Untitled
Short Story by John E."Frail" Joines
no date
Zeb Yates had lost his best coon dog right when he
needed her the worst way for he had a pair of pups coming a year
old and they needed a good old experienced dog to show them how
to run and tree the hard-to-tree coons. He had been expecting Queen
to come back home but she had been gone for three weeks now and
hadnt come. She had run a coon across the mountain one night
and he knew that she had either got hung in a hole in the ground
or someone had stole her. He knew that if someone had her and ever
tied her with a rope or string that she would cut it and come home.
Zeb lived in a valley in the mountains of Wilkes County, North Carolina,
and he had several friends who had good dogs but there was few that
could run and tree a hard coon like Queen could. I can count them
on the fingers of one hand and they wouldnt sell them at no
price arid it was hard for a man that had ever owned a number one
dog to be satisfied with a second rate one. There is Don Reavis
who has a good Black & Tan but he has a few faults, but you
dont see no dogs that dont have a few but come to think
of it there isnt any people that dont have no faults
so why look for a perfect dog?
Well, he would go down to the general store and post on the bulletin
board that he was in the market for a good coon dog but he didnt
have much hope of finding one to suit him for the good ones wasnt
for sale at this time of year. He went straight to the bulletin
board and looked it over when he got to the store but it had the
usual items on it, hay, corn, pigs, milk cows and farm machinery,
so he wondered how to word his ad but didnt know how much
to offer for a good dog so he just put it in these words: Wanted
a No. 1 coon dog, will pay a good price, and he went on in the store
to see who was in there to talk to as it was the hangout of every
coon hunter in the valley. There wasnt but three in there
when he came in and the first thing they wanted to know if he had
heard anything from Queen, but he told them not a word and he had
decided to buy himself another dog if he could find one that would
suit him. They all shook their heads and looked glum and said they
didnt think he would ever find another like Queen for she
as the best in the country take her in every way.
Of course there was Dons Black & Tan that was good to
strike, run and tree but he was ill with a strange dog and would
growl and start a fight if you didnt watch him and stay after
him. Coyt Watt had a treeing Walker which was fast and good but
was a little too timid around a mean dog. Ben Sloops Red Bone
was a good dog but would break over and run a fox now and then.
He wasn't bad but kept Ben in a sweat wondering if old Red was going
to embarrass him or not. Slim Foster had a 8lue Tic bitch that was
good but sometimes she wanted to tree too quick and would tree a
marked tree and she couldnt stand too much running in deep
streams where she had to swim a lot. Hal Parson had a mixed breed
that was No. 1 in every way but he wanted to tree a little wide
at the tree and wouldnt show you the right tree arid you had
to find the coon. Oh well, even Queen would hang on a cold track
sometimes too long so there didnt seem to be any use to look
for the perfect dog.
Brett Call looked at his mothers swollen jaw and knew she
was in pain from the white line around her mouth and got his coat
and cap off the nails where they hung in the kitchen and said to
his dog Bigun which was watching him to see if he was going hunting
and if he would let him go along. They was more than boy and dog,
they was a team that had to feed his mother and six brothers and
sisters that was younger than him and he was just fourteen and the
dog was almost two years old. "Mother, I am going over in the
valley to the store and get some things we need and Ill see
if he has something to ease the pain while I am over there."
His mother looted at him with so much love in her eyes that he choked
up and looked the other way and she said, "Be careful, son,
and dont worry about me for I can stand the pain." He
decided to take his rifle and dog and kill enough squirrels for
supper for food was scarce and when you had as many mouths to feed
as he did you didnt think of much else.
He looked at his dog and thought about how he had come by him as
Ken Jones had a Beagle gyp and she had a litter of pups and one
in the litter was about twice as big as the rest and Ken gave it
to him and they called him "the big one" and he wound
up with the name, Bigun. He wasnt the prettiest dog in the
world as he was wide through his chest and head. Fair-sized ears
but they didnt hang too close to his head. But he was some
dog. When you wanted to catch a horse or cow, chicken or hog, you
couldnt beat him and he was also a No. 1 rabbit and squirrel
dog in the daytime and a coon dog at night. You could get $2.50
- $3.50 for a good coon hide and the meat was good to eat if it
was fixed right so he had to depend on Bigun for shoes and clothes
for the kids and his mother with what he could make at odd Jobs
when he wasnt working on the farm.
His father had died in a car wreck last winter and it took every
cent they had to bury him. He could get by on what they made together
but his mother needed an operation on an embedded wisdom tooth and
the dentist wouldnt do it unless he had a hundred dollars
and try as hard as he could he couldn t come up with any way
that he could get it. His mother had tried to teach him to trust
in God and ask him for his needs but he had never took her very
seriously but he had reached the place where he didnt know
where to turn.
