Through It All

Chapter 2

The rustling of fresh kindling just laid in the fireplace below awakened Ernest with a start. Realizing the significance of this day as the beginning of a new chapter in his life, Ernest immediately slid off of the sheet and into his clothes. Soundlessly, he tied his boots and crept down the ladder as Albert slept on under the quilts they shared.

Mama stirred the hot coals under the kindling until the sparks turned to flames and added a few logs. Mama and Papa's sleepyeyed movements caused him to silently question if they even remembered what today was. As he and Papa buttoned their coats as usual, it outwardly seemed like any other day.

Yet inwardly, Ernest felt ready to burst with enthusiasm. The thick, autumn fog on this morning appeared to have sunlight streaming through it, even though the sun hadn't yet shown any signs of its face over the horizon. Never had his chores of milking a goat and cleaning out the horse stalls and pig pen been finished so rapidly!

In no time at all, Ernest set the milk pail in the kitchen. Then he and Papa washed up for breakfast. Emma had just finished helping Lana and barely-awakened Adalee with their hair. While the girls helped Mama, Papa and Ernest settled down near the fireplace with Albert for a few minutes.

Ernest fidgeted, not knowing what to do with himself.

"How are ya doing down there, baby brother?" Ernest messed Albert's hair a bit, which set Albert to attempt to wrestle his big brother to the floor. Grabbing tightly onto his big brother's leg, Albert lunged for the floor. "I'll get you!" In the midst of Papa's jovial cheers of "That's right, Albert! Get him down!", Mama called them all to eat. Albert complained groaned and complained, "Mama! I was just . . ."

"Well, look at all this! You've really outdone yourself this morning, Ada," Papa exclaimed, lifting "Little Man" Albert and carrying him over one shoulder.

Mama responded, "Well, I couldn't send my working men out the door hungry, could I ?"

Ernest raised himself from the floor and looked to see that besides the bread, butter, milk, and cheese, there were extra eggs. Also, a bit of the precious, smoked pork lay on only Papa's and Ernest's plates.

* * * * * * * *

The rustling of dry leaves against Papa's and Ernest's boots were the only sounds heard as the two men strolled along the meandering path at the edge of woods to the cobbler shop. The shop lay about two miles northeast of the Mann household. Alongside Papa, the sun rose, peeking in and out of the dense tree limbs and shrubbery.

Inside of the teen, excitement grew along with a touch of anxiety. Silently pondering the little he knew of shoe cobbling, Ernest said to himself, "I must do well. I must."

Ernest glanced over to perceive Papa was deep in thought. Papa started to speak a couple of times and then stopped.

"Son?"

"Yes, Papa?"

"I remember the day I was heading off to my first real job. My papa wasn't going to be there to make sure I worked hard and behaved responsibly as he wanted. It's only now that I look back over the years that I realize that first job was the time of my life when I made my life's most important decisions. I decided to be a real man and work hard even if others around me didn't. I decided to follow Christ no matter what. . ."

Papa's eyes suddenly grew distant and Ernest knew he must be remembering the horror stories he had told about life during The Thirty Years' War. Papa was just a baby when his family had fled from Germany to the Swiss Alps. They had hid in the mountains, moving from place to place.

They had to live in fear because they refused to baptize their babies- baptizing only adult new believers- and obeyed only the God of the Scriptures. The Catholics and often the Protestants hated them deeply because many hundreds of new believers had been leaving their churches and joining these various "heretical" groups that were referred to as Anabaptists. These new believers were rebaptized, immersed in ponds, creeks,lakes or rivers. While the Catholics and Protestants fought each other in this bloody war that killed many, many thousands, they also both sought out the Anabaptists to torture and kill.