Once there was a little girl named Jill who lived in the great big city of New York. Jill loved her home, an apartment overlooking the river, with its high-up views of skyscraper buildings and park treetops. She loved its elevator and Jack, the door man downstairs who always held the door open for Jill and her mother.
Jill had the loveliest clothes you could imagine: furry coats, shiny shoes and beautiful dresses that rustled when she walked. Jill's hair was done twice a week at the beauty salon, where she and her mother went to get shampoos, haircuts, pedicures and manicures—a nice lady always took care of their fingernails and hands. Jill played in the park sometimes, but she almost never got dirty.
Every morning, Jill dressed carefully, had a healthy breakfast of yogurt, muesli cereal and fruit. She and her mother would go to the elevator, push the "down" button, and go to the lobby of their building. Jack the door man would then hail them a taxi, which would take them to Jill's school.
Every afternoon, Jill would meet her mother in a taxi after school, when they would go shopping for food, clothes, hats or shoes.
On Sundays they would take a cab to church, then go to brunch with Dad, and maybe take in a movie in the afternoon. How Jill loved New York. Something exciting was always happening there.
But one morning, Jill woke up and her dad had a serious look on his face.
"Dear," he said to Jill, "I'm sorry, but Mommy is sick, and Dad must take care of her. She has to go to the hospital for a long time, but after that, the doctors say she will definitely get better."
Mommy appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, and she looked at Jill and smiled. "I will be fine, Sweetie, you'll see. There's nothing to worry about." She smiled at Jill until Jill could not help but smile too.
"You're going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson on the farm for a while," said Dad. "Then we'll come to get you, and bring you home. School is nearly out for the summer, so you'll start back in the fall."
"Are you sure Mommy is going to be fine?" she asked her parents. "Yes, we're sure." They both looked at her, then they gave her big hugs.
Soon Jill was in a limousine, a long black car which drove her far away from the city. They drove across bridges, into fields of corn and over beautiful mountains, until they came to a big sign pointing left, saying "The Johnson Family Farm."
Jill looked at the lovely farm, which she had seen many times before, in a new way. This was now to be her new home for a while, and she felt very strange indeed, as if butterflies filled her stomach with their beating wings.
Grandma and Grandpa Johnson were waiting for her on their big porch, waving their hands. Grandma had a handkerchief so she could make bigger waves, to be sure Jill could see her from the big long limousine.
"Jill! You're here! Oh I'm so excited," exclaimed Grandma. She helped Jill to get out of the car with her lovely suitcases and her big stuffed teddy bear named Harringsley, her cases of beautiful shoes and her shopping bags of books and games.
"Come on up here, Lassie," said Grandpa with a twinkle in his eye, "and give us a kiss!"
"Hello, everyone!" said Jill. "I'm so glad to be here!"
"You're a sight for sore eyes, too." Grandpa swung her around in circles and they both tumbled down.
Inside they unpacked her suitcases and Grandma said, "Oh my word, we'll have to take you shopping, Little Bit, won't we?" She made little crisp noises with her teeth, as if to say that Jill's clothes wouldn't do at all.
"We'll get 'er fixed up soon enough," said Grandpa. "Let's get some supper into the child first, then we'll have a game or two and get on into bed. Gotta get up with the chickens!"
"With the—what?" Jill was not at all sure what Grandpa was talking about.
"He means we're getting up early, Dearie Pie…we've got to milk the cows and feed the animals. You'll learn soon enough." Grandma was laughing now.
The next morning, Jill woke up very early, earlier than she had ever waken before…she thought it was a bit strange to wake up when it was still nearly dark, but she smelled something delicious cooking, and she hurried downstairs after putting on her dressing gown.
"Look here, Dearie Pie," said Grandma. "I found some of your mother's old clothes. These'll have to do 'til we can get into town later on." Grandma held the clothes, very funny looking old jeans and an old checkered shirt, over the big black stove in the corner.
"OK, I guess," said Jill, looking doubtfully at the old clothes. She was wearing her house slippers, but the old clothes fit her very well, and they were soft as peach fuzz.
