"Do you remember when I told you about my cousin Tobias in Pennsylvania?" Paul asked Elizabeth one day.
She frowned. "I'm not sure."
"He's invited us to come for a visit. I haven't seen him since I was ten years old. I'd love for you and the children to meet him and his family."
"That sounds like something we'd all enjoy," Elizabeth replied.
As the family entered the community Tobias called home, she felt as if she were going back in time. A long dirt road led through miles and miles of green pasture with grazing cows, and every so often, a carriage drawn by horses would ride past.
"Wow, this is just like being back in the pioneer days!" Max exclaimed. His parents laughed.
"We're going to visit your cousins, Max," Paul told his son.
"You mean besides John Curtis and Ginny and Vivian and Rosemary?"
"Right. These are your cousins on my side."
At last they reached the small, white, wooden house where Tobias and his family lived. Their immaculate green lawn was surrounded by a white picket fence. Tobias was sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch when they arrived. He had curly auburn hair and a beard and was wearing a white shirt with black pants and suspenders. On his head was a straw hat. He rose to greet his guests.
"Paul? Good to see you again!" The cousins embraced.
"This is my wife Elizabeth, our son Max, and our daughter Laura," said Paul.
"It's good to meet you all. Come on in." Tobias led the family into the house. Elizabeth saw that the walls were painted white and all the furniture was made of plain wood. A blue and white checked table cloth covered the table, at which a young woman wearing a long dress and a white cap moved a stick around inside a barrel. A boy of about three sat on the floor playing with blocks.
"This is my wife, Sarah, and our son, Amon," said Tobias. "Sarah, this is my cousin Paul and his family."
"How do you do." The woman smiled as she stood to shake hands with Paul and Elizabeth. "Welcome to our humble home. Please, make yourselves comfortable while I finish churning the butter." She gestured toward a comfortable looking sofa. "I'll join you when I'm finished."
"You churn your own butter?" Elizabeth couldn't believe her ears.
"Of course I do," Sarah replied. "I churn butter, bake bread and pies, pick, clean, and cook vegetables, draw water from the well, sweep the floor, sew and mend clothing, wash dishes, wash laundry, hang it to dry, pickle and can vegetables, and make jams, jellies, and preserves from fruit."
"Where's your television?" asked Max.
"We don't have one," said Sarah.
"But don't you even have a radio?" asked Laura.
Sarah shook her head. "We are a plain people who live simple lives, as God intended for us to do."
"But how do you get by without a television or radio?" Laura wanted to know.
"Come along." Sarah led the family into the master bedroom. "I have something to show you."
Upon the bed lay the most beautiful quilt any of them had ever seen. It was white with a green pattern of vines with blue and red flowers.
"Wow!" Laura breathed. "Did you really make that all by yourself?"
"I sure did." Sarah smiled. "It won first place at the county fair last year."
"Could you teach me how to make one?" asked Laura.
Sarah laughed. "It takes a long, long time to make one. I mostly work on my current one by kerosene lamp at night, when Amon's asleep, but I'll show you a few stitches right now, if you want."
"Oh, yes!"
Bored, Max wandered outside in search of his father.
"I can't believe you do as much as you do!" Elizabeth exclaimed. "How do you ever find the time for everything?"
"If you're raised this way, it comes second nature to you," Sarah told her. "I'm so grateful to live in the United States, where we are free to live as we choose. I feel so sad when I think of what our ancestors in Frankfurt went through three hundred years ago."
"What happened to them?" Elizabeth's curiosity was piqued.
Sarah sat on the edge of the bed and motioned for Elizabeth to join her. "Because we don't baptize our children and because of the simple way we live, the Lutherans hated them," she said. "Many were burned at the stake or strangled with iron collars around the neck. Often a young woman, a wife and mother, would be put to death in a most horrid way. Her arms and legs would be bound, her feet would be severed at the ankle by a knife, and then she would be thrown into the water where, unable to kick, she would sink quickly."
Elizabeth heard Laura gasp and saw that she looked as if she were about to cry.
"It was a really long time ago, sweetie." She pulled her daughter into her lap and held her tight. "Nothing like that ever happens anymore."
Paul, Elizabeth and their children stayed with Tobias, Sarah and Amon for a week, learning a way of life that was completely new to them. By their last day, Elizabeth had grown so close to Sarah she was reluctant to leave. The two women embraced and promised to stay in touch.
"I had such a good time, I can't wait to visit again!" Elizabeth exclaimed as Paul drove his family home, but he frowned.
"I don't know that it's such a wonderful way to live," he said. "Do you know they don't have their children vaccinated? Tobias told me they prefer to leave their health in the hands of the Lord, but what if we all thought like that?"
Elizabeth could only shake her head in response.
