The Librarian of Boone's Hollow - Kim Vogel Sawyer Page 0,28

needs in this world of ours, Addie. So much suffering. Sometimes I wonder why I’m so blessed.”

Addie tilted her head. Griselda Ann had lived all her adult life with her mother, and she had no husband or children or, it seemed, friends. She spent her time either at work or at a sewing machine. Wouldn’t loneliness be her constant companion? Addie saw few blessings in the woman’s single, monotonous state.

“I have this house.” Griselda Ann spoke softly, her gaze aimed beyond Addie’s shoulder as if she’d drifted away somewhere. “I have a job that meets my needs. I’ve always had enough food to eat, and I’ve never gone without adequate clothing. I’ve been given much.”

“Look for the blessings, Addie.” Mother’s sweet voice played in Addie’s memory. Tears threatened. Her lips quivered as she formed a smile. “As have I. Including being invited to stay here with you.”

Griselda Ann zipped her focus to Addie. Affection bloomed on her round face. “I believe you’re going to prove to be a blessing to me, Addie. I’m only sorry your parents’ misfortune led to my receiving the blessing of your help and companionship.”

“My mother would say your taking me in is God’s way of providing for me.” Addie glanced at the fabric squares stacked on the table, then at the growing blister on her thumb. The oddest thought trailed through her mind, that the blister would one day be viewed as a blessing in her life.

“Well, let’s put these squares in the ready-to-sew basket, and then we should ready ourselves for bed.” Griselda Ann scooped up an armful of squares and headed for the hallway.

Addie filled her arms and followed, inwardly laughing. She must be overly tired to think a blister could ever be a blessing.

Boone’s Hollow

Emmett

MAYBE HE SHOULD WALK INSTEAD. It’d seemed like a good idea to get up with Paw before the sun rose and ride the company wagon into Lynch with the twenty or so men and older boys from Tuckett’s Pass and Boone’s Hollow who worked in the mine, but now Emmett wasn’t so sure.

No one seemed too keen to have his company. Paw had snorted when Emmett came down from the loft dressed in his suit. Then he’d hurried ahead on the path, as if he didn’t want to be seen with his son. Those who were waiting, including Shay and some others who’d been at the Gilkey place last night, held their distance from him. A couple of the older men, ones who claimed Paw as a friend, spoke a greeting to Emmett and asked what he was doing out so early, but after he told them he was going to try to get a job in the offices at the Coal & Coke Company, they turned away, too.

Emmett tried not to take offense. The folks from the hills didn’t cozy up to strangers—they never had—and he’d been gone long enough to become a stranger to most of them. But couldn’t Paw or Shay talk to him? Paw was joshing with the older men, and Shay was cutting up with the younger ones, and Emmett felt as out of place as he had his first weeks on the college campus his freshman year.

Nervousness made his belly quiver. He shifted from foot to foot, adjusting his tie and the collar of his suit coat. “Fancy duds,” he heard one of the younger men mutter. He pushed his hands into his pockets and forced himself to stand still. No sense in calling attention to himself. He already stuck out like a daisy in a patch of thistles. But what else could he wear? His professors at the university stressed the importance of appropriate attire. One paraphrased Mark Twain’s quote about clothes making the man by adding that society has no place for those in sloppy clothing. He’d gotten to where he didn’t feel like himself unless he wore trousers and a button-down shirt.

The crunch of wagon wheels against dirt rumbled, and a pair of small brown birds shot from a bush near the road. “Here it comes,” someone said.

Emmett looked to the north entrance of town. A pair of white-nosed mules, heads bobbing, came through the gap in the trees. They pulled a green-painted wagon driven by a wiry little man who looked to be at least ninety years old. Everyone shuffled to the side of the road, lunch buckets clanking. The driver stopped the wagon in front of Belcher’s General Store. Paw and one of his buddies,