A Dream to Follow by Lauraine Snelling Read Free Book Online Page B

table where the light was better. The paper he’d been assigned—to compare the teachings of the apostle Paul and the teachings of Aristotle—was taking longer than he’d planned. Reading the writings of each in Greek slowed him down some, but writing his paper in English slowed him even more. He flipped both books open to the pages he was reading and started in again.
    The forms for St. Olaf stayed out of sight in the back of the leather case his father had made him for Christmas.
    With four students graduating from Blessing School, the first class ever, Pastor Solberg had asked all of the graduates to write a commencement speech as well as a paper on what they felt the school had done for them. He then called a meeting one afternoon after the bell rang.
    “So then, how are your themes coming?” He looked at each one of them directly.
    “I’m finished.” Anji held up her pages.
    Thorliff sighed and gave her a rolled-eye look. Anji always had things finished ahead of time. “I’m about halfway done,” he said. “The longer the daylight, the less time I have.”
    “I understand that.” Solberg looked to Manda.
    She shrugged and shook her head. “I hate writing stuff like this.” She gave her scribbled pages a shove, then scrambled to keep them from fluttering to the floor.
    “I know.” He nodded to Jacob, the eldest son of a family new to the area. “How about you?”
    “I wrote it all right in Norwegian, but uff da, saying it in English . . .” The slender boy who walked with a limp shrugged. “I am working on it.”
    “Good. Now I’d like to talk about the graduation exercises. Of course, your final exams come first, but the actual graduation ceremony will be held in the church. Hjelmer has gone to the trouble of having a photographer come, so we will have pictures of you for both the church and your families. He looked to the two boys. “If you could borrow a suit or if you have one, that would look very nice.”
    Thorliff had an idea his grandmother and his mother and Aunt Kaaren were sewing him a suit on their Singer sewing machines. Mor had measured his arms and chest and down his legs. When he’d asked what it was all for, she’d tapped his arm and said, “None of your business, young man.” He shared a grin with Anji.
    “If there is any way I can help you, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
    “You could write this paper for me,” Manda muttered loud enough for only Thorliff to hear. He knew she’d rather be out training horses than staying in school, but Pastor had insisted she finish. Thorliff kept a chuckle from going further than his mind. Here he wanted nothing more than to go to school, and she’d rather farm.
    The discussion continued with Pastor Solberg outlining how graduation would go, what papers he expected before exams, and how he would run the final exams. “I just want to make sure we’ve met all the state requirements.” He glanced at each of them again. “Are there any questions?”
    “If there is nothing else, sir, I need to get home,” Thorliff said.
    “You want a ride?”
    “No. I can run it faster than the team. Thank you, anyway.” Thorliff rose. “See you tomorrow.” Once out the door, he hit the ground running. He burst through the kitchen door and, seeing no one around, leaped up the stairs to his bedroom to change clothes. Back downstairs he cut off a chunk of cheese, sliced a hunk of bread, and chewing them both, headed for the barn. Andrew already had the team harnessed. As they lifted the yokes over the necks of the oxen, one of the beasts shifted and stepped on Thorliff ’s foot.
    “Ouch.” He gave the animal a shove. “Get off.”
    “I think he does that on purpose.” Andrew tried to keep from laughing. “General would rather stay in the pasture.”
    “Dumb beast.” Thorliff bent down to push the bow up through the holes in the yoke. His hat fell off when the same critter nosed it. “Now see what you did?” He pushed the pegs through