Free Donners Bend by Alexa V James

to.”
                 
    The two girls ran off again to the painting easel Ellie had helped them set up beneath the shade of a giant oak tree .  Shades of color sat in little jars splattered with old, dried paint .  Half were open, half were not .  Gracie wore a cute white smock over her pink cotton dress and little dots of paint had already fallen onto it . 
     
    It was a beautiful day .  Puffy white clouds filled the clear blue sky and a gentle breeze blew over the fields of green grass .  A few days had passed since Jamie first arrived .  Ellie and Emily sat knitting new socks, scarves, and mittens for the children, for winter was only a few months away .  On the back deck of the Rhodes house they sat, sipping ice-cold lemonade and watching over the children .  Gracie and Katie, as it has already been mentioned, were painting as well as having a tea party with their dolls beneath a tree .  Leah, Jeremy, Demi, and Wesley were playing a game of sardines, a variation of hide-and-seek, in the orchard.
     
    “How have things been going with you and Matthew?” Ellie asked Emily as she pulled a new color of yarn out of her bag.
     
    “Wonderful,” Emily said in a dreamlike state, “He’s been writing me letters lately, you know .  He sticks them beneath the flower pot on the Thompson ’s front porch each night and I find them when I arrive for work each morning .  I can only hope that no one else ever finds out .  I don’t think Mr. and Mrs. Thompson would like to know that I’ve been seeing the neighbor’s stable boy , but , oh Ellie , Matthew’s such a wonderful writer and he’s just so sweet and earnest in his actions.”
     
    Ellie smiled; she loved hearing about her friend’s blissful love life, and could only hope one day she would find someone as perfectly matched to her as Matthew was to Emily.
     
    “He says he loves me, Ellie .  He says he’s never felt this way about anyone else before and I … I ,” she stammered, “I feel the same way .  Do you think I’m foolish to believe him ?  Surely he wouldn’t joke about such things.”
     
    “Of course you’re not foolish,” Ellie assured her, “Matthew wouldn’t lie to you.”
     
    Emily smiled slightly, looked around cautiously, and lowered her voice; “He told me yesterday that he wants to marry me .  He says he knows he’ll never love another girl the way he loves me.”
     
    “That’s wonderful, Emily .  What did you answer?”
     
    “I told him I felt the same way.”
     
    Ellie reached over and gave her friend a hug, “I can’t believe it !  You’re going to get married, Emily!”
     
    Emily beamed, “I’m going to get married .  It most likely won’t be soon though, but what does that matter ?  All that I care about is that someday,” she closed her eyes, imagining the day; “someday Matthew and I will be wed.”
     
    Both girls giggled and returned to their work with dreams of weddings, white dresses, and handsome men sweeping them off their feet occupying their thoughts . 
     
    “But hey, I’m not the only one lucky enough to have a wonderful man doting after me,” said Emily, gazing up at her friend with a quick smile.
     
    “What are you talking about ?  I don’t have a beau,” a confused Ellie returned, not looking up from her work.
     
    Emily laughed, “Well, if he’s not your beau you’ve sure snagged his attentions well for just being friends.”
     
    “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
     
    “ Jon Smithton , of course .  Why just about any time I see you outside of work he’s at your side .  You two are always playing around with each other, and laughing, and talking ...   Everyone in town sees it.”
     
    “We’re only friends, ‘tis all.”
     
    “Friends now can lead to romance later ... ”
     
    Ellie giggled, “I’ll let you go on with this notion, but I can assure you it’s certainly not true .  Johnny ’s just a friend .  He’s like a brother to