Book 2 of the Little Eli Series. A sequel to You Are Too Small, Little Eli!.

Here he is again, little Eli—still small but a bit older, a bit taller, and still wishing to help Dad on the farm. At their new home in eastern Kansas, a place of creeks and fertile fields, Eli is more than just a water boy. He milks Hipbones every day, and when the rush of summer arrives, Dad needs his help to rake the sweet-smelling hay. Dad also promises Eli he may run the buckrake, pushing the windrows into piles. But each time Eli tries, something dreadful happens.

Eli is never happier than when he can explore Fish Creek, which meanders through their farm. Then Dad and Mom begin to see dangers in Kansas that Eli doesn't fully comprehend. They begin praying about another move, and Eli finds he must leave Fish Creek and the West far behind. Will his dreams of becoming a cowboy farmer on the prairie be lost forever?

Contents

• Preface
• Prologue

• 1. Too Poor to Go Farther
• 2. Mrs. Snyder
• 3. The Button-Up Shoes
• 4. Write It a Thousand Times
• 5. Rats in the Attic
• 6. Surprise From the Junkyard
• 7. The Almost-End of School
• 8. Which Lever Does What?
• 9. Patsy Comes to Stay
• 10. The Sure-Enough Mad Dog
• 11. The Watkins Farm
• 12. Choosing to Belong
• 13. The Christmas Train
• 14. The Big Red Bull
• 15. A Herdsman for Dannie
• 16. Buckrake and the Bees
• 17. Weeds in the Corn
• 18. Visit to Oklahoma
• 19. Rabbit Hunt With Patsy
• 20. No Funeral for Ben
• 21. Queen Gets the Spooks
• 22. Responsible Hired Man
• 23. The Wonderful New Machine
• 24. Home Alone
• 25. Hail on the Wheat
• 26. Mountains of Virginia
• 27. War's End
• 28. Good-bye, Grossmommy, Good-bye
• 29. Letter from Uncle Ed
• 30. Rubber-Tried Tractor
• 31. "Din-nah in tha Reah!"
• 32. Surrounded by Mist
• 33. Just the Boy We Need

• Glossary of Pennsylvania Dutch Terms