A Wedding Quilt for Ella (34 page)

At home, after chores, she caught Eli alone. “I want the whole story,” she whispered. “And I mean the whole story.”

“I called her,” he admitted sheepishly, “but don’t be tellin’ Mamm and Daett because I suspect I’ll see her once, and then it’ll be over with.”

“You’d best not see her at all,” Ella said, but that stubborn look crossed his face, so she dropped the subject.

Later in her room, Dora stepped in. Ella told her and wrote the event in her tablet but hoped with all her heart the matter would go no further. Eli could make an awful mess out of his life if he wasn’t careful about this.

With a prayer on her lips, she gazed at the stars for a long time, and then blew out the light.

Forty

E
lla sat at the kitchen table, staring off into space. There was work to do and plenty of it.
I
really should get up and get started, but I wonder what Daniel is doing at my house right now. Is he setting walls yet, or, perhaps, he’s ready to work on the subfloor. Daniel said yesterday that the first load of wood from the lumberyard in Randolph is going to arrive today. How wonderful it would be to watch them unload it and marvel at that pile of lumber that will become my house! But today is a day to be home, and that is that.

“Why don’t you take all week off and spend it with your house building,” Dora said, popping her head into the kitchen. “I can see your mind isn’t here, and I’m willing to take the extra load. If you ask nicely, I’m sure Eli and Monroe will also agree to help wherever they can.”

“Oh, would you?” Ella said, leaping to her feet. “I would so love that, but I don’t want to put an extra burden on everyone.”

“If you help chore in the mornings and evenings, that will be enough until the house is done,” Mamm called from the living room. “I can understand that your heart would be with the house building.”

“Oh, Mamm,” Ella said, rushing to the kitchen doorway, “you are being way too nice.”

“It’s the way it should be,” Mamm said as a matter of fact.

“And I’m getting better at milking,” Eli said from the couch. “First one cow at a time, and now I’m almost back with my full load. I might even venture out to the fields today.”

“So that’s decided,” Mamm said. “Now let’s all get busy with our work.”

“Then I’ll go work on my quilt,” Ella said, “and thank you all so much. One more day with the quilt, and then I’m off to Chapman Road to watch the house.”

“That’s a good girl,” Dora said, slapping her on the back. “Now get busy.”

Ella laughed, running down the stairs.

“You’re going to trip and kill yourself,” Dora hollered after her.

“I was being careful,” Ella said. “Now
you
get back to work.”

With a smile Ella pulled a chair up to the quilt. Dora was often the one in a dark mood, but deep down she was the sweetest thing. How wonderful it was that things were slowly returning to normal. Even Eli might soon be well, and she would have her house completed soon.

Ella stitched rapidly, taking only a short break for lunch. An hour before chore time, she finished and stood to stretch her weary back. With a sigh she climbed up the stairs.

“Eli’s already left for the barn,” Dora said, busy at the stove.

“But it’s early,” Ella said, glancing at the clock.

“He won’t start before it’s time,” Dora said. “He just needed to get out of the house.”

“Then I’m going to make sure he doesn’t,” Ella said, walking toward the front door. “And thank you so much for taking on my extra work.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Dora said, frowning. “You’d do the same thing for me and then some.”

After chores the next morning, Ella hitched the horse to the buggy and drove out of the lane at a fast clip. The sun hadn’t been up long, and perhaps Daniel wouldn’t be on the job site yet. She wanted to be there early just in case.

While driving down the hill and past the schoolhouse, she waved to the teacher walking into the schoolyard. At the bridge, Ella never slowed. She took the winding roads at a fast trot. Finally arriving at the site, she tied up along the fencerow and walked up the hill. Already men were pulling boards off the pile of lumber and busily cutting with saws.

“So the strong woman is back,” Daniel said, laughing heartily.

“I’m here to help,” she said. “How fast things have changed since I was here last.”

“That’s because we’re such good workers,” Daniel said.

“You’re also full of yourself right now,” she said, “but tell me what to do.”

He pointed toward the floorboards. “How about putting nails in those?”

“If you show me a few times,” she said, taking a deep breath.

“Well,” he said, picking a nail out of his pouch, “this is how you hold it.”

“I already know that,” she said.

“But there’s more to it than that,” he said. “You place four nails in between these marks and pound them in.”

“I can also do that,” she said, picking up more nails.

“Practice there first,” he said, pointing toward a piece of wood.

Grimly Ella bent over and started pounding away.

“Again, just for practice,” Daniel said.

Slowly Ella repeated the maneuver, and Daniel waved his arm toward his men.

“We’re ready to go, so bring another board in,” Daniel said. “That was really good work, Ella.”

“You’re just saying so.”

“No, I’m not,” he said, moving the next piece of board in place and nailing one section while Ella pounded her nail in as quickly as she could.