So he pulled off his cap ad bowed his head and said in a whisper:
"God Im asking you to make a way for my mother to have
the operation. I know you dont know me and I am ashamed to
ask but I dont know anywhere else to go and I cant stand
to see her suffer even though I know she would never tell me that
she was in pain for she wouldnt want to worry me. God, if
you will do this Ill thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Amen. He wiped the tears from his eyes and looked around to see
if anyone had heard and then he straightened up his shoulders and
said I dont care if they did, I meant every word of it, so
there.
Going on across Long Ridge, as the local people called it but which
was really a large mountain, he killed six squirrels and two rabbits
from his dog and he had a pretty good load. When he got to the general
store he stopped at the bulletin board and the first thing that
caught his eyes was where the man wanted the coon dog and he gasped
for breath as he read it for he had asked God for a way to get a
hundred dollars and here it was on the board. Oh no, he couldnt
sell Bigun for he was more than a dog. But he remembered hearing
the preacher say that you didnt play with God almighty for
you would regret it all the days of your life and then burn in h--l
and he had asked God to make a way and He had made it and he had
to live up to his end of the bargain.
So he squared his shoulders and held his head high as he marched
into the store and asked Si Hawkins if he knew where he could get
in touch with Zeb Yates. Si looked at him and jerked his thumb over
at the group of men at the other end of the store and said, "Thar
he is in the red plaid jacket, son." The boy strode across
the room with the dog at his heels and said, "You Mr. Yates?"
Zeb looked at the boy and liked what he saw and said in a soft low
voice, "Yes, son. What can I do for you?" "That your
ad wanting a No. 1 coon dog out there on the wall?" asked the
boy. "Yes," said Zeb, "do you know where I might
find one?" "Yes, I have him," said the boy. "Where
is he?" "Right there," said the boy, and Zeb saw
that he was fighting back tears and he looked into his eyes and
saw the hurt and misery in them and he wondered what was going on
but he knew enough not to push too fast when pressure was built
up that high for things had a habit of exploding when you did so,
he decided to go slow and easy until things began to clear up.
When the men looked at the small heavy built dog they started to
laugh but a glance from Zeb killed it before it got going for although
Zeb Yates had the name of being easygoing, when he looked at you
like that you didnt laugh. He took a good look at the dog
and what he saw pleased him for the dog was a little wide through
the head and breast but he tapered off in the hips and he stood
up on the balls of his feet balanced good and he had his alert large
eyes on the boys face watching every expression and sensing
that something was wrong but not knowing what it was, he was ready
for anything. He wasnt nervous but he had every muscle taut
as a banjo string waiting for the boy to give a command and he would
give every ounce of his strength to carry it through. He asked the
boy softly if the dog treed good and if he was a good strike dog
and if he was broke good. He knew that if anything will relax a
dog man and put him at ease, talking about his dog will do so, but
the boy didnt take the bait like he thought he would. He looked
at the man for a minute and reached in his coat and pulled out the
squirrels and rabbits and said, "He treed the squirrels as
I come over the ridge so you know he will tree." Zeb smiled
and said that he didnt need no squirrel and rabbit dog but
was looking for a coon dog. The boy looked him in the eyes and told
him that he was looking at a No. 1 coon dog and if he didnt
believe it just to set a date and he would go with any dog or dogs
and show him that his dog was as good as he would find or maybe
a little better than he could find anywhere else. "I can show
you better than I can tell you," he said.
Now Zeb felt the boys anger mount up and he let it sting him
a little and he said, "Im going to let you prove that
so bring him over here at the store Saturday night about seven oclock
and if he will do the work and I like him Ill give you a hundred
dollars for him. By the way, why do you want to sell him?"
The boy looked at him and said, "I dont want to sell
him but my mother needs an operation on her jaw and the dentist
said he had to have a hundred dollars. Si Hawkins looked over at
the boy and said, "Maybe you can tree old Rip Van Winkle, or
Old Rip for short, for I have a standing offer of a hundred dollars
for his hide but nobody has been able to collect it so far. He either
trees in a rock den or gets into the big swamp and outsmarts the
dogs and they cant tree him so I offered one hundred dollars
to the man that brings in his hide. You dont think that your
dog can tree him do you sonny?" he asked as he winked at the
men. The boy looked down at the dog and said softly, "If any
dog can tree him, you can, cant you boy?" And the dog
wagged his tail and whined through his nose, and Zeb had a feeling
that the dog understood what the boy said and he was telling him
that he would tree the coon.
