Blue Shadows Farm: A Novel

38. Christmas Program—December 1886

December 1886 Sophia told Abe about her meeting with Miss Emerson. She was a bit surprised that he hadn’t asked about it when she returned home. Abe had begun his evening chores without being asked. He carried in stove wood and quietly placed the sticks of split oak in the woodbox . His usual style was to stomp into the house, drop the wood into the box, and sulk back outside, leaving no doubt how much he hated doing it. Same with feeding the chickens and picking the eggs. This evening he did these tasks without grumbling and complaining about how much he hated chickens and the sharp smell of the chicken house in winter. His behavior did not go unnoticed. “Thank you for doing your chores so well, Abe,” Sophia said when he placed the basket of eggs on a chair near the table. “You’re welcome,” Abe said. Sophia couldn’t remember her son ever using the words before. She smiled, knowing that Abe was expecting the worst when he heard the report from his mother’s meeting with the schoolmarm. “Well, what’d the teacher have to say?” Silas asked. “Miss Emerson is quite strict,” Sophia began. 224 38 Christmas Program 225 Christmas Program—December 1886 “I don’t like her,” Abe said. “None of the kids like her.” “Just wait, Abe, you’ll get your chance to talk. Let’s hear what your ma has to say,” Silas said. He picked up his cup of coffee and leaned back in his chair. For supper they ate mashed potatoes, baked squash, and fresh pork chops fried in a cast-iron skillet. Silas had butchered one of their pigs a couple of weeks earlier, and they were enjoying fresh pork once or twice a week. Sophia had warned Abe to stay away from the pig butchering, that it might upset him. But he was right there, leaning on the fence when Wolfgang and Fritz arrived to help. Wolfgang had a long, sharp knife in his hand when he crawled over the fence. Fritz and Silas caught the hog in a corner of the pen. Fritz reached for one of its front legs and quickly upended the animal, with Silas helping to hold it down. The pig’s squeals of terror echoed through the valley in back of the Starkweather farmstead. Quickly, Wolfgang stuck the knife in the animal’s neck and twisted the razor-sharp blade. Dark red, nearly purple, blood spurted from its neck as it returned to its feet, staggered a few steps before falling down. It kicked its legs a few times and then lay dead. All the while, Abe stood at the fence looking, watching every move as the men made short work of killing the animal. Silas had earlier started a fire, over which he had hung a huge black cast-iron caldron, filled with boiling water, on a steel tripod. The three men dragged the dead pig near the fire, preparing to remove its wiry hair by scalding it with boiling water and scraping it off with a metal scraper fashioned for the purpose. Abe continued watching, fascinated with the process. With the hair removed from the dead animal, Wolfgang cut slits in each back leg, through which he pushed a heavy oak stick with a metal eye screwed in the center of it. To the eye the men attached a tackle block—a series of pulleys and ropes—that allowed them to pull the pig up into a nearby tree. With his sharp butcher knife, Wolfgang cut a slit in the animal’s belly from top to bottom, and a pile of intestines, lungs, and other body organs spilled onto the ground in a cloud of steam and heavy smells. He carefully saved the liver, as everyone enjoyed eating fresh fried liver and onions. Abe continued his interest in the process, now asking his father what various body organs lay on the ground as poked around in the gut pile with a stick. Miss Emerson had lots to say,” Sophia began. Abe sat quietly, his eyes downward, for he surmised what he was about to hear. “First, she told me how impressed she was with your reading, and how you know arithmetic beyond your grade.” “I like reading and arithmetic,” Abe said, quietly. He knew what was next would not be so laudatory. “Miss Emerson said that you start...