“Almost as good as a boy,” Daniel said, laughing. “By the time we’re done, you can join the crew.”

“Don’t tease me. This is hard enough,” Ella said as they brought in the next board.

“You’re a better worker than my sisters,” Daniel said. “I’m not teasing.

“Well, it’s wonderful to help,” she said, bending over to hammer as another board came into place.

The hours went by quickly, and they ate lunch sitting against a lumber pile, shielded in part from the bright sunlight. By early afternoon the last of the floorboards had been nailed into place.

“We’re ready for plywood next,” Daniel said, pointing toward the pile of flat lumber.

“And what am I to do?” Ella asked.

“Just wait while we carry the pieces in, and then you can help hammer.”

Wearily Ella stepped back and watched as they glued the edges of the upright boards and allowed the pieces of plywood to fall into place with a sharp bang. Then they pounded the tongue and groove edges together with sledgehammers.

“There’s the work that needs to be done,” Daniel said, shouting above the noise and pointing out the lines on the plywood. “We need nails all the way across about eight inches apart.”

Ella glanced at the piece of plywood and then across the still unfinished subfloor.

“That’s an awful lot of hammering,” she said.

Daniel laughed. “We will help, so don’t worry.”

Ella pounded away and was joined by all the men at the end of each row.

“We have to keep up before the glue dries,” Daniel said. “It’s not that we think you’re slow.”

“Stop worrying about me,” she said.

“Tired and snappy already” he said with a grin.

“I guess,” she said. Daniel was being wonderful, building her house. It was going to be wonderful even though it didn’t look much like a house yet.

“We’re making
gut
progress,” Daniel said when she stopped to catch her breath.

“Yah, and it seems like the house is getting smaller instead of bigger.”

“That’s the nature of things with homes,” Daniel said, pausing to look around. “They always look smaller when only the foundation or sub-floors are in. Once the walls are up, the true size becomes apparent.”

The rest of the crew nodded, and Ella paused to look back across the plywood they had put down.

“It still looks small,” she said, and they laughed.

By late afternoon they were three quarters of the way across, and Ella stood to leave. Daniel waved as she climbed down the ladder and turned to walk back to where her horse was tied along the fencerow. The horse still had a few nibbles of hay left from what she had given it at lunchtime and was trying to dig them out of the grass. She backed the horse around and climbed into the buggy. The horse started with a jerk, heading home with eager steps.

By midmorning the next day, the floor plywood was down, and Daniel marked off the boards for the wall construction, laying them in place along the outer edges. Ella watched them place a few studs between the marks and then grabbed a handful of her own. When they came to the end of the wall, she turned to look behind her. Daniel had been correct. Already the stretch of laid-out wall made the house look larger.

“Nail in a stud where each set of marks is,” Daniel said, bending over to trace the marks with his finger. “You use two nails for each stud, and these double marks are for windows and doors. The boys and I will finish those. All you have to do is leave a stud out wherever there is a zero inside the set of marks.”

Ella glanced up and down the lines. “It looks easy enough,” she said, her hammer ready.

“Oh,” Daniel said, raising his hand. “I just thought of something. Do you want to know how things are laid out on the inside—since you’ve not seen my plans yet?”

“Of course,” Ella said. “And you’d better show me where the front door, living room, and kitchen are. I need to see how they flow together.”

“Then let them work on the wall,” Daniel said, waving his hand. “Come over here and show me what you want.”

Ella followed him to where he had the plans open on a piece of plywood, watching as he traced the blueprint lines with his pencil.

Do I dare make suggestions? Things look fairly decent already, but this is my house, after all.
She cleared her throat and, glancing at Daniel’s face, said, “I’d like the kitchen moved to this wall so that it looks out toward the back.”

Daniel shrugged. “Hey, it’s your house. We can still change most anything right now. And what you just moved requires only the change of one wall, which isn’t really too bad.”

“I think that’s all I want changed,” Ella said.

“Just speak up about any changes that you want,” Daniel said. “As long as we catch things in time, I don’t mind. Maybe you should look things over a little more.”

Ella studied the print for a few minutes and shook her head, “I think the kitchen is really my only concern. And the rest doesn’t really matter as long as it flows together.”

“And you think it flows well?” he asked.

“Yes, I think it does,” she said with appreciation.

They then joined the others who were constructing the wall. The gas-powered saw roared all day long as one person cut the boards to correct lengths, and the others put things together.

“You can work on the headers,” Daniel said, hollering above the noise.

“What are headers?” she asked.

“The headers are made out of this pile of boards, and they need plywood nailed between them.”

Ella nodded as he set two of the boards out on the plywood floor.

“You have to be careful,” Daniel said. “Each edge of the board has to be lined up fairly close otherwise you get a crooked header.”