Threshing Festival Dayv- Missing

It was a hot, steamy August Saturday and Pa woke me early to tell me that we weren't working in the fields today. Seems that we were going to a big get together over in Shirktown, the annual Threshing Event. I had forgotten all about this big day which we attended every year. The summer was flying by so fast and the thought of school coming soon was almost unbearable. The good thing was that I would be in eighth grade and this would be my last year of school. But that was next month - for today, we had a lot of fun ahead of us. We hopped into the wagon and started off down the road to Shirktown. Here the action was limitless and everywhere I looked, I saw members of our family - aunts, uncles, cousins, my sister Rachel and her four kids, brother Elam and his new bride, Barbara. My favorite cousin, Samuel, and I quickly found each other and went to watch Uncle Daniel and Uncle David demonstrate their new thresher. Then we moved on to see the thresher from the Stoltfus family who lived over in Morgantown. From there we went over to see Aunt Mary and Ma at the home made ice cream demonstration and sampled the chocolate AND the vanilla! Tiring of all of this farm stuff, we decided to look for girls and went to the wool making demonstration .....and we weren't disappointed! The tallest one actually smiled at me! By this time cousin John had joined us and we decided to walk down the big road to the old forge there. The Conestoga River flowed through it and we wanted to cool off on this hot summer day. Cousin John's father, Uncle Amos, worked at the forge so we had the freedom to go anywhere we wanted there. Sensing that we were up to something, Cousin Rebecca headed to us and insisted on going with us. We had to let her, she was bigger than us and could beat any of us at wrestling so we always let her have her way. And when my little sister, Katie, saw us headed out, she ran to catch up to us too. Oh well, the two girls could keep each other company.

It was a long walk to the river and the road was very hot on our bare feet but we soon arrived. The old covered bridge had just gotten a fresh coat of paint and was looking pretty spiffy. One of Cousin John's grandfathers on his mother's side, Elias Mellen had worked on this bridge in 1859 and a member of his family had worked at the forge ever since. Cousin John would probably end up here too since his dad AND his uncles worked here. Once we got on the other side of the covered bridge, we noticed that there had also been work done to the Amish parking lot and it was looking fresh and new. But the place that we were after was on the east of the road through the bridge - the river! We boys rolled our pants legs up and prepared to go running and splashing in the water but the silly girls didn't want to get wet and played on the two rocks under the trees beside the river a little south of us. We could hear them giggling and whispering. Girls are so stupid sometimes, the water was so refreshing, what could be so wonderful about hiding in the brush.

As the girls continued to do girl things, we caught polywogs and minnows and built dams. Pretty soon we noticed that it was getting close to sunset and we had to walk back to Shirktown. So we went after the girls and found them fast asleep on the rocks between the speckled tree and the rough barked tree. A little further away there was another tree with peeling bark. We woke them and they groggily joined us in the walk back to the Thresher festival, arriving there just in the nick of time. Our parents were loading things into the wagon and gathering the rest of our brothers and sisters for the ride home. As Katie and I got in the wagon, Katie's eyes got big and filled with tears. "Oh, Daniel, I left my doll back at the river!" Pa heard her cries and made a promise to her. "Tomorrow I will excuse Daniel from his chores on the farm and he can take the buggy back to the forge to find your doll." Katie happily laid her head on my shoulder and fell asleep knowing that her big brother would save her precious doll. So if you happen to be in the area and see Katie's doll, please leave it there till I can get back!