Amanda: A Daughter of the MennonitesMyers, Anna Balmer
General
Amanda: A Daughter of the Mennonites
Myers, Anna Balmer
Mennonites -- Fiction
Aunt Rebecca had married Jonas Miller, a rich man. All the years of
their life together on the farm seemed a visible verification of the
old saying, "To him that hath shall be given." A special Providence
seemed to hover over their acres of tobacco. Storms and destructive
hail appeared to roam in a swath just outside their farm. The Jonas
Miller tobacco fields were reputed to be the finest in the whole Garden
Spot county, and the Jonas Miller bank account grew correspondingly
fast. But the bank account, however quickly it increased, failed to
give Jonas Miller and his wife full pleasure, unless, as some say, the
mere knowledge of possession of wealth can bring pleasure to miserly
hearts. For Jonas Miller was, in the vernacular of the Pennsylvania
Dutch, "almighty close." Millie, Reists' hired girl, said," That there
Jonas is too stingy to buy long enough pants for himself. I bet he gets
boys' size because they're cheaper, for the legs o' them always just
come to the top o' his shoes. Whoever lays him out when he's dead once
will have to put pockets in his shroud for sure! And he's made poor
Becky just like him. It ain't in her family to be so near; why, Mrs.
Reist is always givin' somebody something! But mebbe when he dies once
and his wife gets the money in her hand she'll let it fly."
However, when Jonas Miller died and left the hoarded money to his wife
she did not let it fly. She rented the big farm and moved to the little
old-fashioned house in Landisville--a little house whose outward
appearance might have easily proclaimed its tenant poor. There she
lived alone, with occasional visits and visitors to break the monotony
of her existence.
That Sunday morning of the Reist visit, Uncle Amos hitched the horse to
the carriage, tied it by the front fence of the farm, then he went
up-stairs and donned his Sunday suit of gray cloth. Later he brought
out his broad-brimmed Mennonite hat and called to Amanda and her mother,
"I'm ready. Come along!"
Mrs. Reist wore a black cashmere shawl pinned over her plain gray lawn
dress and a stiff black silk bonnet was tied under her chin. Amanda
skipped out to the yard, wearing a white dress with a wide buff sash. A
matching ribbon was tied on her red hair.
"Jiminy," whistled Uncle Amos as she ran to him and swung her leghorn
hat on its elastic. "Jiminy, you're pretty---"
"Oh, am I, Uncle Amos?" She smiled radiantly. "Am I really pretty?"
"Hold on, here!" He tried to look very sober. "If you ain't growin' up
for sure! Lookin' for compliments a'ready, same as all the rest. I was
goin' to say that you're pretty fancy dressed for havin' a Mennonite
mom."
"Oh, Uncle Amos!" Amanda laughed and tossed her head so the yellow bow
danced like a butterfly. "I don't believe you at all! You're too good
to be findin' fault like that! Millie says so, too."
"She does, eh? She does? Just what does Millie say about me now?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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