"Fit into y'er ma's dungarees?" asked Grandpa with a smile.
"Dunga-what?" asked Jill.
"Old-timey word for blue jeans, Dearie Pie," said Grandma, piling a stack of pancakes with bacon onto Jill's plate. Jill loved pancakes, although she'd never eaten so many of them at once. She dug into them, very hungry after getting up so early and sleeping in the big feather-soft bed.
After breakfast she helped Grandma clear the dishes from the table, as she did at home, and began to dry the dishes as Grandma washed and rinsed them in the huge old sink.
"Come along, Little Bit," called Grandpa from the porch. "Come help me milk old Bessie." Jill followed Grandpa into the large, red barn, where a huge brown cow was standing, staring at them as they walked in.
"Grab on and pull," Grandpa said, offering her one of Bessie's pink teats. Jill didn't quite know what to do, but she grabbed on and pulled, and heard a big loud groan from Bessie, who looked at her sharply.
"I don't think Bessie likes me very much," said Jill.
"Sit here on this milk pail, and get up real close," said Grandpa. This is how we get our daily milk supply around here…if we don't milk Bessie, she'll really be cross with us later on."
So Jill grabbed onto the pink teat, which is where the milk comes out, trying to pull gently like Grandpa did, and soon she had filled the pail with warm, white milk. It smelled faintly of caramel candy, she thought.
After milking Bessie, Jill met Frankie the horse, Milly the mule, many pigs and chickens. She learned how to scatter seed corn into the pen where the chickens were running around clucking to one another, thinking to herself they looked like people in Central Park. She poured out "slop," for the pigs, and she loved the way they said "oink," as if they were saying "thank you."
Suddenly, Grandpa came around the corner to see how she was doing with the pigs, and Jill ran to meet him, and they BOTH fell down in the pig pen. For the first time in her whole life, Jill was covered with MUD! She couldn't believe her eyes. Mud was on her slippers, it spattered across her jeans, and a hugs splat of it was on her shirt!
"We'll make a farmer out of you yet!" Grandpa laughed. Jill laughed too, and it seemed the pigs and chickens were laughing along with them.
Later Grandma took her to the farmer's store to buy her some new riding boots, tennis shoes, jeans, t-shirts and farmer's jackets, so that she could get as dirty as she needed to get, while helping Grandpa with the animals every day.
Every day she learned something new. "Come on down to the stables," cried Grandpa, after Jill had changed into her new riding clothes. "I'll show you how to ride old Frankie Boy."
Grandpa helped Jill to climb up onto the saddle. He led her by taking hold of the two leather reins, on Frankie's head, to lead her around the paddock—a little area of grass where the horse liked to walk and run. Soon Jill was riding Frankie all by herself.
After learning how to ride Frankie the horse, she began taking care of him. Grandpa showed her how to do everything Frankie needed. Soon she gave him a bath, scrubbed him down with a soapy brush rinsed him with a long hose of water, and then dried him with large blankets. Then she brushed Frankie's pretty brown coat until it shined. Every day, she took care of Frankie until he became like her best and closest friend.
When Frankie was all clean, dry and shiny, Jill gave him his treat, a big red apple from Grandpa's orchard of fruit trees, or a long orange carrot from Grandma's garden. Frankie made a giggling noise to say "thank-you," every time he got his treat.
Soon Jill was picking apples, blackberries and raspberries and taking them in baskets into the house, where she learned how to bake pies with Grandma.
Jill and Grandma mixed butter into the flour, added fresh cream from Bessie, and rolled the dough out with a rolling pin, onto Grandma's white cold marble slab. They put the pie dough into metal pans, filled them with fruit, butter and sugar, and baked them in the big old stove in the corner, until the kitchen was filled with pies.
"Whew! We have too many pies in this kitchen, Jill. What should we do about that?" asked Grandma, sitting down to sip some iced tea, and wiping her red forehead with her apron.
"Let's have a pie party! We can ask some of the people from town to come eat them with us," said Jill.
"Wonderful idea, Jill, let's get the telephone book out." Grandma looked very proud of Jill as she told her friends about the pie party. People came from everywhere in town, and they passed the pies around the picnic tables under the large, spreading Chestnut tree in Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's yard.
