A winter story, part thirteen

by: Olivia Dale

The screeching of sled runners sliced through the quietness of the King family barnyard. Janet tugged mightily on the reins and pulled the horse to a jarring halt. She picked up a woolen checkered blanket, which she had found in the back of the sleigh, and wrapped it around a shivering Great Aunt Eliza. "Alec! Hetty!" she cried, "Come here quick! I've found Eliza!"
Just then, Clive Pettibone showed up, who had made his way from town to check on the lambs,
"What's all the commotion? Is something wrong?" he asked, but then he quickly realized that there was something serious going on. He rushed over to the sleigh and over to Eliza's side.
"Oh Clive, thank goodness you're here. She's fallen through the ice and she keeps on mumbling things and I can't understand a word, it's so unclear...I don't know if she's in shock..." Janet sobbed and sniffed with fright.
Clive didn't hesitate a moment. "Alec! Hetty! Come here!" he called in a loud, booming voice as he scooped the feeble woman into his arms. Alec, followed by Felicity, toddler Daniel, and Hetty, came running towards them.
Alec helped lift Aunt Eliza and together he and Clive carefully carried her into the house. Everybody followed, Felicity closing the farmhouse door behind them, and prayed with all her heart that Aunt Eliza wouldn't die in the midst of them.

                                                                      ~*~

In the meantime, Felix and Sara arrived in the barnyard, clumsily carrying a wooden board with light bulbs screwed onto it, all attached with wire strings mingled onto a bicycle and a big, black box.
"Ouch." Sara groaned as a loose string whipped into her face, "Felix, don't go so fast, I can't keep up." she exclaimed.
Felix sighed but kept his steady pace. "We've got to save the lambs, Sara. We're almost there. Just two more steps."  He told her as they made their way into the lambing pen. Carefully, Sara placed the board with light bulbs onto the soft straw as Felix set up the bicycle and the box. Together they fumbled around with the strings.
Felix picked up the charred black string from the latter finger burning incident, and twisted it onto the black box. Phew, no invisible hand chucked him across the floor this time, he mused.
Well, the contraption looked ready to roll.
Fingers crossed, Sara hopped onto the bicycle and started to peddle. She heard a little buzz and saw a faint glow glimmer from all of the light bulbs.
Felix stared in awe. "Peddle faster." he instructed.
So she did, and the faint glow gleamed beautifully bright, and oh! the warmth that came from it! Immediately all of the lambs wobbled towards the light, bleating happily.
Sara and Felix laughed with delight.
"C'mon Sara! We've got to tell the rest of them!" Felix shouted with glee. Sara stopped peddling and slid off of the bike, then she and Felix ran back into the cold, with happy news to share with the family. Yet little did they know about their Great Aunt Eliza...

The Avonlea Chronicle                  ~June  1910

____________________________________

DALE CANNERY BURNT TO THE GROUND

By: Miss Muriel Stacey

It was lightning that struck into the Dale Cannery last night, June 19th, at around ten pm. There is nothing left of the lobster cannery, all except for the sooty remains of the buildings’ frame. There was an heroic attempt to save the cannery, but with the northwesterly winds blowing fiercely, it became a wasted effort, and when the roof came crashing down, the Dale cannery turned into a great, big bonfire, never to be there again. The Dales are hoping  to rebuild again, if the bank allows. Until then, there will be no more canned lobster for the markets, such as the Avonlea General Store, Carmody Hill Merchandise, and Darrie’s Eatery.    

