The Springtime Mail Order Bride by Kit Morgan

they won’t be pulling any more pranks after I’m done with them.”
     
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Eight
     
    Samijo and Ma sat at the kitchen table peeling potatoes. One or both women would glance out the kitchen window every few minutes wondering if Arlan was done giving his “talk” to his younger brothers. They’d seen him march them into the barn a half hour ago, and been on pins and needles ever since.
    “You don’t think he’ll be too hard on them, do you?” Samijo asked as she recalled seeing Calvin come flying out of the barn the day before.
    Ma looked up from her peeling. “ Depends on how much arguing there is.  Arlan slid into the role of their pa not long after we lost him.  He’s tried to emulate him to his brothers, but decided he’d be better off dealing with them his own way.”
    “Which way is that?” Samijo asked. Before Ma could answer, the back door opened.  Three young men trudged into the kitchen and stood around the table. “Oh my goodness …” she whispered as she took in their faces.
    Calvin’s left eye was swelling shut.  Benjamin’s jaw was red and bruising, and Daniel looked like his nose had been bleeding. Arlan came through the door, his face stern. Samijo stood up. “Arlan Weaver! What have you done?”
    His brow puckered. “What have I done? Nothing.”
    “But look at them!” she said with a sweep of her hand indicating his brothers. “Is this how you solve a problem? By beating them to death?”
    Arlan stared at her, dumbfounded . “What’s got you so riled up? For your information, I didn’t lay a hand on them. They did it to themselves trying to figure out whose fault it was for spooking my team of horses yesterday, and this,” he said as he pointed to his forehead.
    “What?” his mother asked. She looked at her other three sons.  “That must have been quite a disagreement. ”
    Benjamin, Calvin and Daniel, looked at anything in the room but their mother.  Even Samijo was preferable to any possible storm that could erupt out of the tiny woman on the other side of the table. Benjamin shifted his weight from one foot to the other and cleared his throat. “We’re sorry ma’am, er … Samantha, uh … I mean Samijo.” he glanced to Arlan, who folded his arms over his chest and nodded. “We all knew what Calvin done. Was me that gave him the slingshot to  … do the deed.”
    Daniel stepped forward. “I’m sorry too. It was my idea. He was supposed to hit Arlan, not the horse.”
    Samijo’s mouth hung open at this point.
    “I promise to practice,” Calvin said. “So I won’t miss next time.”
    Arlan groaned at his brother’s words, then fingered the lump on his head and winced.
    “Calvin!” their mother cried. “You’ll do no such thing!”
    Samijo stared at him. “Practice?” she said in disbelief. “You could have got us killed.”
    “He didn’t mean it,” Arlan added. “Did you, Calvin?”
    Calvin swallowed hard. “Er … I guess I didn’t …” He backed away from the table and headed for the door. “I gotta go wash up.”  Benjamin and Daniel took the cue, and quickly followed.  The three filed out the door and disappeared. Samijo sat. “How’s your head?”
    “I’ll live. And you? How are you doing?”
    “I’m … fine.”
    “You wouldn’t be lying to me now, would you?”
    Ma glanced between the two of them. “Go wash up, Arlan.  We’ll have lunch ready real soon.”
      He hesitated, and looked at his wife. “They’ll get better, I promise. Remember, you married me, not them.”
    Samijo stared after him as he left, the kitchen door slamming behind him as he did. “Did I say something wrong?”
    “Land sakes no. “He’s upset because he thinks you are.  Arlan tries to keep everybody happy. But he’ll be concentrating on you now that he’s married.” She reached across the table and put a hand over Samijo’s. “You have every right to be angry and I wouldn’t blame