The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

“Aye,” Fred said, nodding, as though girls rode to him through snowstorms all
the time, needing wool. He disappeared into the stables, and I heard him clop
up the stairs to the rooms in the loft where he lived. He came down carrying a
cloth bag printed in bright flowers. “It’s the missus’s knitting bag,” he said,
thrusting it at me. “It’s full of wool. All sorts. You can have it.”
I didn’t know he had a missus. “Aye,” he said, in response to my unspoken
question. “She’s been dead five years. Was nurse to Miss Margaret and
Master Jonathan, and before that to their mother and her brothers.”
I squashed the bulky bag beneath my jacket to keep it out of the snow.
Butter tossed his head, restless, and I let him turn for home.
“Wait.” Fred grabbed Butter’s bridle. “When someone gives you a
present,” he said, with a gentle smile, “you say ‘Thank you.’”
Susan had taught me that, but I’d been so busy thinking about the wool the
bag contained that I’d forgotten. “Thank you, Fred,” I said. “Thank you very
much. I wish I could say thank you to your missus too.”
“Ah, well.” He shook his head. “Happen she’d be glad I found her things a
good home. You’re very welcome, child.”
It was Thursday already and Christmas was Monday, so I didn’t have much
time. When I got home I dumped the bag onto my bed. There were five sets
of knitting needles, from thick to thin, and a handful of smaller thin sticks that
were pointed on both ends. There were all sorts of oddments of wool, rolled
into balls, and there were six balls of fine, white wool.
The white wool would be best. I had plenty of it. I cast on and started to
work.
I expected Susan to be suspicious when I spent the whole afternoon in my
cold bedroom, and she was. “What are you up to?” she asked at dinner.
I ran through my options in my head. I wasn’t sleeping. I wasn’t taking a
bath. I couldn’t be listening to the radio. Stalling while I searched for a
plausible excuse, I said, “Nothing.”
To my surprise, she grinned. “Oh, really? I’ll make a bargain with you.
You can have a few hours of nothing time upstairs anytime the rest of this
week you like, as long as you give me the same amount of nothing time