"Ach, I guess not. She's a little fancier than I like to see girls, but
then she's a nice girl and can't do Amanda no hurt."
"She means herself too big, that's what! And them folks ain't the right
kind for Amanda to know. It might spite you all yet for takin' her in
to board. Next thing she'll be playin' round with some of the country
boys here, and mebbe take one that Amanda would liked to get. There's
no trustin' such gay dressers. I found that out long a'ready."
"Ach," said Millie, "I guess Amanda don't like none of the boys round
here in Crow Hill."
"How do you know? Guess Amanda ain't no different from the rest of us
in petticoats. You just wait once and see how long it goes till the
boys commence to hang round this fancy Isabel."
Millie hadn't long to wait. Through Mrs. Landis, who had been to
Mennonite church and noticed a stranger with the Reist family, Martin
Landis soon knew of the boarder. That same evening he dressed in his
best clothes. He had not forgotten the dark eyes of Isabel smiling to
him over the pink azaleas.
"Where you goin', Mart?" asked his mother. "Over to Landisville to
church?"
"No--just out for a little while."
"Take me with," coaxed the littlest Landis, now five years old and the
ninth in line.
"Ach, go on!" spoke up an older Landis boy, "what d'you think Mart
wants with you? He's goin' to see his girl. Na, ah!" he cried gleefully
and clapped his hands, "I guessed it! Look at him blushin', Mom!"
Martin made a grab for the boy and shook him. "You've got too much
romantic nonsense in your head," he told the teasing brother. "Next
thing you know you'll be a poet!" He released the squirming boy and
rubbed a finger round the top of his collar as he turned to his mother.
"I'm just going down to Reists' a while. I met Miss Souders a few weeks
ago and thought it would be all right for me to call. The country must
seem quiet to her after living in the city."
"Of course it's all right, Martin," agreed his mother. "Just you go
ahead."
But after he left, Mrs. Landis sat a long while on the porch, thinking
about her eldest boy, her first-born. "He's goin' to see that doll
right as soon as she comes near, and yet Amanda he don't go to see when
she's alone, not unless he wants her to go for a walk or something like
that. If only he'd take to Amanda! She's the nicest girl in Lancaster
County, I bet! But he looks right by her. This pretty girl, in her
fancy clothes and with her flippy ways--I know she's flippy, I watched
her in church--she takes his eye, and if she matches her dress she'll
go to his head like hard cider. Ach, sometimes abody feels like puttin'
blinders on your boys till you get 'em past some women."