Editor’s Note: This is an ongoing series which runs each Thursday morning titled the Richland Chronicles, by author Paul Lintern. It is set in the 1860s and tells the story of Richland County through the eyes of young people. The books are available from Lintern for $25 a set, tax and shipping included. Each book is about 120 pages written for intermediate readers (4th grade) with local illustrations. Volume I is Amelia Changes Her Tune. Volume II is Isaac and Wolf Paw Find Their Home. Volume III is Autumn Keeps Her Secret. Volume IV is Mr. Gamble Starts a School. Volume V is Jacob Blows his Horn. Volume VI is Cassie Fights the War.
Emilene would say she was trying to be a good sport. She wanted to be a good big sister, to both Grace and David, but Grace would hardly talk to her and David would hardly stop talking to her.
More than that, she had worked pretty hard at being the little sister, doing what was asked of her, by just about everyone, all the while feeling lost because she had never had brothers or sisters, big or little.
She thought she was just getting the hang of it, especially when her change of heart let her feel like she was a Zimmerman. But this, this big sister stuff, was rather more than she had to give.
It seemed she didn’t have time to herself, to play the violin, or read, or care for Winny, without David wanting to come along — “Teach me to play that, read to me, can I ride the goat?” — or thinking she should try to get Grace to do something. She didn’t play games, inside or out. She didn’t like to fuss with her hair. She recoiled at the thought of doing something with Winny and she just followed Emilene around without getting involved.
It was the same for Cassie and Jacob, who were glad many days to have things to do away from home — working at Costin’s, playing ball, helping family friends with chores and errands.
Jacob did seem to enjoy showing David how to care for Maggie, but that was hoping David would be able to take over soon, an idea Mama soon squashed.
Still, there was plenty that David was eager to learn and do. Cassie had taken to sitting down with Grace and teaching her reading, at Autumn’s request, once they realized she was not as ready for fourth grade as she had hoped.
“I may have her be in third grade this year; she won’t be 10 until the spring, although I did hope to have Miss Porter as her teacher,” she had told Cassie.
“She doesn’t read well,” Cassie said.
“She hasn’t read enough,” Mama replied.
So practice they did. Cassie even took to practicing piano while Grace practiced reading aloud, stopping her playing from time to time to help with a word, or correct a pronunciation.
“The children are from so far south in Mississippi that I wonder if they are even speaking English sometimes. We have to draw the drawl out of them or they’ll have a terrible time at school,” Emilene heard Mama tell Cassie.
“I thought they were from Oberlin?” Emilene asked Mama.
“That’s where they lived when their parents died. They had been slaves in Mississippi when the Union soldiers took Vicksburg, and their family asked for freedom. Some friends of the Pleasants sponsored them to come to Oberlin.”
“Sponsored?”
“Paid for them to come up, and promised to help them get settled here.”
“Why aren’t they keeping them at someone’s home in Oberlin?”
“I truly don’t know, Emilene,” Mama said.
The girls had heard of a party that was being held that Saturday, a children’s party that had become an annual event. Ellen Bradford — everyone knew her as Auntie Bradford — was a caterer in town, indeed, the main caterer in town. No one who was anyone planned a special event without asking Auntie Bradford to fix the food.
She was magical in her fixins and endless in her hospitality. It seemed every child knew her and called her Auntie Bradford because of the special treats she always seemed to have for children, especially the ones who didn’t have what children should have.
“You’re probably too old to go this year,” Mama chided Cassie. “I suppose, but don’t you think we should take Emilene, and Grace and David? Wouldn’t it be wonderful for them to meet her?”
Auntie Bradford was one of the few Negro women in Mansfield. She and her husband had come to Mansfield a few years back as free citizens, but it was thought that she had been raised in the household of then Texas President Sam Houston, as the daughter of his slaves, and so a slave herself.
“That is a good idea,” Mama said.
Saturday came quickly, as every summer Saturday does, especially as school nears, and the children readied for the party. It was west of them, a short distance up Marion Avenue, at an attractive small house, in a neighborhood of many beautiful homes.
The children walked west on Third Street, away from downtown, past the Female Seminary, past the field where the boys liked to play base ball, as they now called it, and right up a path next to Mr. Brinkerhoff’s home, a big house on Market Street.
There, two roads began. Sturges Avenue went south up a hill and many beautiful big homes lined both sides. The children loved to just walk that way, even when they didn’t have a reason to go there.
At a 45-degree angle was Marion Avenue, heading up a gentler hill, past gentler, more modest homes, some with two or three families. It was on this street that the children came to Auntie Bradford’s home, and the party that was held in the nicely trimmed vacant lot next door.
“Hi Auntie Bradford,” Cassie said, waving to the woman fussing over a bowl of fruit salad and a leafy dish.
“Lands, is that Miss Cassie? How grown up you are! Almost too old for a children’s party!”
Cassie blushed.
“You probably are right, but I wanted to bring some special friends.”
Auntie Bradford sized up all three of the new Zimmermans. Cassie began to introduce them, but Auntie Bradford stopped her.
“I am sure they can introduce themselves,” she said, and Cassie nodded.
“I am Emilene, and I am Cassie’s sister now.”
“Your parents were the Meyers. So sad about them, Darling, but you got to know that God’s given you a new start and a good family to keep on with.”
How does she know that?
“I’m David!”
“I’m sure you are.”
“And Cassie is my sister now, too. So is Leenee.”
Cassie briefly told their story.
“And who are you, quiet one?” she said, looking at Grace.
“Grace, ma’am.”
“Indeed you are. And so the Zimmerman family is full of Grace. We will talk, young lady, you and me, about many things, very soon.”
Auntie Bradford excused herself to tend to the food and games, and Cassie herded her charges to a nearby set of chairs. They were almost there when Jed bumped into Emilene.
That was on purpose.
“So who is this?”
“My new sister and brother, Grace and David,” she said.
“Sister and brother? Sure they aren’t your new servants? Do you have slave quarters out back for them, with the animals?
“Better hope I don’t find them alone sometime.”
And again, he was gone.
