Free Believing the Dream by Lauraine Snelling Page A

at their feet and pulled it up over his sister’s legs. “Good, I haven’t had any since last winter.” He unwrapped the reins and pulled slightly to back the horse so they could turn and head for home. He’d have to go see Anji on the morrow. If his mor was beating rommegrot, they needed to be there when the butter came.
    “The men should be done with chores by the time we get home. They started early.” She touched his arm. “You haven’t forgotten how to milk cows, have you?”
    He clucked the horse to a trot. “Astrid, I’ve only been gone for three months, not a lifetime.”
    “Seems like one.” Her sigh caught his heart. “Nothing’s been the same with you gone.” She scooted closer to him. “Andrew shoved Toby Valders headfirst into a snowbank the last day of school. Toby was some mad, but he had it coming. Pastor Solberg had told Andrew if he hit Toby again, he didn’t know what he was going to do with him, but Andrew didn’t hit him.”
    “Does Mor know about this?” Thorliff jerked his thoughts back from Anji and looked at his little sister, who was no longer very little.
    Astrid shook her head. “You won’t tell, will you?”
    “No. I’d like to have dumped Toby on his head any number of times.”
    “I think Toby doesn’t like being short when so many of the boys are getting tall.”
    This girl sure has a good head on her shoulders. “Where did you come up with an idea like that?”
    She shrugged. “Just thinking, that’s all. Oh, and one day he told Andrew, ‘You think you can do anything just ‘cause you’re so big.’ ”
    “Astrid Bjorklund, you don’t miss a thing, do you?”
    She rubbed her red nose with her mittened hand. “That’s good, isn’t it?”
    “Ja, that’s good.” The jingling of the harness bells rang out across the prairie. Errant snowflakes bit their faces as they sped over the drifts on a direct line toward home, the fences buried in frozen white.
    “Sure must have been cold here already.”
    “Ja. Pa says this looks to be one of the coldest winters since we came here. Our house and Tante Kaaren’s are much warmer than most.”
    “That sawdust in the walls really helps, doesn’t it?”
    “Here comes Paws.” The dog yipped as he bounded across the snow.
    Thorliff stopped the horse with a whoa . “Hey, Paws, come on boy.” The yipping dog tried to leap up into the sleigh but had to scrabble with his back feet to finally make it. He scrambled onto Thorliff’s lap, his tongue busy in spite of the whimpers coming from his throat.
    “I think you missed him.”
    “Ja. I haven’t had a dog greeting like this since . . .” He left off his thought and thumped the dog on the ribs, at the same time rubbing ears and head. “Good dog, Paws, good dog.” He’s getting old; his face is almost white, and he almost fell. He wrapped the dog in a one-armed hug.
    “He missed you too.”
    “Aw, he greets everybody like this.”
    Her snort more than expressed her opinion.
    With Paws back on the ground and trotting beside the sleigh, his doggy grin expressing pure joy, they drove on up into the yard.
    “I’ll take care of the horse.” Astrid reached for the reins. “You don’t want to go getting your good clothes dirty.”
    “No.” Thorliff turned to look his little sister in the face. “I will change and come to help.”
    She shrugged. “Don’t want to leave him out in the cold and wind too long.”
    Thorliff couldn’t believe his ears. Who did she think he was, or better yet, who did she think she was? “Hey, Astrid, this is me, Thorliff, your big brother. I was taking care of the horses before you were born.” He patted her on the shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”
    “I just want your visit to be nice.”
    “Mange takk. It will be, and taking care of the horse will feel real good.” He grabbed his valise and, climbing from the sleigh, took the three stairs as one. The door opened before he could touch the knob, and he nearly dove through