Elijah and Emma Read online

  Elijah

  and

  Emma

  Meet Friends and Visit History

  A Story Book to Color

  by Darlene Miller

  PO Box 221974 Anchorage, Alaska 99522-1974

  [email protected] — www.publicationconsultants.com

  ISBN 978-1-59433-860-1

  eBook 978-1-59433-861-8

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2019937485

  Copyright 2019 Darlene Miller

  —First Edition—

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in any form, or by any mechanical or electronic means including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, in whole or in part in any form, and in any case not without the written permission of the author and publisher.

  Manufactured in the United States of America.

  Acknowledgements

  I dedicate this story/color book to my husband, Terry Raymond Miller. He not only accompanied me to historical places and rendezvous; he took photographs and assisted me in the production of this book.

  Thanks to the children who were willing to “do something” as they posed for their pictures. Thanks to the parents of the children who gave permission to have their photos published. All of the photographs in this book were taken by my husband, Terry Miller, or me at different reenactments or rendezvous.

  Thank you to Smoke and Fire News who gave permission to publish the photos which were previously published in their reenactment newspaper. I am grateful to the members of the Marion County Writers Workshop and our leader, Mike Van Natta, for their critiques and assistance. I also want to thank Eta Chapman for editing this story/coloring book. Thanks to Evan Swensen and his design team at Publication Consultants for the assistance in the graphics and publishing of this book.

  Grandma was hot, tired, and hungry when she reached her motel room in Des Moines but before she could take care of herself, she needed to call her son, John, and his family.

  When John answered the phone, the only thing she could hear was yelling and screaming.

  “What’s going on?” she shouted.

  In the background she heard nine year-old Elijah shouting to his eleven year old sister, Emma; “You didn’t have to tell dad about my report card.”

  Emma said, “He would have found out about it anyway.”

  Their father shouted, “Go to your rooms. I can’t hear grandma.”

  “But I didn’t do anything wrong.” Emma whined.

  “You think that you are so superior.” Elijah said.

  “That’s because I am superior,” Emma answered.

  She heard the children stomp up the stairs and slam the doors to their rooms.

  John explained, “Elijah hid his poor report card, which showed unsatisfactory marks in history and social studies, while Emma made sure that I knew about it. ‘Superior’ is his word of the week, and he uses it in every conversation, but never thinking that he is superior.”

  “May I speak to Elijah? Grandma asked. John went up the stairs and knocked on Elijah’s door. “Your grandmother wants to talk to you.” He handed the phone to Elijah and went back downstairs.

  “What’s going on, Elijah? She asked. “I thought you liked school.”

  “I like playing baseball with the guys, but my teacher wants me to remember dates and the names of men from long ago. It is so boring. I want to do stuff.”

  “I see you have a problem. I will think about it and talk to you tomorrow.”

  The next day at lunch, Grandma asked … “Kids, how would you like to sleep in a tent and visit history?”

  Elijah almost fell off his chair laughing. “Grandma, where is your time machine?” Everyone laughed.

  Grandma answered, “That’s a good one. When I talked to your parents last night, I asked your dad, ‘Do you remember, when you were little, I took you to museum villages, rendezvous and living history farms?’ I wanted you to use all your senses to experience history.”

  John said, “Yeah, I loved it.”

  “I talked to my friend, Agnes. She told me there is a re-enactment in Illinois this week-end. Agnes will lend us her tent, and has friends who have clothing for us if you want to go to the rendezvous.”

  Elijah asked, “Will there be kids there.”

  “Lots of them,” answered his grandmother.

  “Okay!” He said. “It might be fun.”

  After calling her friend, Grandma turned to her daughter-in-law, Becky, and said, “We will have Colonial outfits for the children and John. Becky, do you want to be a Colonial lady or a pirate? They need more pirates.”

  “What do I have to do?”

  “From what I’ve seen in other re-enactments, you will ride in a canoe on the lake and pretend to steal the settler’s goods, or help kidnap someone for ransom. If they shoot you, you fall down.”

  “I’d love being a pirate.”

  “I can take my new Scottish sword and defend you,” Elijah boasted.

  “Now that would be a superior moment,” his father said.

  When they got to the park on Friday, they were told to go to the Early American area, up the hill from the Indian camp. A long bike and walking path led to the other side of the park, which was the Civil War area.

  Elijah’s dad asked him to help unload their tent and supplies. Elijah looked around and saw a wagon by some wooden shoes and other stuff a family used.

  “That’s a neat wagon. I wish I could put the stuff in the wagon,” he said.

  “Wait here and I will see what I can do,” his dad answered.

  He returned a bit later with a big cart so they could load everything in it. “I borrowed this from a Colonial farmer. Would you like to push it?”

  “Superior,” Elijah answered.

  When they got everything to the place where they would set up camp, Elijah asked, “Why are you taking an ax, shovel and knife?”

  “We will build a fire on the ground. For fire safety and to save the grass, we will chop a hole in the ground and use a knife to cut the roots. When we finish, we will replace the grass piece, which we call sod, and no one will ever know where we made the fire.”

