Susie nodded. “And we sell the milk, too. Along with peanut butter spread and jams and jellies.”

“I’ll have to take a look when I stop by to order that family tree.”

“Sounds gut.” Susie smiled.

When the household items were finally auctioned off, Susie won the bid for the carrot grater she’d found, which was in a box with some other kitchen gadgets. She and Del wandered back out to the barn, where Susie happened to see Obie with his younger brother, Jerome, and their father. They and some other men milled around near the log splitter, mowers, and manure spreader as the auctioneer geared up to start the bidding.

Before she could turn her head, Obie caught her eye. Her face warmed, but she smiled. Obie waved in response before turning back to his family and the farming equipment.

Guess I was wrong about whatever he wanted to ask me on my birthday, she thought, before we were interrupted.

She wondered now if he’d just wanted to inquire if she was coming to today’s farm sale, just maybe. Nothing earthshaking, and certainly not the question she’d longed for.

Upon returning home that afternoon, and while Britta was making goat cheese in the kitchen, Susie read to her mother from the old German Biewel in the front room. Mamma embroidered a yellow pansy design on a pillowcase as Susie shared from the first chapter of the book of Job, slowing when she came to the latter part of verse twenty-one. “‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord,’” she read. When Susie finished, she closed the Bible gently.

“Ach, what Job had to suffer,” Mamma said softly, looking up from her embroidery. “We can learn a lot from his response to being faced with ever so many sorrows. ’Tis wise not to let our troubles turn us toward bitterness.” Mamma returned to her stitching. “Easy to say, but hard to do.”

“God permitted Job to be tested,” Susie said, a part of her wondering if Mamma’s struggles with her health, and maybe even losing Dat and Eli, had been similar tests. “Do ya think God allows the same for us?”

Mamma tilted her head and smoothed the fabric under her stitching. “Maybe so. But remember: Job lost everything, yet he continued to trust the Lord. Havin’ that kind of trust . . . well, that’s what I focus on.”

Susie considered that. She’d felt the loss of her father and brother greatly—some days it was still all too fresh. She listened now as Mamma continued to talk about God’s sovereignty and why it was important not to question His will.

When there was a lull in the conversation, Susie said, “You might find it interesting that Del Petersheim and I walked around together at the farm sale today.”

Mamma’s eyebrows rose. “Del . . . not Obie?”

“Well, Obie’s never asked me out.”