A Wedding Quilt for Ella Read Free Page A

dashed out of the shadows and paused in the aisle to stare at the girls.
    “Good evening, kitty cats,” Dora said, giving each a spray of milk. The liquid stream flew across the concrete floor and landed in the cat’s mouth with practiced perfection.
    “You’re spoiling them again,” Ella said, her voice a gentle chide. Then she turned and added her own stream to the mouths of the cats.
    “Now who’s spoiling whom?”
    “I couldn’t help myself,” Ella said, “as cute as they are.”
    “Soon they’ll be having kittens,” Dora said dryly. “That’s how these things go. We’ll have to spray milk all night long.”
    “I don’t know about that,” Ella said, laughing, “but can’t you just see the little fuzzy balls with milk running off their whiskers?”
    “You’d be spoiling the whole world if left to yourself,” Dora said, giving another shot of milk to the two cats before brushing them away with her foot.
    Ella turned her attention back to Clara and handed her the three-legged stool. Clara reached for it, took a deep breath, and gingerly sat down.
    “That’s a big cow,” she said, looking up at the hairy side that rose above her. “What if this thing falls on me?”
    “Cows don’t fall,” Ella assured her. “Just take your hand and squeeze like I showed you.”
    Clara squeezed hard with both hands. “Oh no,” she said as only a dribble of milk came out, “this will take a year.”
    “Harder,” Ella said, encouraging her. “We all learn by doing. Squeeze. Pull. Squeeze.”
    Clara worked her hand as the cow, its tongue hanging out the side of its mouth, turned to look back at the young girl.
    “She doesn’t like me,” Clara said in panic. “She’s getting ready to kick.”
    “Oh, she likes you,” Dora said from her stool. “Cows don’t care who milks them as long as you don’t pinch them.”
    “She’s not pinching,” Ella said. “Quit scaring her. She doesn’t even have long fingernails.”
    Clara managed to get a longer squirt of milk out.
    “I did it,” she squealed.
    “You’ve got a long ways to go there, litde girl,” Dora muttered as she got up to empty her bucket into one of the larger milk cans. Dora slowly poured the milk through the strainer and into the can, pausing momentarily when the strainer reached the overflow point. Moments later she emptied the last drops.
    “Keep going, Clara,” Ella said. “You’re doing fine. I have to go milk my own cow now.”
    Clara worked slowly while Ella and Dora finished their cows and then two more apiece.
    “My hands burn like fire,” Clara said in despair, “but I think I’m finally done. No more milk comes out.”
    “That’s all you need to do tonight,” Ella said, walking over to her. ‘One cow’s enough. Tomorrow night you can try again. It takes time for your muscles to grow stronger. Now, let me check how well you’ve done.”
    Clara stepped back from her cow, and Ella sat down. She quickly began with long even strokes and, to Clara’s surprise, soon covered the bottom of her pail with milk.
    “So I didn’t finish the cow,” Clara said, her face fallen.
    “Don’t be feeling bad,” Ella said. “I had to check. It wouldn’t be good for the cow if you left milk in it.”

Three
     
    W ith all of the others having already disappeared inside the house, Ella raced across the yard. Eli met her at the utility room door. “I thought I was always last,” he said with a teasing tone. “So how come you’re the tail tonight?”
    “I was helping Clara,” she said, then stopped, and waited outside while he washed at the washbasin. The evening had grown quiet. The noise of the cows in the barnyard was muffled. In the west the sun had set, and the deep shadows settled across the valley, replacing the light of day. Yet even the nighttime had its comfort and strength in the repose that came after a hard day’s work.
    She heard Eli splash around in the washroom. He would have the water dirty by now and