The boy looked at Zeb and told him that he would be there at the
store Saturday night and he would love to try for Old Rip. He bought
a few groceries and some clove oil for his mothers jaw and
left the store, and when he was gone the men all started laughing
and talking at once about how foolish the boy was to think he could
bilk an old coon hunter out of a hundred dollars with a rabbit dog
and him a mixed breed at that, but Zeb said, "Men, that boy
dont want to sell that dog no more than he wants to sell his
right arm but he has to for his mother. Dont be too surprised
if he aint hard to outdo on a coon for there is a lot of dog
in that hide and if he thinks that boy wants him to do anything
he will bust his hide trying to do it for him. Did you see how they
looked at each other? I want to know if anyone knows anything about
that boy, where he lives and all that."
Si spoke up and said that his father had bought the Tilley place
over on the other side of Long Ridge but got killed last winter
in a car wreck and left a house full of kids and a widow and the
boy was the oldest one and he was trying to farm and working at
odd jobs but you know how hard it is to make a living in these mountains.
"That boy brought in some nice coon hides last winter but I
dont know if he caught them with this dog or not as the dog
didnt look to be over two years old and he would have been
a puppy last winter. "Zeb said, "I wouldnt be a
bit surprised if he didnt catch them with him." He turned
to the men and said, "I want you boys to bring the four best
dogs in the valley Saturday and go hunting and no smart remarks
for the boy and the dog will get a fair shake or Ill know
why, and I want to see if we can strike Old Rip for I got a funny
feeling when that boy said he will tree him if any dog can and saw
the look that passed between them." Someone said, "You
wouldnt buy that dog, would you, Zeb, no better than he looks?"
Zeb said softly, "I never judge a man or dog on what I see
at a glance for you have to look inside to see what they are made
of."
Saturday night ro1led around and by seven oclock there was
quite a few coon hunters and friends there for words get around
fast in a mountain village and the boy wasnt and people began
to mutter and talk, "He wont show. Might have known he
wasn't no coon dog." But Zeb said, "Just wait a few minutes,
hell show and tell why he is late." Then someone said,
"I see a light coming in a hurry and it must be him."
Then he rushed up and said all out of breath, "Im sorry
that I am late but the cows got out and we had to drive them up
and fix the fence before I could come," and Zeb thought under
his breath, "Didnt eat no supper and ran all the way
across the mountain to keep his word." Zeb walked into the
store and came out with a thick slice of cheese, some crackers,
a cake and a can drink and handed it to the boy and said, "I
know you can use this if you walked fast all the way over here."
The boy was about to refuse it but he looked at his dog, back at
Zeb, and took it and thanked him and started to eat but when he
thought no one was looking he slipped the cheese to his dog and
ate the crackers and cake, and Zeb saw it and the tears came into
his eyes and he was glad that it was night and no one could see
that he was getting soft in his old age. Well, they finally got
started and they decided to go over to a large creek by the name
of Falls Creek and see if they couldnt strike Old Rip as it
was on one of his runs and it was the night he was due. Don had
his Black Tan, Coyt his treeing Walker, Ben had old Red, Slim had
his Blue Tick bitch, Hal had his mixed breed Lead, and they was
counted the best in the valley after Queen got gone and everyone
knew that if the Beagle could run and tree with them that he had
to be good.
So they went over to Falls Creek and Zeb said, "Lets
put them up the creek and walk up on the ridge east of there, and
if there is a coon in the county and they strike we can hear them
from up there." So they let all the dogs loose, and a rabbit
jumped up and took off up the road, and when he made his first jump
the Beagle went up on his toes but when he saw what it was he eased
back on the balls of his feet, and Zeb had that feeling that some
coon hunters was in for a surprise that night. He heard several
snide remarks about, "Too small to run a coon, Cant keep
up with a real coon hound, Might last thirty minutes in a real hard
race if the water wasnt too deep," but all he could think
of was how he wished he had Queen here tonight. They put the dogs
up the creek and started up the ridge, and the boy got in front
and Zeb was hard pushed to keep up with him and he had never had
many people to push him when he started climbing a mountain. All
at once the boy said to him, "Mr. Yates, tell me about old
Rip." Zeb looked at him and smiled in the dark and said, "You
can call me Zeb, son, for real coon hunters dont Mr. one another,"
and he felt some tightness leave the boy and he went on, "Old
Rip got his name from being around so long and I guess he is the
daddy of more coons than any other coon in these parts and all his
offspring are more intelligent than other coons. Run longer and
are harder to catch than the other coons around here. You see, there
are a few of us oldtimers that used to hunt this area when there
wasn't nothing but mountain coons up here and they was hard to catch,
but people wasnt satisfied with them and wanted to help out
so they ordered coons from down on the coast and Florida through
the Wild Life but they are easy to catch, and some people like to
catch them but I dont. I like to feel like my dog has done
something when I catch a coon. You can tell the old mountain coons
by their size and color. They are a lot darker and longer and thinner
and it takes a good dog to kill one. I know a lot of hunters that
say that they have treed Old Rip where they could get him but wouldnt
because they wanted to save him for seed, but I dont believe
that for I have had as good a dog as anyone and I have never seen
him. I dont know if I would take him if I treed him where
I could or not for we never know what we will do until we face up
to something. I love to think that I would leave him for seed but
I dont know."
