Psalm 127:3-5.
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.
Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
Sarah was at a loss. Whatever was she to do? Sure, her vadder had gone for the moment, but he was likely to come back at any time. She could not go home with him; she just couldn’t. Yet would he make a scene when she refused to go? Sarah did not like unpleasantness. She paced up and down until a frustrated Mrs. Miller told her to keep herself busy by preparing food.
It was only three hours before Samuel Beachy returned to the Miller haus, but even so, Sarah had already made a pile of Faasnachtkuche, potato-based donuts, as well as several whoopie pies and an apple cake. She had just taken a baking dish of John Cope’s Corn, nicely browned, from the oven. The backs of two kitchen chairs were covered with rolled dough hanging in strips to dry before cutting for a large pot pie.
Sarah wrung her hands anxiously when Mrs. Miller let Sarah’s vadder, Samuel Beachy, into the haus and showed him to the living room and insisted he sit down. “I’ll fetch Abraham,” Mrs. Miller said.
Samuel Beachy held up his hand. “Nee, that won’t be necessary. Sarah, I’ve just come to say that, after a long talk with Benjamin, I’ve decided that I will not insist that you come home.”
Sarah could scarcely believe her ears. What did Benjamin have to do with it? Whatever did he say to convince her vadder to let her stay?
“But I hope you’ll come visit me often,” her vadder continued, and then turned to Mrs. Miller. “And if I may, Rachel, I’d like to stay at the Flickingers’ B&B for a week and visit with Sarah while I’m here.”
Mrs. Miller was clearly delighted. “That would be wunderbaar, Samuel. Denki for this. Yes, you are wilkum to visit us, not just this week, but Abraham and I would like you to visit us often in the future. Also, please visit with us for dinner tonight.”
“Denki.” Samuel smiled.
Sarah had rarely seen her vadder smile, and she realized only now that he must have been carrying a burden for many years, the burden of keeping, at his fraa’s instance, the secret of Sarah’s true vadder. She realized at that moment that it is not wise to judge people’s actions without a full understanding of their circumstances.
Samuel stood up from the chair where he had been so briefly sitting. “Sarah, can we go for a walk so we can talk?”
Sarah looked nervously at Mrs. Miller, who smiled encouragingly. “Sure, Datt,” she said.
The two walked outside the Miller haus. Samuel stopped at the gate. “Sarah, you’re at the age where you will be getting married soon, so I want to reconnect with you and repair our relationship.”
Sarah had no idea what to say, so simply said, “Jah, Datt, that would be gut.”
They walked down the lane, at first in silence, but then Samuel spoke. “Sarah, I’m sorry I deceived you all these years.”
Sarah hurried to reassure him. “I know you had no choice; it was Mamm’s wishes.”
Samuel nodded, and after they had wandered down the winding lane for a while, he indicated they should sit on a fallen tree branch, which was nestled amongst a tangle of rhododendron and laurel thickets. It was a Box Elder maple, and the fallen branch, which had obviously fallen some time ago, was still sprouting leaves and green branches. Sarah sat on the smooth bark and looked at the young branches. It was then that she had a thought. She was like a young, green shoot, and her daed was the branch, strong and stout. He may not have been her biological vadder, but he was her vadder just the same, equally so.
“Sarah,” her father began, in a faltering voice, “I had two reasons for not telling you the truth after your mudder died.”
Sarah turned to look at him expectantly.
“The first reason was that I was afraid of your reaction when you found out that I’d been deceiving you all these years, and the second reason was that I was afraid you wouldn’t love me any more when you found out that I was not your real vadder.”
“You are my real vadder,” Sarah said quietly.
“Denki.” Samuel looked at Sarah and smiled.
Sarah smiled too. She wanted to hug him, but her parents had never been demonstrative with their feelings.
“Do you hear that?”
Sarah put her head to one side. “It sounds like someone playing a flute. What is it?”
“It’s the male wood thrush,” Samuel said. “He makes the most beautiful sound of all birds.”
Sarah had to agree. “It is such a melodic sound. But Datt, I didn’t know that you knew anything about birds?”
Samuel chuckled, and a rare grin spread across his face. “Birding was my hobby as a child and a young man, but your mudder said it was a waste of time. Oh, I don’t mean to criticize your mudder.”
“Oh no, I understand.” Sarah watched as a pretty, cinnamon brown bird with brown spotting against a cream background on its chest flew into the tree above her with a large worm dangling from its mouth.
“That must be the mother wood thrush,” Samuel explained. “The females do not sing.”
Sarah thought how parents care for the kinner; even the parent birds looked after their young. She thought of the Scripture from the Gospel of Matthew that the ministers often read: Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
Sarah truly understood that Scripture for the first time.
A small stream meandered beside the road, and obedient ducklings were following their mother along the bank. Sarah looked out over the gently rolling hills, over the lush, green fields with contented cows grazing on them, to the white-painted, red-roofed barns in the distance.
Sitting there with her daed, was a treasure. Being with familye was one of the simple pleasures of life, and one of the most important.