  “Superior,” Elijah said. “Why don’t you go find someone who has already set up camp and see how they did it?” his father questioned.

  A few minutes later, Elijah ran back to his dad. “I found a girl who showed me how her mother made eggs in a frying pan she called a cast iron skillet,” he said. “Can Mom make eggs and bacon for breakfast?”

  “I need to get the tent set up first. After I make the fire pit and drink my coffee, we’ll see what Mom has for breakfast.”

  “May I go talk to kids?”

  “Okay, but take your sister with you and stay close by so you can come to breakfast.”

  Elijah ran down the hill where there were tents set up by the river. “Let’s go look at the Indians,” he shouted to Emma. “You are supposed to call them Native Americans, not Indians,” Emma answered.

  She stopped and took a deep breath. The wood smoke smelled good.

  When they came to the tents she said, “There is something wrong. Why is the British flag flying over the Indian camp?”

  “Some Indians fought the Colonial Americans during the American Revolution but the Miami Indians helped the British,” the man answered. “The Miami Indians were my ancestors.

  Elijah looked further down the lake where he saw a pirate with another man in the canoe. “Hey, there’s Mom in the boat!” He yelled.

  “Don’t go in the water,” both his Dad and Grandma shouted to Elijah.

  He watched some Colonial soldiers take the canoe to shore and lead his mother and the other man away.

  He ran down to see
his mother, but nothing exciting happened. The Colonial soldiers just let them go, but kept the canoe and the things in it.

  Emma went to find some water to put in the basin so they could wash the dishes.

  She looked back at their tent and noticed what few things they had. If they lived like this all the time, they would be very poor. They had to sleep on the ground on blankets. She couldn’t even shower for three days and only had two dresses to wear. That was going to be awful. Grandma was lucky. She was going to sleep in a motel tonight.

  After the dishes were washed, Emma looked out of the tent and saw her Grandmother talking to Deborah Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s wife. Their tent was wonderful. It even had a bed.

  Emma walked to the tent to join them. “You have a beautiful home,” she said.

  “Yes,” Deborah answered. “My husband has been successful.”

  Elijah saw them and ran to Benjamin Franklin and told him, “I have glasses just like yours.”

  “Yes, I experimented with glass and made these spectacles,” Benjamin Franklin answered.

  “Did you invent electricity, too?” Elijah asked. Benjamin Franklin laughed.

  “No, but I did experiment with a kite and proved that lightning and static electricity are the same thing.”

  “That is superior,” Elijah said. Benjamin Franklin laughed again.

  “I hear some band music,” Elijah said. “Maybe there is a parade.”

  “No. It’s the Fife and Drum Corp. Will you look at the sign?” Emma asked.

  “Grandma, what’s a fife?” Elijah asked.

  “It is a kind of flute that was played with drums when soldiers marched into battle,” Grandma explained.

  “It looks like some of the kids playing the drums and fifes are our age and some are a little older,” Emma said.

  “If you like to hear them, we need to find out where they plan to go on another trip,” Grandma answered.

  Friday night was dance night for the participants of the historical reenactment. Emma hurried to get ready for the dance.

  Elijah wasn’t really interested in dancing like the girls, but was fascinated by the people playing music. One man even showed him how to play the mandolin.

  Even the little girls liked to dance.

  Grandma stopped to listen to the man who played a whistle that sounded like a flute. Then she went to the dance and danced with some old men.

  Elijah thought that he would see if he could find some wood for their fire, but he didn’t know where to go until he saw Kasen and Kari carrying wood. They told him about the wood pile that was up the hill. At the wood pile, he saw other kids gathering wood.

  When Elijah brought the wood to their tent, Grandma said that she wanted to take more pictures of Elijah’s friends for Smoke and Fire News. Elijah said that the best place to find his friends was at the wood pile. When they got there, Elijah spotted his friend Harper. He yelled, “Hey Harper, my Grandma wants to take your picture.”

  Harper’s cousin, Lucy, wanted her picture taken too. Grandma took the photo of Harper and Lucy holding toy kittens that had very soft fur that a woman made from real rabbit skins. Then Grandma explained that she wanted permission from their parents to publish the photo so Harper took everyone to the place where his parents were sitting.

  Harper said that he wanted a picture of him with his tomahawk.

  Lucy wanted grandma to take a picture of her with the new wooden toy horse that she spun around to make it prance.

  Anderson was a tired eighteen- month- old boy, who hugged his mother for his photo.

  Even though Braelyn was only 18 months old, she was moving all around. Grandma got Braelyn’s photo while she was sitting, for a moment, in her little chair.

  “Would you like to learn how to sew on a sewing machine and make a quilted pillow?” Grandma asked Emma.

  “That sounds like fun,” Emma answered.

  “Are you coming too?” Emma asked her mother.”

  “Yes,” Becky replied… “Do we have to go to the other side of the park for things invented during and after the Civil War?”

