1940 - Still the depression. Families do what they have to do to survive. A farm in upstate New York requires a lot of labor after much of the machinery has been sold to keep the farm from being sold at auction. Everyone has to pitch in. Jeffrey is tagged to spend the summer there and help out. Disappointment could be eased because Cousin Madison has grown up. The trouble is, she has eyes for another.
Jeffrey sighed heavily. Here he had an opportunity to actually go to college with an academic scholarship, but needed money for books and room and board and...countless other things. He needed to work all summer and had a job lined up. But now, he may not be able to go to college after all.
His mother's voice came back into his consciousness. "Your Uncle Preston and Aunt Olivia need all the help they can get. They've got that nice farm but are in danger of losing it unless they can get a decent crop this year. With only one tractor they need help. Your Uncle Preston is still recuperating from the accident he had, so they're short a pair of hands and a strong back."
"I know, mom. But I have a chance to go to college. With a degree I can get a job that will help us here."
"Life is full of choices, son. Some of them are hard, but immediate family needs have to come first."
"They already have a bunch of people to help out."
"Not enough. The farm is large. In years past they would have been able to hire help, but not this year. I don't know how they even pay the taxes on it. They can't lose it, and it is your obligation to pitch in."
He sighed again. "So I leave tomorrow?"
"Your father has purchased a train ticket. Someone will meet you at the station. I believe Courtney's beau has a car."
*****
Jeffrey stepped off the train and quickly noticed his older cousin Courtney waving her hand. She gave him a hug and introduced him to Carl. Jeffrey quickly sized him up as a bit of a dandy and wondered how much help he would turn out to be.
Aunt Olivia was overjoyed to see him. "Why, Jeffrey. I think you've grown six inches since the last time I saw you."
"Six years ago. I would have been twelve."
"Yes, that's about right. Let me show you to your room. Supper will be at six-thirty. That should give you enough time to unpack and settle in."
The farm house was large and rambling, having been added on to many times over the years. He looked around the place on the way to his room on the second floor and later when he was alone. The house had been magnificent once, part of one of the largest farms for miles around. Now the floors were worn and even he could see the need for interior repairs. His room was spare - just a bed, a washstand and an old mahogany wardrobe for his clothes. The floor had a slight tilt to it.
He peered out the window, which needed painting, and could see a barn and a small house just beyond. He remembered there were a couple of other buildings not visible from his room. Everything outside, in contrast to the farmhouse interior, look neat and well kept.
At the table the food was plentiful enough, as most of it came from the farm. The meal was served by a woman he had never seen before. She appeared to be perhaps late thirties or early forties.
"Jeffrey, this is Maureen. She helps me in the kitchen. It takes many hands to keep this crowd fed. Maureen's husband Sean helps out in the fields and with the stock. With your Uncle Preston laid up Sean has to do the tractor work. He's a good mechanic and keeps the machinery running."
Uncle Preston grumbled "If the doctors had done their job I'd be getting around by now." Aunt Olivia glared at him in disagreement.
Jeffrey looked around the table. He recognized Courtney and Carl, and caught a girl of about twelve eyeing him. He remembered a little girl from his last visit, and Abby had grown into a cute giggling girl with pigtails and freckles.
Aunt Olivia's sister Sarah was also staying the summer, with her daughter Madison. Wow. He remembered Madison as a gangly skinny girl but she had filled out nicely. He couldn't keep from stealing glances at her. Blond hair. Blue eyes. Cute upturned nose. Nice figure, too. She must be about nineteen. He hadn't seen her for about six years. He liked her back then, but something seemed a bit off about her now.
Two other girls were at the table. Meghan and Toni were girls from town. Their parents were having a hard time making ends meet and work was scarce in town, so the girls were at the farm to work. In payment they got room and board. He discovered the two girls were twenty and twenty one. They helped around the house and did some outside work when necessary.
Lots of females, but none compared to Madison in the looks department.
After supper he wandered around the farm yard and ran into another fellow about his age.
"Hi. I'm Jeffrey. I'm staying the summer with Aunt Olivia and Uncle Preston."
"I'm Dylan. My dad more or less manages the farm. I guess you met my mom. She helps in the kitchen. You'll probably run into my sister Colleen. She's twenty-three and can be a bit bossy, so be warned, but pulls her weight. She can outwork me."
"Gee I'm glad to meet another guy around here."
Dylan laughed. "There are a lot of skirts, aren't there?"
"I'll say. Do you have one you're...attached to?"
