AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jessica started the chicken boiling for supper while Mary Sue carried the baby inside and Joe followed her. “What are you doing with the chicken?” Mary Sue asked.
“I’m just going to make my mother’s receipt for chicken and dumplings. It’s a quick, easy meal that will let me devote most of my day to cleaning. I want the floors done as soon as possible.”
“I don’t blame you. Especially with this one almost crawling.”
Jessica sighed. “I’m going to make some lunch super quick if you want to share my meal.”
“That would be lovely.” Mary Sue held the baby’s hands as she tested out her legs, standing on her aunt’s lap.
“It won’t be fancy, but it will be filling,” Jessica said as she headed into the kitchen. Warming the biscuits from breakfast and the scraps of ham that were left, she made a country gravy and turned the biscuits and ham into sandwiches, and then she covered them with the gravy. She made one for Joe, and two for each of the women. Then she knew she’d share hers with Sally.
Mary Sue took one bite. “This is delicious!” she said. “You’ll have to tell me exactly what you did.”
“This is a very simple meal,” Jessica said, explaining briefly how she’d made it. “The gravy is the best part of it, and I just use my mother’s receipt. She grew up in the south, and she was always making country gravy.”
“I will happily take that receipt if you don’t mind sharing it.”
“Of course not!” Jessica said. “I appreciate the help you’re giving me today.”
“I’m happy to do it. I want to see how you make your chicken and dumplings as well. Mine always turn out runny.”
“We’ll do that together. I wish I had cookies baked for you, but there just hasn’t been time yet. Maybe I can make some before the older children get home from school.”
“Don’t try and do too much,” Mary Sue warned. “I don’t want to see you too sore to work tomorrow.”
“Oh, I was doing a lot of work at home too. And I walked into town often to run any errands the family needed run. I worked with my mother.”
“That’s really nice,” Mary Sue said. “My mother died when I was young, and I didn’t get a lot of time with her. I hope Nancy listens to you. The girl doted on her mother and is very headstrong.”
Jessica sighed. “We’ll get there. Right now she resents me because I’m asking her to do things the same way her mother did, and she thinks I’m trying to take her place. George won’t even look at me. Bertie does whatever I say, but he doesn’t speak much. Joe and Sally are the easy ones, and it shouldn’t be that way.”
“They’ll all warm up to you,” Mary Sue said.
“I certainly hope so.”
After lunch, Mary Sue gave Sally a bottle and then put both children down for a nap. She baked cookies for the children while Jessica scrubbed the floors. Jessica started to protest that she wanted to make cookies, but the floors were more important, and she couldn’t ask a guest—even a sister-in-law—to scrub floors. Baking the cookies was a better task for her.
By the time the children were home from school, the floors were scrubbed all through the house and the smell of cookies wafted through the air. Jessica washed her hands and hurried to wake the younger children. Then they all had a snack of milk and cookies together.
Nancy looked around her in awe. “The house looks like it did before Ma died.”
“Thanks to your aunt Mary Sue, I was able to get all the floors scrubbed today, and I have a wonderful supper cooking on the stove. We’ll get all the bedding off the line, and you and I can make all the beds, while Mary Sue watches the little ones.” Jessica looked at Mary Sue. “Is that all right?”
“I’d love to take care of the little ones.”
As soon as the snack was over, Nancy helped Jessica with the laundry, and they remade every bed. “Won’t it be nice to slip between nice clean sheets tonight?”
Nancy nodded. “I used to help Ma on laundry day. I like clean sheets.”
“I do too! Especially when they are dried in the sun and not in the cellar.”
As they worked together, Nancy kept up her chatter. “One of the boys chased me around at recess today. The teacher says he’s sweet on me, but it’s hard to believe Johnny is sweet on anyone. He’s always teasing me.”
“It sounds like he is sweet on you. Does Johnny play tricks on the teacher?”
Nancy shook her head. “Miss Dunbar licks all the boys who misbehave. I got licked once too for not paying attention in class. It was awful, and I’ll never do anything to get swatted again.”
“Well, it sounds like you learned your lesson fast. Very smart of you.”
