Taking A Walk With Sarah

 Sarah walked through the house yard on her family's farm and smiled as she remembered so many things she did as a child. "Look at all those Spirea bushes. Those were my wedding bushes. I can remember that those bushes grew all along the side of the house and made a kind of pathway to the lawn on the north side. I would make what I called a wreath for my hair and a bouquet of lilacs for my wedding bouquet. For my real wedding in two days I am going to carry lilacs. I read in a book that Thomas Jefferson and our first president, George Washington loved lilacs and had them at their beautiful homes. I wonder where our bushes came from. It would be fun if they were starters to two of our presidents. They always bloom around my birthday, so I will have a beautiful bouquet. Oh they smell so good.

If someone was close enough to hear her they would hear her chuckle to herself as she remembered telling her ma that the cats sure didn't like her. Her ma told her 'if you wouldn't hold them around their neck they might'. The cats were always part of her pretend weddings. She would put those that she could catch and put them in Lulu's buggy and stuff it with flowers; peonies, and lilacs if they were blooming. "Those cats sure didn't like weddings!" She grinned to herself thinking of all the wonderful memories she could tell her children and grandchildren.

She had so many good memories of this farm. The barn raising and the fun her brothers and she had. She especially liked exploring the farmland and still did. She walked up towards her ma's large garden and saw the tree. Her tree she called it. It was a mulberry tree. Oh the fruit was so good with sugar and cream on those big fat purple berries. It was such fun shaking the berries out of the tree onto old sheets ma had given them. I think Lulu ate more than she put in the bucket. I don't blame her. They were so good.

As she walked she realized she had come to the farm boundary. The Hayes farm ended and her new home began. As she looked over the fence she grinned. "Oh that was one day Ma wasn't happy with me." She walked over and reached into one of the many plum trees. Some of them were ripe. Yummy!

She had taken her apron out to the plum thicket that day and picked as many plums as her apron would hold. She had felt so grownup filling her apron with plums. Her ma had always used her apron to carry vegetables from the garden. "And a hundred other things for that matter," she thought.

She had taken them to the house and announced to her ma that they should make jam that day. Oh my, ma was not a bit happy. She had her day planned, and my wishes did not fit into her plans. I was twelve years old and was confident that I could make the jam if my mother would only let me work in her kitchen. She smiled as she remembered her ma fussing and saying that sugar was expensive and why didn't she ask first. Then one of her brothers saved the day. He came in the back door and saw the dishpan full of plums and said, "Great job, Sarah. Now we can have jam for our biscuits in the morning.

Yes, they did indeed have jam on their biscuits the next morning. As she walked back to the house she soon would be leaving she wondered what her children would be like. Would they be like her or her husband? She would even miss leaving her sister. She would have to put up with the boys' antics soon. She wished her well. 

"My those lilacs smell good. I believe I'll pick Ma a bouquet for the kitchen table. The white ones will be beautiful for my bouquet as well."