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Papa’s Disappearing Shovel

On a warm, sunny April morning, Lily and Joseph were playing in the sandbox in the yard. A loud roar startled them. They looked up to see a big white truck come bouncing into sight at the bottom of the long driveway. Behind it rolled another truck, lurching around the bend. Stacked on the back of the trucks were piles of lumber.

Lily watched as the trucks came to a shuddering stop in front of the house. Papa walked over to talk to the truck drivers. He pointed toward Jim’s pasture while he spoke with the men. Lily wished she could hear what Papa was saying! Something was going to happen and she couldn’t tell what.

After Papa finished talking to the truck drivers, they drove the trucks over to Jim’s pasture. One man climbed on the back of the truck and started handing lumber, one piece at a time, to the other man waiting below. The man on the ground carried the lumber over to Papa. He stacked the lumber in neat piles on the ground. After the men emptied the trucks, they said goodbye to Papa and drove back down the driveway. Lily was glad when the noisy trucks were gone. They had been so loud that she couldn’t hear the birds sing in the trees. She couldn’t hear Mama sing through the open windows as she moved about the house.

Lily dropped the little shovel that she had been using to dig a pond in the sandbox. She held Joseph’s hand and the two ran to Papa. He was whistling a happy little tune while straightening the piles of lumber. He smiled at them. “Well, children, what do you think? Does this look like a barn?”

Lily giggled. To her, it did not look like anything but boards.

Papa pushed his hat back and wiped sweat off of his brow with his shirtsleeve. “Looks like a lot of work before it will be a barn. We’ll have to see if we can organize a frolic.”

“What’s a frolic, Papa?” Joseph said.

Lily knew! She answered before Papa had a chance to explain. “It’s when everyone comes to help you work.”

Papa smiled at her. He understood. She was the big sister. She knew these things.

Later that day, Lily and Joseph were in the kitchen, watching Mama make molasses cookies. Through the window, Lily saw Papa hitch Jim to the little open buggy and tie him to the hitching post. He came into the kitchen. “I’m ready to go invite people to the frolic. Would Lily and Joseph like to come along?”

Lily and Joseph looked up at Mama. They knew Papa’s question was directed to her, not to them.

“They had their naps already,” Mama said, eyes smiling. “I think they might like to go.”

Lily ran to get her black heavy bonnet off the wall peg. She tried to stand still as Mama tied the strings in a neat little bow beneath her chin, but it was so hard and the bonnet was so big. She skipped happily beside Papa as they walked to the buggy. Papa lifted Joseph to the seat and then boosted Lily up. Joseph had to sit in the middle, between Papa and Lily, so he wouldn’t fall off while they were driving down the road. He was just a little boy. Barely four.

Lily loved riding in the open buggy. As Jim trotted down the road, she could see everything around her so much better than when she was in the top buggy. Big thistle plants grew in the ditches along the road. Goldfinches flew in funny little bouncing swoops from one thistle to the next, gathering seeds to eat.

Looking down, Lily could watch the wheels turn around and around. When Jim trotted, the spokes whirled into a blur, but when he slowed to walk up a hill, the spokes turned slowly. Papa whistled cheerfully as they drove along. Suddenly, Jim blew his nose in a loud snort. A wet spray blew back at Papa, Lily, and Joseph, splattering their face and arms. Papa’s whistle died on his lips as he wiped off his face. Lily knew Jim didn’t do it on purpose. Secretly, she thought it would be fun to be a horse and be able to blow her nose like that, whenever she wanted to.

As they reached the first Amish neighbor, Papa pulled the buggy up to the hitching post. He tied Jim’s rope to the post and told Lily and Joseph to stay in the buggy. He was going to find someone to invite to the barn-building frolic.

As Papa disappeared, Lily gathered up the reins and pretended to drive the buggy. “Giddyup! Whoa!” she told Jim. Joseph wanted to drive too, so she handed him a rein. “Giddy-up!” they shouted to Jim.

The gentle horse turned his head and looked back at them but didn’t budge. Jim knew that Papa wasn’t there. He was too well trained to try to leave without Papa.

When Papa returned, he took the reins back from Lily and Joseph. He told them never to play with a horse’s reins. “Even a nice horse like Jim might not like it.”

