming to me.I buy our eggs from her.”
“I will.Thank you!”
As they left the store, Agnes asked Maggie, “Should I start chickens as well?”
“I wouldn’t,” Maggie said.“Save something for the other girls who are coming.Do you know who will be next?”
“I believe it will be Ella, Myrtle, Josephine, and Lula.They are all waiting on matches.They hope to be here before it freezes.”
“They’d best hurry then!”
They were still close enough to the store that they heard Katie call them back.“I almost forgot.I have mail for you, Agnes.”
“Oh!I wasn’t expecting anything quite so soon.”Agnes took the letter from Katie.“Do you mind if I read it now?”she asked Maggie.
“Not at all.It may be news about our friends.”
Agnes quickly read the letter.“It’s from Josie.She said all three of them have matches, and they will be traveling together.I’m sure that will be nice.They leave...Oh, looks like they’re already on their way.Do we come up with jobs for them?”
“We’ll talk to the others.I’m certain we’ll have tasks for them when they get here.Or at least three or four things they can choose from.Belle is going to be so excited!”
“Belle?”Agnes asked.
“She’s the one who started all this.We’ll all decide together what we need, but Belle is the one who is mostly in charge, if that makes sense.She doesn’t boss us around or anything, but she lets us know what she thinks we should do.”
“That may not go over well with Mary,” Agnes said.
Maggie laughed.“Probably not.Mary likes to tell everyone else what to do.”She stopped walking in a clearing in the middle of the forest.“This is my favorite place to forage.There are lots of berries in season right now.Not those green ones there.They’re poisonous, but we can find blueberries, nagoonberries, lingonberries, crowberries, cloudberries, currants, and soapberries.If you see some Eskimo potatoes, get those too, but for the most part, we’re focusing on berries.”As she talked about the different berries, she showed each one to Agnes.Finally, she found some Eskimo potatoes and showed her friend those as well.