  “I think I see the tent on the Early American side of the park,” Grandma said. There they learned that Elias Howe got a patent for a sewing machine in 1846. In 1850, Isaac Singer improved it and made sewing machines to sell. Emma didn’t care about that but she thought that it might be fun to sew something.

  Elijah walked over to where some women were sitting and saw some little kids. “What’s your name?” He asked. “Everett,” the little boy answered.

  Then Everett turned to the women sitting on the bench. “Why are you so dressed up?” he asked.

  One of the ladies answered, “Because these are the clothes ladies wore a long time ago.”

  “Aren’t you hot?” asked Everett.

  “Sometimes,” one of the ladies answered. “We don’t have air conditioning so we use fans. Come here and I will show you how to use a fan.” Everett grinned as he walked over to the ladies and got one of their fans. It wasn’t hard to turn it in his hand.

  Everett said, “I just saw the doctor. He put worms on people.” The woman answered, “Yes. The worms were called leeches. They ate up blood and infection. Doctors don’t do that anymore today. They give you pills instead.”

  Elijah, Emma, Mom and Grandma decided to take a trolley ride to the other side of the park to the 1860’s Civil War area. They saw a nurse who showed us some things that she used to help the soldiers. One tall metal can had a place that opened at the top for a small can that held soup. At the bottom, an opening was cut for a small can with a wick- like a candle. She would carry this to keep the soup warm, and use it for a light at night. If the soldier could not sit up to eat the soup, she put it in an “invalid cup” that looked sort of like a sippy cup.

  Emma ran to the woman who had a huge black dog. “May I pet him?” Emma asked. “Yes,” replied the woman. Emma touched the soft fur and said, “I know about this dog. It is like the dog that went down the Missouri River with Lewis and Clark. Isn’t it a Newfoundlander?”

  “You are right,” the woman answered. “Not many people know that.”

  Someone gave a little girl named Svea a little Indian doll, and a book, about Sacagawea.

  Emma told Svea about the big dog that was like the one that was a friend to Sacagawea when she went on the Lewis and Clark journey.

  Elijah wanted to see the blacksmith, so Ava showed him where to go.

  The metal made a sizzling noise when it was put into the cold water in the tub.

  The magician showed some the children the magic trick of making a card disappear.

  Grandma wanted to take their photo so Adalie and Braysen stood by the magician and posed for a photo.

  Elijah said that he was hungry so the whole family went to the food area. Grandma and Emma ate the free chili that was made in a huge kettle for all the re-enactors. They also enjoyed a chocolate cookie for dessert that the cook made for them.

  Elijah’s dad was full since he had just eaten a huge turkey leg. Elijah ate the buffalo burger, but his mom preferred the round pig which was a grilled pork chop.

  Because the fry bread and apple butter smelled so good Dad bought fry bread for everyone in the family while Grandma took a picture of Havanna making the fry bread.

  Emma was thirsty so the whole family went looking for something to drink. Mom and Dad bought coffee but Elijah and Emma wanted to go to the tent selling homemade root beer, and cream soda. It was good but tasted differently than the pop they usually drank from cans.

  Lydia saw Grandma take photos so Lydia posed for Grandma with her bottle of root beer that was made with hickory roots.

  Emma wanted to make a candle, but she didn’t have the dollar fee for the piece of string on a stick, which was called a starter. Grandma said for Emma to wait until she took the photo of Ava and Lila Prather dipping their starter into the huge pot of liquid wax. After the picture was taken, Grandma gave Emma a dollar. Emma went around the cir
cle four times to dip her candle, which got bigger and bigger.

  A little later, we saw a man who looked like Abraham Lincoln walking with two women. Emma wondered why the woman, dressed in black, looked so sad. “You could ask her,” her mother said.

  “I saw you talking to President Lincoln,” Emma said. “Yes,” replied the woman. “I was telling him that my son died in the war. President Lincoln said that he was sorry.”

  Emma’s mom said it was time to head back to the tent to get ready for the hog roast at 5 p.m.

  People sat on hay bales with boards over them for the church service on Sunday morning. Emma watched the girls who were friends as they giggled and talked before church began.

  Then old, old songs were sung like “Amazing Grace” that grandma said was a hymn that was written in the 1700’s.

  After church on Sunday, Emma and her mom and grandma returned to the Civil War area of the park. They didn’t want to miss the conversations with Mrs. Adrianna Knapp and her daughter Mindy about Victorian hair styles, clothing and manners followed by a Victorian Tea.

  Emma thought that some things, like the meaning of how you held your fan, were quite funny.

  Emma didn’t wear a hat but sat by her mother with the pirate’s hat and some women who wore bonnets.

  The tea table was beautiful but the best part of the tea was when Miss Mindy asked her to be a “tea deputy” which meant that she got to serve the cookies.

  Soon it was 3p.m. and time to break camp for the 4 p.m. closing.

  “What did you like about the weekend?” Grandma asked. “I liked the sewing and the Victorian Tea,” Emma said.