a winter story, part twelve

by: Olivia Dale

Alec sighed.
The lambs were bleating pitifully, yet there was nothing he could do to keep his flock warm.
There was one thing, though, he came up with. "Sara, Felix," he turned to the children, "I want you to fetch the vet, Aurthor Pettibone, he'll probably have something in mind for the sheep."
The children obeyed and sprinted towards the village. Sara knocked on the door, impatiently.
"Please, please, please be home..." she muttered silently to herself. Felix payed no heed to how rude he might seem, their lambs were at stake! so he banged on the door with his two fists. ""Aurthor Pettibone? Are you home?" he asked, loudly, while cracking the door open to yell it out once again.
Sara shrugged. "You can cut it out now, Felix, he's not home." she sighed, "Let's go around town to see if we can find him,"
Felix closed the door.
Then all of a sudden, an upstairs window in the Pettibone house cracked open. Mr Pettibone, their school teacher, popped his head out.
"You children need something?" he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as the children just awoke him from his nap.
"Yes," Sara replied, sweet relief filling her soul, "we have an emergency at the King barn. Where's Aurthor?"
"He's away in Halifax for the week." Clive Pettibone snapped to attention, a former soldier he was, and a good horse expert he was too. He knew just what to do for farmers, he thought.
"But I think I can help you. Just give me a moment to put on my winter belongings." he said, shutting the window with a loud smack.
Felix turned to his cousin. "Sara, Mr. Pettibone doesn't know a thing about sheep!"
"I know, Felix, but he's the only help we've got. And Pat Frewen isn't any help either because he only raises pigs. I wish Aurthor was home!" She told him.
Felix eyes were large circles, as an idea just came to mind and then sprinted down the road, leaving Sara behind.
"C'mon, Sara!" He hollered over his shoulder. Sara ran to catch up with him, but Mr. Pettibone stopped them dead in their tracks.
"I thought you needed some help at the barn?" he asked them.
"We do." Felix answered, "But Sara and I have some things we need to do. You go on ahead to our barn, Mr. Pettibone, we'll be there later." he finished taking Sara's arm and leading, or rather almost dragging, her down the road.
"See you later, Mr. Pettibone." Sara replied and trudged after Felix.
"Where are we going, Felix?" she wanted to know, after she was out of their school master's hearing.
"I'll show you." was all Felix said as they both made their way to the Dale house and into Jasper's workshop, heading straight towards the bicycle hooked up on light bulbs.
"We need to get this thing to the barn, Sara, and you've got to help me with it."
                                                                       ~*~

On the other side of the small  village of  Avonlea, Janet King was bellowing over the sound of the sleigh bells.
"Elizaaaa!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, breathing in heavily the cold, wintery air. How in the world can her old, spinstered aunt have run away into hiding? she thought, panic rising into her usually sedate state of mind. It was getting colder by the minute and a stiff gust of wind blew into her face.
"Eliza if you don't freeze to death out here I will!" she cried out into the wind, hoping that the wind would take her words and hurl them into her aunts' ears. "Oh, Great Aunt Eliza, where are you?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
Janet sat back down into the sleigh and urged the noble horse into a steady lope. She kept that pace until she arrived at a frozen pond, with a little ice hut sticking out of the ponds edge. She climbed out of the sleigh, wrapped her thick shawl around her and headed towards the ice hut. If she didn't warm up soon she was sure to swoon from the cold. Just as she was reaching for the door latch she spotted something bulky sticking out of a fishing hole. She darted straight towards it and discovered that it was a suitcase- Eliza's suitcase!!
"Oh, Eliza!" she cried, tears gushing down her cheeks, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!! This is all my fault! If I just would've been patient instead of complaining and being so mean, I..I..I..oh I'm s-s-so sorry, Eliza, I'm so sorry!!" she stroked the suitcase and let her tears fall upon its stiffly frozen leather. She didn't dare look into the black, gaping hole as she was sure to discover the pale, limp body of her dear aunt. She sniffed and cried and apologized until there were no more tears left to be shed.
"Can you ever forgive me?" she said, swallowing hard, her voice tense and throat aching from crying so hard. All of a sudden, the ice hut door flung open, with a dripping wet Great Aunt Eliza straggling towards the grief stricken woman. Of course she forgave her niece!
"Janet!" she cried. "I'm over here!"
Janet didn't notice. Her grief was too overwhelming to hear anything but her own sobbing.
"Janet! I'm here!" Eliza repeated.
Janet flung around to see her petite, white haired aunt with icicles dangling from her loose strands of hair, limping, straggling towards her with arms open wide.
"Eliza!!!" Janet hollered, gathering her old aunt into her arms as Eliza crumpled to the ground.
Together they wept for joy, having found each other, forgiven and in each others embrace. Janet then quickly wrapped her own shawl around Eliza's damp shoulders and helped her into the sleigh.
She whipped the horse into a breakneck gallop, yet keeping an arm around her aunt, and raced home. If she didn't, Eliza might die of shock and cold.

a winter story, part eleven

by: Olivia Dale 

...urged the noble horse into a canter in desperate
search of Great Aunt Eliza.

