Astounded: Day 4

Word Count: 24,010

Summary of Events:

Penrod brought Jemima flour, sugar, and the mail, which he read for her, along with giving her long-overdue Christmas presents which moved Jemima to tears. As Penrod left he thought about what he should do to help Jemima and came up with the idea of matchmaking — although he'd have to tread delicately so his own fiancée didn't think he was leaving her for another woman. Jemima found she was running low on cookies and so decided to bake some more; Penrod came and helped the cow deliver her calf and then came inside and talked to her.

Excerpt of the Day:

""They've got bumps all over them," Mr. Haskell said.

"Those are letters and words," Jemima replied. "It's an alphabet for the blind created by a French man named Louis Braille not too long ago. Hannah went out East to a school for the blind and was able to buy me the contraption to write with and learned how to use it and what the different letters are. Hannah still wants to send me for the school to the blind, but I didn't want to go so long as Papa needed care. I probably could go now."

"What would you learn at a place like that?" Mr. Haskell asked.

"I'm not really sure, probably just how to be independent," Jemima replied.

"You seem fairly independent as it is," Mr. Haskell said. "After all, you survived six months in the middle of the woods on your own."

"Probably the only thing I'd like to learn would be how to sew and embroider," Jemima said. "I do think I could sew if I tried, but I'm not confident it would be neat enough."

"What if you practised on scraps?" Mr. Haskell asked.

"I might have to," Jemima replied. "I'd just have to find some."

"What does all of this say?" Mr. Haskell asked.

"I've been copying out of the Bible," Jemima replied. "Hannah wanted me to have my own set of the scriptures to read on my own time. We're partway through Second Samuel right now, she's been reading them to me and I've been copying them out whenever she comes to visit."

"Your father didn't do it for you?" Mr. Haskell asked.

"Read?" Jemima asked.

"Yeah," Mr. Haskell replied.

"No," Jemima replied. "He was usually so tired, and I didn't want to make him read it sentence by sentence and have to keep repeating it over until I was done."

"Do you have a Bible here?" Mr. Haskell asked.

"Papa kept one on the table beside his chair," Jemima replied.

"Would you want, sometime, for me to read for you, to help you make faster progress?" Mr. Haskell asked.

"If you want to," Jemima replied.

"How about I do some after lunch?" Mr. Haskell asked.

"Are you sure I'm not taking away from your work by your spending so much time out here?" Jemima asked.

"There really isn't much of anything to do," Mr. Haskell replied. "And what little bit there is to do right now is easily done by the sheriff. I've been told Verdant doesn't actually need a deputy, it's just that Mr. Plumley isn't quite as competent as he ought to be."

"Oh," Jemima said.

"I'm half inclined to think that maybe I should work to take over as sheriff from him," Mr. Haskell said. "But I'll have to see what time holds."

"Will you be able to find out what happened to Papa then?" Jemima asked.

"The sheriff wouldn't have been able to help me," Mr. Haskell replied. "It was news to him that your father was missing.""