"Oh, no, no, no. They're off limits, I guess except for Toni and Meghan, but they're too old for me - I'm only sixteen. As for the others--well let's say there is a bit of a divide between your family and laborers like my family. Those who live in the big house and those of us in the tenant house don't mix socially."
Jeffrey was a bit surprised at the sort of class distinction he thought went out with the last century.
His self-guided tour led him around to the front of the house where he found Uncle Preston glumly sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, smoking. Jeffrey took a chair next to him and learned his uncle had been running the tractor over some uneven terrain and it had rolled on him, trapping his leg.
"It was broken in about eight places, some bones were crushed. I told them to just take the damn thing off and I'd be fine with a fake leg, but they said they couldn't remove a limb that could be saved. So, here I am, with the goddam cane and can't even walk straight. The leg hurts and is a couple of inches shorter that it should be. I'm useless."
"Aunt Olivia says you look after the books."
He snorted "Hmph, like that's a job. We have next to no revenue and lots of bills. Hailstorm ruined our wheat last fall. Abby, bless her heart, picked apples from the trees in the orchard and hauled them out to the road where she built a little stand and sold them to passersby. She even sold some eggs. That girl has more energy than anyone else in the house."
"What happened to Jake and Robert? I expected them to be here. I thought they'd be a help."
"My two sons decided they would help in another way. They talked about how war is brewing in Europe again and they joined the service. Jake last year in the army and Robert this spring in the navy. While they don't help out on the farm they send home every penny they can."
"Leaving a house full of females."
"A house full of females. Sean and Maureen help run things but I can't pay them, so they work for their keep. Dylan helps in the fields and Colleen can do the work of two men, so I'm grateful for that. There's another tenant house on the far side of the property. It's just a tiny house, but I let the family have a few acres to scratch out a farm. Mostly they grew what they needed to eat, but when they had a surplus they give us a share of what they made. Hardly ever saw them, but they moved out during the winter. Moved in with other family in Pennsylvania."
He looked at Jeffrey intently. "Your mom has told us what you are giving up to help here. We appreciate it and hope if we can get in the black again you'll still be able to go to college next year."
Jeffrey felt ashamed at how he reacted when first told he was to come to the farm. They certainly needed another man around.
In bed he listened to the sounds of crickets and an occasional owl hoot. Once he thought he heard the chickens clucking in the henhouse. These were all new sounds to him.
After a hearty breakfast Dylan showed him the tractor and what other little equipment remained and took him into the barn where they found Colleen handling a pitchfork like a pro. She stopped and leaned on the handle. "So, you're the one who's going to help save the farm. I hope you're willing to work."
"I'll do whatever is necessary."
She laughed "We'll see about that, won't we," and went back to work.
Jeffrey helped Dylan move stock from one pasture to another, waving his hat and whistling to keep them moving. The rest of the day was taken up with mending fences and that night he fell immediately to sleep, exhausted.
The following day, Sunday, much of the work paused. The eggs still had to be gathered and hay spread for stock not in the pasture, there were two cows to be milked, but mostly it was a day of rest.
Abby grabbed his hand and said "Let me show you the swimming hole."
Along the way he caught Abby casting glances at him, so he stopped and turned to face her. "What's up Abby?"
She blushed. "Well, the last time I saw you I was six and you were twelve. Now I'm twelve and when they said you were coming I got excited. I still remember you as being twelve and thought..."
"You thought maybe we could get together."
"Something like that. I've always fantasized about you being my boyfriend." She looked down and made a design in the dirt with her shoe. "But I know it can't be. And, I see how you look at Madison, so I know what the score is. But, you should know that she is after Carl, but he doesn't even know she's alive. He's thirty and she's nineteen. He and Courtney are supposed to be together, but I don't trust him. I see him looking at the other girls, but Courtney is blind to it."
"You are quite an observant young lady."
"Since I can't be your girlfriend can we still at least be friends?"
He stuck out his hand and she took it. "Deal. We can still do things together."
She got a mischievous grin. "Like now. Know why I'm going to show you the swimming hole? It's because Meghan and Toni go there on Sundays."
"Why is that of interest?"
"You'll see."
They approached some trees that marked the course of a stream through the property, and soon heard laughter.
"Shh. Be quiet. I think you'll like this."
She motioned to crouch behind a bush and they peered through the branches.
Jeffrey swallowed hard and almost whistled as he saw Toni and Meghan out in the water splashing each other. The pile of clothing on the shore told him they were skinny dipping, and his eyes focused back to the girls. Soon they waded to shore, laughing.
