ONE YEAR LATER.............
Mr. and Mrs. Beasley had gone to town, leaving 5 year old Sammy with Lizzie and Damaris at home. Lizzie had gone out to fetch water from the well while Damaris was reading to Sammy. Sammy had learned that his Papa and Mama didn’t treat Lizzie and Damaris that well, so he was being a good boy now. Lizzie was just pulling the pail of water out of the well when she heard a huge, CRASH! She turned quickly intime to see the back porch go up in flames.
“What! NO!” Lizzie ran with the pail of water and splashed it on the flames. Nothing happened. She had to get inside and get Damaris to help her get everything possible out of the house. She ran inside, yelling to Damaris in fright. Sammy started to bawl, but he quieted and helped them throw items into canvas bags. They threw the bags out the front door and started knotting blankets into bags and loaded the blankets with things. They had 30 canvas bags filled and 18 blankets bags filled, along with 2 bags that contained the quilts and other blankets in 1 hour. They then rushed outside.
“Wait, where's Sammy?” Damaris cried.
“He didn’t come out! Oh, no!” Lizzie cried as part of the roof collapsed. They heard Sammy scream.
“I have to get him!” Damaris shouted, and she ran into the blazing house. A few minutes after she entered, the whole roof collapsed and the house fell to blazing embers.
“DAMARIS! DAMARIS! SAMMY! SAMMY! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Lizzie sobbed.
Lizzie sobbed for quite some time, then she stood and, tearfully, hurried to the barn. She carefully hitched Daisy and Annie, the plow horses, to the spare wagon and drove them to the house. She pulled the reins and tied them to the only remaining post and piled the canvas and blanket bags and placed the 4 bags that contained food supplies in the front with her. Then she lugged all of the pails out of the barn and filled them with water, covering them with scraps of canvas, and tieing the canvas so that no dirt could get in. Sadly, Lizzie decided that she would flee from the place, and try to find her siblings. Mr. and Mrs. Beasley wouldn’t even miss her, for sure. Lizzie suddenly broke down in tears. She would never see dear Damaris, or little Sammy, ever again. For, she wasn’t sure if Damaris had been a Christian, and she knew that the Beasley’s were not. She sobbed even harder at this. Finally, she stopped crying and urged the horses to a gallop down the drive. Once in town, she traded the horses for pack horses, and bought a straw hat and tucked her hair up into it. Next, she traded some of the items for some overalls and other clothes. Then she covered her face and arms with mud and continued on. She did this so that if Mr. and Mrs. Beasley saw her, they wouldn’t recognize her. Just as she drove the horses past the general store, Mr. and Mrs. Beasley walked out. Lizzie slumped in the wagon seat and acted old and tired. Mrs. Beasley noticed Lizzie.
“Benjamin, look at that poor old fella. We could use a boy on the ranch, don’t you think?” She was saying. Mr. Beasley grunted and Mrs. Beasley walked over. Lizzie tryed her best to look different.
“Hallo, young lad! Why don’t you come on home with Benji and I and get cleaned up, say. And do a few chores for us...you’ll be paid, laddie.” Mrs. Beasley was quite cunning.
“So-rry, M--a’am. Me’s Pap and Mam be’s waiting on me to bring home de supplies from town. I be going now.” Lizzie said deeply, using incorrect English.
“All right. But, You remember that our place is ALWAYS welcome for young lads like you. Now, what is your name?” Mrs. Beasley said.
“Uh--Ah.......Leonard Canary.” Lizzie made up a name.
“I see. You new to town?” With that, Lizzie clucked the horses to a gallop and rushed out of town, afraid that they would catch her. She looked back, and they were standing there, staring after her.
Lizzie galloped the horses until they were at least 4 miles away. Then she let them pick their own pace for the rest of the day.
While the horses trotted and cantered along the dirt road, Lizzie thought about where she was going to go.
“Wait! I have an idea!” She suddenly said. She would sell the things that she didn’t need, and then when she arrived in a town, she would do odds and ends, and earn enough money for a train ticket.
Then she would catch the first train heading to Uncle and Aunt’s place.
One day, she came to a town, and she started her plan. First she set up a stand on the outside of the town, and she sold, two lamps of the six that she had, the two chairs that she and Damaris had helped each other drag out of the house, all the breakables, and other things that she would not be needing on her trip.
By the end of the day, she had sold ten of the fifty bags that she and Damaris had rescued. She planned to send the money to the Beasley’s address, so that she wouldn’t be stealing their money and things. Then she used the money that she had earned in tips and bought some more food and milk.
Now she had ten bags of food, gallons of water and milk, ten bags of blankets, five of pillows, four of sheets,three of quilts, four canvas bags of clothing, and then four bags of odds and ends and things.
She loaded everything back into the wagon and she trotted the horses to the edge of town. In a grove of trees, Lizzie piled blankets and pillows and things and made a bed. Then she hung blankets from the trees around her and made a closed-in little room.
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