I came here looking for something
I couldn’t find anywhere else
Sam started with household chores, and he was soon assigned to milking cows and feeding calves, and he helped clean the stalls and the equipment. There was plenty to do around the farm. Sometimes he’d join Mr. Dorah on his John Deere out on the corn and alfalfa. Mr. Dorah told Sam he wouldn’t get to drive the tractor until he was ten or more, but Sam watched attentively, just in case he might find himself behind the wheel any sooner.
Sam found work much less difficult than leisure. The harder the work got, it seemed, the easier life became. Work was peace, whereas leisure let the ghosts in, just as sleep let the dreams in.
Mr. Dorah was happy to have such a hard-working junior dairyman on the farm. Sam had a lot to learn, but he was eager to work, so he was eager to learn. Mrs. Dorah was happy to have company around the house, though the boy’s silence sometimes troubled her.
Sam and Buck became fixtures at the dairy. No word was heard from the boy’s parents. The Dorahs didn’t dare adopt Sam. They spoke of him as if it were understood that they had, but they didn’t dare involve him in paperwork. They spoke cautiously of him in their prayers, not daring to tempt the Fates, and they came to dread the day when Destiny might suddenly snatch away what it had given so mysteriously.