Exceedingly Mundane

Heidi, over at God’s Grace in Practice, tagged me with this book tag and meme. It’s easy, so I thought I’d play along. Here’s the rules:

Pass this on to 5 blogging friends.
Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56. Write the 5th sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that.

I’m currently reading “Till Morning is Nigh” by Leisha Kelly. This is the first book I’m reading as part of the Winter Holidays Reading Challenge. It’s part of a series of books I’m reading about the Wortham’s, a family living in Indiana during the Great Depression. These are Christian fiction books, and I’m really enjoying them 🙂

My passage is:

“You know he always buys us candy in December.”

Here’s what happened before this – the ten Hammond children are staying with the Worthams, whose farm is closest to theirs. Their mother died last Christmas and their father, George, is ill-equipped to raise one children, let alone ten. The task falls mostly to the oldest Hammond daughter, Lizbeth, and Mrs. Wortham. Last year at Christmas, George Hammond tried to end his life, but Samuel Wortham found him in time. This year, the Depression is even worse, and the economy even bleaker. They are struggling just to put food on the table for so many mouths, and to find sugar to bake cookies with and material to sew a small doll from as a gift. Anyway, George Hammond has disappeared and has left everyone else wondering where he is and what he is doing during a snowstorm right before Christmas.

As the tag suggests, here’s the next several sentences:

“He’d a’ took the horse and wagon if he was going to town,” Kirk echoed Franky’s understanding. “It don’t take no wagon to haul home Christmas candy,” Joe argued. He forced a little smile. “He didn’t have money for that much.”

“Well, he’s a grown man,” I told everyone. “And since it is December, it’s probably best not to keep up our guessing.” I knew the skepticism in the children’s faces, especially Willy and Kirk. But I deeply appreciated Joe’s optimism. Far better for the little ones to have a little ordinary hopefulness than a fearful doubting of their father’s intentions.

Let’s see, I’m supposed to tag five others for this… I guess I’ll tag:

1. Gail at More Than a Song
2. Lynne at Lynne’s Little Corner
3. Kim at Mom’s Musings
4. Karen at Over the Backyard Fence
5. Katrina at Callapidder Days

P.S. I haven’t checked to see if any of them have already been tagged. If you have, I’m sorry for not checking first! 🙂