He took one from the box as gingerly as if it were a snake.
She didn’t know why he was stalling. “Hurry up so you can help your brother.”
He faced the board and wrote a lowercase i. He hesitated and pulled at his lower lip with one hand.
“Is something wrong? Is there a word you don’t know how to spell? That should be a capitalized I.”
“This is stupid.” He threw the chalk into the corner and ran out of the room.
“Otto, come back here!” She sat stunned for a moment then rose and followed him out the door but he had already gone out of sight.
She crossed the street to the smithy. The sound of hammering told her Willis was hard at work. She stepped through the door but didn’t see Otto. “Willis, did you see where Otto went?”
He held a red-hot horseshoe in a pair of tongs. He plunged it into a barrel of liquid. Steam hissed and splattered his leather apron. “I thought he was with you.”
“He became upset and ran out of the schoolroom.”
Willis pulled the shoe out of the liquid and examined it before looking at her. “Upset about what?”
Eva shook her head. “I’m not sure. I asked him to write that he would respect school property on the blackboard one hundred times.”
“He refused?”
“He just ran out of the room without doing it. Do you know where he is?”
Willis carried another horseshoe to the forge and plunged it into the glowing coals. “I don’t. Try looking behind this shop. He goes back there sometimes. Why would he run off? Did he say anything?”
“He said it was stupid.” Eva wished Willis would show more concern but perhaps she was overreacting. Willis was Otto’s parent for all practical purposes. She wasn’t sure where her duty as a teacher lay. “I’m not going to let him get by with this kind of behavior. He will have to finish this assignment sooner rather than later.”
“He will. I’ll see to it as soon as he comes home. I know the boy. He won’t miss lunch.” Willis began pumping the bellows.
She took a step back, feeling dismissed. She certainly couldn’t make Willis leave his work and go searching for his errant brother. She walked out of the forge and saw Maddie sitting on a swing in the school playground. Maddie spied her at the same time and gave a halfhearted wave.
Eva walked over to the playground and took a seat beside Maddie in one of the swings. “I’m not sitting on Bubble, am I?”
Maddie shook her head but kept her eyes downcast. “She’s not here. She had to go home for a while. She was missing her mother.”
“I see.” So was one lonely little girl unless Eva missed her guess. “You seem sad today. Is something wrong?”
Maddie slanted a glance at her. “Do you think the other kids will laugh at me because I talk to Bubble? Otto says they will.”
“It isn’t right to poke fun at another person. I will make sure everyone knows that. The Lord wants us to be kind to each other.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Did you see your brother Otto leave the school a short time ago?”
Maddie nodded and pointed toward the woods behind the building. “He went to see Harley.”
“Can you tell me where I can find Harley?”
“Harley likes to visit his friend, Mrs. Arnett. She has a farm beyond the woods. You can follow the path through the trees, but Harley says I can’t go that way because I’m too little and I might get lost in the woods.”
Eva tried to think of a way to cheer the child. “You can come with me. Would you like to do that?”
Maddie shook her head. “I’m going to wait here for Bubble.”
“I understand.” Eva stepped out of the swing and headed into the woods. The trees grew close together and the underbrush was thick and leafy. Within a few steps she couldn’t see the school building behind her.
Several game trails crossed the footpath, and once she took the wrong trail but quickly realized her mistake and returned to the correct one. Harley was right not to let Maddie take the path alone. She stopped when she thought she heard her name being called, but when it wasn’t repeated she decided she had been mistaken.
After nearly half a mile she came to a neat farmstead with a big red barn and white painted fences. There was a young woman on her knees in a garden plot. Eva approached her. “Excuse me, is this the Arnett farm?”
The woman sat up and brushed her shoulder-length dark hair out of her eyes with the back of her wrist. “It is. I’m Lilly Arnett. How can I help you?”
“I’m Eva Coblentz. I’m looking for Harley Gingrich. Is he here?”
“He was but he left with his brother Otto a short time ago.”
“I didn’t meet them in the woods. Is there another way back to New Covenant?”
Lilly smiled and pointed toward the nearby highway. “I let them take one of my horses. You will find the county road is easier walking, but it is a little longer. Harley said he would be back later to finish mowing the lawn. I can give him a message.”
Eva smiled. “Tell him his new teacher needs to speak to Otto.”
“I’ll let him know.”
“Danki.” Eva chose to walk back to the school on the roadway rather than tramping through the woods again. She could only hope that Otto had returned to finish his task.
When she reached the school, Maddie was gone. A black-and-white pony stood patiently at the hitching rail in front of the school. The door of the schoolhouse stood open. Eva stepped inside. Harley was sitting at a student desk in the first row. Otto was at the blackboard writing out his assignment. Eva gave a deep sigh of relief. She had been prepared for a battle of wills with him. It seemed that wasn’t going to be necessary.
She watched and waited quietly until