Janet quietly walked into Great Aunt Eliza's room, or to the boy's room, actually, with a tray of steaming breakfast. She softly laid the tray down and gently nudged her Great Aunt.
Surprisingly, she saw some tangled, brown hair instead of woolly, grey hair.
She ripped off the covers.
"Felix King. What on earth are you doing in Eliza's bed?" she demanded of her son.
Felix yawned and pulled the covers back over his ears.
"It was too cold in here for her last night. so we traded places." he mumbled and drifted back to sleep.
Janet paled, her conscience suddenly pricking her.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" she mumbled to herself and rushed down the kitchen stairs. She flew over to the cot and ravaged around.
Eliza's belongings were gone and Janet's heart skipped a beat.
She burst into tears.
Hetty, who was standing by the stove warming up the lambs bottles, rushed over to Janet's side, perplexed indeed to see her sister-in-law in such a tizzy.
"Janet, what is the matter?" she asked patting Janet's shoulder.
Janet looked at her with glassy eyes. "Felix and Eliza traded places last night. She heard Alec and I talking about her and now she's packed up and gone!"
Hetty gasped, her eyes wide with surprise and worry.
"Oh Hetty, we said some awful things about her." she said, her face full of tears and guilt.
Hetty gulped, clearly at a loss of words.
Janet spilled into fresh tears. "I don't know what overcame me." she sniffed, wiping her eyes.
Hetty frowned. "I don't know what in heaven's name came over you, either. Did you know that she was the one who was bold enough out of all the Ward's to stand up to your father and let you marry Alec?" she asked her sister-in-law, her dark, round eyes flashing with anger.
Janet reddened. "I didn't know that. She did that for me?" she asked, embarrassed. "She came to Alec and I for comfort in her old age...and now Iv'e thrust her into the cold!" she cried, tears spilling over her flaming cheeks once again. Janet turned around and faced Hetty. She grabbed her sister-in-law's hand and looked into her eyes.
"Hetty," she stated firmly, though her voice was shaking, "Hetty, can you look after Daniel for me?"
Hetty nodded yes, and gazed back into Janet's eyes.
"I'm going to look for Great Aunt Eliza." Janet said as she forcefully shoved her arms into her coat sleeves, jammed on a hat and shawl, and rushed through the door.
Hetty shivered as a gust of wind sailed through the doorway, and fear settled into her heart for Eliza who was out in the cold.
"Dear God, protect them." she prayed silently as she watched through the lacy kitchen window and saw Janet climb into her sleigh and urged the noble horse to a canter.

A winter story, part ten

by: Olivia Dale

"Boiled hemlock. For throat problems and coughs. Here, Alec, try this." 

Janet came trudging down the kitchen staircase with a coughing Alec trailing behind her. He sat himself down into a nearby chair and Janet filled the tea kettle and put it on the stove top.

Pretending to be asleep, Eliza stiffened on the cot as she overheard
Janet and Alec talking.

She reached for the small brown papered package on the table and read aloud what it said. "Boiled hemlock. For throat problems and coughs. Here, Alec, try this. It should bring your fever down as well. I only hope you don't have the influenza Aunt Eliza is making me worried about all the time with her old, worn out stories."
She sat down in the chair by her husband and handed him the cup with the strong smelling tea. He took one sip and placed the cup down with a hard thud.
"Oh, I can't drink that stuff, it makes me gag."
he told her."Alec, dear, just drink it." Janet sighed.
Alec looked at her with a concerned look. "Are you feeling all right? You look kind of tired." he said, patting her hand.
Janet rubbed her eyes and yawned. "With Great Aunt Eliza here I haven't had a moments rest. Her nocturnal wanderings makes it hard for anyone to sleep, let alone poor Felix who she bothers every hour of the night to do her bidding." she sighed and looked at the sleeping figure on the cot, whom she assumed to be Felix.
Pretending to be asleep, Eliza stiffened on the cot as she overheard Janet and Alec talking.
Janet continued, unbeknownst that Eliza was listening to her shallow complaints.
"Nothing is good enough for her." she continued, "At least, I am not good enough for her." she said, her voice trembling.
Alec held her close, knowing what his wife was going to say.
Janet brushed away a tear. "She never liked me as a child. Abigail was her favorite then, why can't she just have gone over to her place instead of here? She doesn't approve of anything that I do for her. Why did she come here?" Janet choked out, trying hard not to wake "Felix" with her sobbing.
Alec sighed. "I don't know why she came here when she did. She is getting on in age and with her mind not being what it used to be, well maybe....maybe she didn't want to be left alone when she........" he trailed off, not wanting to say the rest.
He let out a long breath.
"Maybe," he spoke softly, "we can send her off to some place where people can give her constant care, you know, somewhere where she can't bother us. Janet you can't tire yourself out like this and your Great Aunt Eliza is so hard to please."
Janet fidgeted with the napkin she was holding and frowned.
"Oh, Alec. You know I can't just send her away. I couldn't do that to her. But, oh!" she spilled into fresh tears and flung the napkin down. "I just can't take it anymore!" she got up from her chair and quickly dashed up the stairs.
Alec sighed and took the oil lamp from the table. The sip of boiled hemlock tea seemed to help his cold, but he felt badly for his wife. Aunt Eliza was becoming almost unbearable for her, he thought sadly.
Once Alec had made his way up the stairs, Eliza pushed the covers from over her head and reached for her suitcase. Sadly she placed in her belongings and put on her coat, shawl and hat and lugged the suitcase towards the door. But wait! She forgot her little case with her most precious belongings- a photograph of her fiance from her youth, whom she never married, and her medicinal teas and herbs. She hastily retreated back to the kitchen and grabbed the little black case.
Then she carefully closed the door behind her and sullenly walked away from the King Farmhouse, in the cold, and in the dark, alone, and hurt.