One day, the phone rang, and it was Daddy. "Good news, Jill. Mommy is home from the hospital a few weeks early and in two days, it's time for you to come home."
"Oh, that's wonderful, Daddy, please tell Mommy I'm happy for her," said Jill. But as she hung up the phone, she also felt something else. Over the summer weeks, The Johnson Family Farm had become her new home.
Jill loved the way Grandma's chubby tummy seemed to hug her as she sat in Grandma's lap for story time, reading from a very old book of fairy tales. She loved the way Grandma took time to show her how to cook the old fashioned way, and she'd made chicken pot pies, angel food cakes, country-fried steaks and lovely oven-browned potatoes, as well as learning how to make the best pies she'd ever had.
Jill also loved the way Grandpa laughed when something funny happened, like the time they both fell down in the pig pen and got all dirty. She loved the way he had taught her to milk old Bessie, to ride and to take special care of Frankie the horse, and to feed the pigs and the chickens. He had shown her how to go fishing, how to pick the best and ripest apples from the orchard, and to do so many other things she couldn't remember them all.
Jill felt sad to be leaving the farm. But then something beautiful happened!
"Hey, Little Bit, when are you coming back to see us?" asked Grandpa with a big grin on his face.
"Yes, Dearie Pie, when will you be back?" Grandma asked as she packed some pies into a big basket for Jill to take back to the city for Mommy and Dad.
"When CAN I come back," asked Jill with a worried look.
"Well, now, let's see: you have your weekends free all year long, you have some time off for Christmas when you and your mommy and daddy usually come for a while then, and you have all summer long, every single year. You can pretty much come whenever you like," said Grandma.
"Sure you can, Little Bit, whenever you want. I'd love to have you come help with Frankie on Saturdays and Sundays." Grandpa was putting away his coat on the coat rack, and helping to pack Jill's city clothes back into her suitcases. They had not been used except for Sunday church , all summer long! Jill almost did not want to put her city clothes back on to get into the limousine, so she decided to surprise her mom and dad.
Getting out of the car in the city, Mommy and Daddy were there to meet her at the front door, which Jack the doorman opened for her, saying "Welcome back home, Miss Jill, did you have a lovely summer?"
Jill took off her rain coat to show her Mommy and Daddy her big surprise: a red-and-white checkered shirt, old dungaree jeans and her new riding boots.
"Mommy, do you recognize these clothes?" Jill asked with a sly grin.
"Why, those are my little-girl clothes!" Mommy exclaimed, laughing.
"They're mine now! I am going to need them when I go back to the farm!" Jill said proudly.
"Go back? You mean you had a good time?" asked Dad jokingly.
"Yes. I learned how to do a lot of things. I brought you some pies Grandma and I made, from the fruit Grandpa taught me how to pick from the trees and vines! I learned how to take care of Frankie and to ride him, how to milk Old Bessie and to feed the pigs and chickens, too! One day, Grandpa and I even fell down in the MUD!" Jill said this with the most pride of all.
"In the MUD? You?" Both her parents asked her this at once. "We don't believe THAT for a second!" Everyone was now laughing….they sounded a bit like the chickens in the pen.
"I have jobs to do on weekends and holidays from now on. I love the farmer's life," said Jill, as they pushed the "up" button in the elevator.
When they got to their apartment, Jill made sure all her things were in order, putting away her country clothes and her city clothes. She called Grandma and Grandma Johnson on the phone.
"…and we're having the blueberry pie for dinner tonight, Grandma," said Jill. "Saturday when I come, can we bake your special chocolate cake?"
"Yes we surely can," said Grandma. "I wouldn't miss it for the world."
Jill went to bed that night and said her prayers with Mommy and Daddy. They were thankful for Jill's safe return home, for Mommy's getting all better, and for something very new to all of them. For Jill's new farmer's life.
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Still, you are making me feel bad about the fact I didn't had the luck to be raised at a farm. My opinion - a farmer's life , a healthy life.
ReplyDeleteprozac and clubfoot