All afternoon, Papa drove the buggy from one neighbor to another, until everyone in their entire church was invited to come to the frolic on Saturday.

Lily and Joseph sat on top of a little mound of dirt and watched as Papa and Mama pounded little wooden stakes into the ground. Papa wanted to square off the foundation of the barn before the frolic, so that it would be built straight and solid. Baby Dannie kicked his feet and cooed as he lay on his back in the baby carriage beside Lily. He tried to swat at strings of colorful beads that Mama pinned to the roof of the carriage for him.

Lily liked sitting on the little mound. It was several inches higher than the rest of the yard. There was another mound just like it closer to the house. Papa thought those mounds were a nuisance and an eyesore. Soon, he would try to level them. “Whoever did the landscaping around here must have been in a hurry,” Papa said. “He sure didn’t care what he was doing.”

Papa pounded the last stake into the ground. After double-checking that the barn foundation was properly measured off, he picked up his shovel and walked to the house. Lily and Joseph ran ahead of him. As he stepped on the little mound where Lily and Joseph had been playing, his leg suddenly disappeared! Mama screamed and reached for Papa’s hands. He managed to pull his leg out of the mound, but his shovel fell into the hole. Ker-splash! Lily could hear the shovel hit water far below.

Mama began to cry. Papa held her close to him and patted her shoulder. “It’s all right, Rachel,” he said soothingly. “No one was hurt.”

Mama’s face was white. “Oh, Daniel!” she whispered. “The children had just been sitting there! Think how often they’ve played on top of those mounds! How could we not have realized it was an old well? It was an accident just waiting to happen!”

“I must say it gave me quite a stir,” Papa said in a soothing voice. “A man gets kind of used to having the ground stay solid under his feet.” His face brightened. “But this solves the problem of how we will get water to the barn. I’ll get this old well fixed up nice.” He looked around at the mound. “Until then, I’d better do something to keep anyone else from falling through.”

Papa removed the rest of the dirt and rotten boards. Hands on his hips, he stood gazing at the big, gaping hole in the yard. “I’m guessing there’s an old well under that other mound too.” He went into the basement to get another shovel. He started digging at the other mound. Once again, he found rotten boards covering an old well. This well, though, was bone dry. Not a drop of water was in it.

Lily and Joseph watched as Papa built covers for the wells and placed them over the holes. “That will have to do until I have more time.” He tested each cover to make sure it didn’t move and it could hold his weight.

Lily shuddered at how easily she and Joseph and baby Dannie could have fallen into the deep, dark, scary well. They might have disappeared and never been seen or heard from again. How sad! It was a dreadful thought.

A few days later, Lily and Joseph sat on the back of the bouncing spring wagon as Papa drove Jim across the field. The grass came up all the way to Jim’s belly. If Lily held her hands over the side of the spring wagon, she could brush the tops of the grass with her fingers. Papa was taking them to the edge of the woods for a big pile of rocks and stones. He wanted to fill the spring wagon with the rocks. He would use the rocks to fill up the dry well. If it was filled to the top with rocks, no little boy or girl could fall into it and disappear.

When they reached the rock pile, Papa hopped off the spring wagon and lifted Lily and Joseph down. He didn’t have to tie Jim when he was working; he was such a good horse that he stood quietly wherever Papa left him. Besides, out in the field, if Jim wanted to take a few steps, it wouldn’t matter.

Papa started throwing rocks on the back of the spring wagon. Lily and Joseph picked up smaller stones and tossed them into the wagon. Lily’s hands felt dirty and grimy after the first couple handfuls, but she enjoyed being a help to Papa.

Papa whistled as he worked, and before long the spring wagon was filled with rocks. As they drove to the yard, Lily sat on the front seat with Papa while he held Joseph on his lap. Papa stopped Jim beside the dry well and removed the cover. He climbed into the back of the spring wagon and started pitching the rocks into the hollow well.

It took many trips to the rock pile before the dry well was filled to the top. Once it was full, Papa unhitched Jim and let him rest in the pasture. Then Papa filled a wheelbarrow with dirt and dumped the dirt on top of the rocks in the well. When he was satisfied that the well was filled and solid, he scattered some grass seeds on top. Soon grass would grow and no one would ever know that there had once been a well on that spot.

And no little girl would have to worry about falling into it.