A winter story, part nine

by: Olivia Dale

"Your parents don't seem to care for my old fashioned ways, I suppose."

Felix was awakened, again, by Great Aunt Eliza's rattling. Only this time, she wasn't speaking to him,
she was chatting quietly to baby Daniel, who sat in his high chair, sniffing.
"There, there, my boy. Great Auntie Eliza is going to fix you a nice cup of chocolate tea. Not like that nasty brew of your mothers'." she was explaining to the child. "We need to get that fever of yours down."
Felix, now wide awake, got up from the cot and went over to his aunt.
"Did I hear you say chocolate?" he asked, "Or was I dreaming?" he mumbled sleepily, unsure whether he was awake or dreaming.
"Oh, no not chocolate, Felix. Water Raven's Tea it's called, but it tastes like chocolate." Eliza explained.
Felix suddenly became thirsty. "Can I try a sip, Aunt Eliza?" he asked.
"Why certainly." she replied, handing him the cup of tea. Felix took the cup from her feeble hand and sipped."Mmm....this does taste like chocolate." he said, handing the cup back.
"Indeed it does. It will help lessen muscle pains and fevers, and it tastes good, too, which will make small children drink it down eagerly." she told her nephew. She turned to the child in the high chair. "Now, now, Daniel. We need to get this inside of you. There, that's a good boy, yes, drink it all down." she told the toddler, who seemed to enjoy the tea considerably.
"You should get Father to drink some of that stuff." Felix said as he heard his father cough in his sleep.
Eliza sighed, "I doubt that your Father will, your parents don't seem to care for my old fashioned ways, I suppose." she shivered, and rubbed her hands together. "Dear me, I can't seem to get warm, and my bedroom is even colder, if you ask me. This rickety old farmhouse lets in all the drafts as if all the doors and windows were open on a hot summer day."
Felix swallowed, suddenly becoming uneasy as his conscience pricked him.
"Umm, Great Aunt Eliza, I....I have something that I need to tell you..." he stammered. "You see umm...I turned off the heat going towards your room. I'm....I'm sorry.....Great Aunt Eliza." he finished, reddening with shame.
Eliza stifled a giggle, and looked at him earnestly. "You are a very clever boy, Felix. I suppose I have been rather difficult lately, and I cannot blame you for what you did."
Felix looked up at his aunt, surprised. "Really?"
Eliza smiled. "I'm sure I would have done the exact same thing when I was young."
"You would?" he asked, not quite imagining his old aunt playing senseless pranks.
"Oh indeed I would have. I used to be quite rambunctious when I was about your age. I was quite stubborn and determined at the same time. I always went for my dreams and ambitions," she looked at Felix with a twinkle in her eye, "I can see alot of me in you."
"You do?" Felix asked, "I know you really weren't like me, Great Aunt Eliza. I mean, whenever I get a dumb idea into my head I just go ahead and do it, without thinking, and then later after I did it I just realize how stupid that really was. Just like my dreams for later in life."
He frowned, remembering the tragic event last fall with his horse, Blakkie, when Felix had made an unwise decision that had cost his horse its life. Felix swallowed and blinked back tears.
Eliza saw his emotion.
"Oh Felix," she comforted, "It's never wrong to go after your dreams, as long as you know it's the right thing to do and that you have your parents wisdom and advice to go with it."
Felix sniffed, and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
"You really think so?" he asked, turning his attention towards his aunt.
"Do you think that I have reached this old age without any unfortunate happenings? Felix, my boy, following your dreams isn't all roses and butterflies. Yes, there will be bumps and bruises along the way, but, it's the reward and satisfaction of completing your journey that you go for." Eliza said, softening her voice.
Felix smiled, glad to have had this talk with his old aunt. "Thanks, Great Aunt Eliza."
He noticed his baby brother fast asleep in his high chair, when all of a sudden he got an idea. "Great Aunt Eliza, you can sleep down here. It's much warmer here in the kitchen and I can take my own room back. I'll bring your blankets and things down here." he said, picking his baby brother up.
Eliza smiled. "Thank you, Felix, that is a good idea."
And with that, Felix went upstairs carrying his sleeping baby brother, glad at heart.

A winter story, part eight

by: Olivia Dale

"C'mon, Sara, it's over here!" Felix King shouted over his shoulder in his Uncle Jasper Dale's workshop.
Since Jasper had been working in Carmody a lot lately, Sara and Felix were assigned to keep the workshop tidy from any pesky rodents that might just pop by for an unwelcome visit to nibble on whatever invention Jasper had been working on. And since Aunt Olivia seemed to be keeping her proper distance from the mice, she had gladly given the unpleasant task of throwing out dead mice to the children.
Sara came rushing over to Felix. "You found another one?" she asked, "Mice are always a problem in the winter, aren't they?" she continued. But Felix wasn't holding a dead mouse by the tail, he was observing one of Jasper's inventions. An odd, boxlike contraption was hooked up with cables to a bicycle, and then other wires and strings connected to a large plank with light bulbs screwed onto it.
Sara and Felix eyed it all over.
"What is this supposed to be?" Felix asked.
"I don't know." Sara replied, "But the light bulbs we brought in last week is all screwed onto a plank. What do you suppose that's for?" she asked, pointing to the bicycle.
"I don't know." Felix replied.
Sara cautiously seated herself onto the bicycle, and started peddling. Nothing happened.
"Peddle harder." Felix suggested. Sara began peddling faster, but still nothing of interest happened.
Out of the corner of his eye, Felix spotted a loose wire.
"Aha," he stated, picking up the strand of wire. "I think this is our problem."
He wiggled the wire onto the box when all of a sudden, the light bulbs turned on, a static tick sounded, and threw Felix across the room. Sara stopped peddling and rushed over to her cousins' side, surprised indeed.
                                                                        ~*~

"It was like an invisible hand grabbed me and threw me across the room." Felix mused, eyes wide with excitement of his small adventure.
"Felix, really," Aunt Hetty chided, wiping off the blood and dirt from Felix's electrocuted finger."You know you mustn't play around in Uncle Jasper's workshop."
Janet came scuttling over to her sons' side with a dish of butter and quickly dressed down his finger in it. "I suppose you deserve this for prying into someone else's belongings." she scolded him as she looked at his swollen finger.
"Aunt Hetty," Sara piped up in Felix's defense, "Uncle Jasper told us that we could work around in his workshop."
Eliza saw the butter dripping from Felix's finger. "Ice, Janet, not butter." she said as she handed Hetty the ice tray.
"Eliza's right." Hetty said as she wiped the butter off of his finger and cooled it down with a chip of ice. Then she wrapped it up with a strip of cloth.
"What were you doing in there, anyway, besides cleaning up dead rats? You could have been badly hurt, as if this,"Alec said, pointing to Felix's sore finger, "isn't bad enough?"
Felix shrugged. "Just looking around, I suppose." he told his father.
Alec didn't smile but his lip twitched and his eyes held a sparkle of amusement.
"Your curiosity got the better of you two didn't it?" he asked, looking at his son and niece.
They looked at him sheepishly.
"Play it safe the next time." he finished, putting on his coat and hat. "I've got to tend to the lambs. Felicity, Hetty, Cecily, Sara and Felix," he said to them, "I'll need you all in the barn after your'e finished in here."
Hetty quickly finished wrapping Felix's finger. "I'm going out with you right now." she said, grabbing her coat and mitts. Alec, along with Hetty, closed the door behind them.
Janet cleared the table and rushed the rest of the children out to the barn, leaving just her and Eliza in the kitchen.
Eliza was complaining, as usual, with her infamous tjsk-tjsk.
"You really ought to know better, Janet, speaking of medicinal things, that butter does not help a burn at all, infact it just makes it even worse." she said, picking up baby Daniel. She felt him all over."And this baby here, is burning up with fever!"
Janet paled and quickly took the happily chortling child from Eliza's arms.
"I have always warned you about the sicknesses that can arise in a drafty old house, yet you never listen to me, do you? I can blame you for this." she said with a rise in her tone of voice.
Janet breathed a sigh of relief, the baby didn't have a fever at all. She hugged him close. But her cheeks flamed with furry at her old aunt. How dare she blame her for all the mishappenings!
"There is nothing wrong with this baby. He's just overheated, is all. And I thank you to keep your opinions to yourself." she finished with stomping out of the kitchen.