They arrived at the top of the ridge and they stomped and listened
to see if they could hear any of the dogs but all was quiet. They
hadnt been there very long until they heard the others coming
up the ridge talking as they came, and Zeb wondered what was on
the boys mind as he wasnt talking very much but he thought
he understood and he knew that the boy was carrying a load for one
so young but he wasnt crying about it and Zeb liked him for
that. The others arrived about that time and asked if they had heard
the dogs but Zeb told them no, and someone said it was about time
they was striking but all was quiet and still. All at once the boy
said, "I hear Bigun on the far side of that ridge and he has
a pretty good track and he is coming this way." Zeb couldnt
hear a thing and he wondered if the boy was making it up for he
thought to himself that it would push a fast dog to get over that
ridge from where they had turned them loose but all at once he heard
him and he liked his mouth. Not too coarse but clear as a bell and
the kind you can hear a long way and dont drown out in a pack,
and he was moving good too as he hit the top of the ridge and started
down toward Falls Creek and they heard the Walker whine a time or
two going to him from on up the creek. Coyt slapped his knee and
said, "We will find out in a minute if he is big enough to
run with coon dogs when my Walker gets there." The boy gave
a fast glance at Coyt but didnt say anything and Zeb thought
to himself, "If I am any judge of a dogs speed, and I
hunted this section all my life, you dont have to worry about
the boys dog running up with your Walker if he can hold that
gait for he sure aint standing still."
About that time big Red and the Walker hit the track ahead of the
Beagle at the same time and they started to make hound music, but
when the Beagle got to the place where they hit he hushed up and
Zeb looked at the boy and asked, "What now?" The boy said
softly, "He wont open on a covered track for he has to
be in front where the track is clear when he opens on it."
Zeb shook his head for a dog really has to move to run in front
and if he dont open only when he is in front you dont
hear him much unless he can really pour it on. But the Beagle was
quiet for only a minute or two and he was letting it roll out faster
and clear as a bell. About that time they hit the creek and turned
up the creek and the other three dogs met them, and they was at
a loss for a minute and the Beagle hit it off up the side of the
mountain and the others fell in behind him.
The coon went about half way up the mountain and cut back to the
creek but they pushed him so hard that he couldnt outrun them
up the creek so he turned back up the mountainside where he could
go up rock cliffs where the dogs had to go around and he could gain
a little time on them, and first one dog then another was hitting
off first but the Beagle was never ouiet long at a time and every
time he opened he was in front. All at once someone said, "That
is Old Rip that they are running for they are working up the creek
and any other coon would be working down the creek as hard as they
are pushing him," and they all agreed that he was right. The
dogs had decided that there wasnt any use in trying to outrun
the Beagle so they had settled down to running the track and wasnt
trying to whip ahead of him and they was moving at a fast clip and
making some good music when they came to a small branch and an old
deserted farm with the fields grown over with briers and broomsedge
and young pines, and they made a loss and one or two of the dogs
barked a few tree barks and someone said, "He has treed."
But Zeb said, "No, he is letting them know that he is a smart
coon and here is where you grade the pups from the coon dogs and
how I wish Queen was here. I have never known just what an old coon
does for dogs to be running him hard and fast and then have them
cold trail him for thirty or forty minutes and then take off like
he was shot out of a gun and maybe run him for an hour or two and
then trail him again. Oh, I heard how they walk on their toes so
they dont leave no scent or walk backward and all that, but
who taught them to do that? And who was lucky enough to put a light
on them and see them doing that? Anyway, I know that they can do
that, and do it. You might say that they never done your dog like
that and all I can say is that you have never run a mountain coon."
Well, it wasnt but a few minutes until the Beagle let out
a cry up the branch and the other dogs took off after him, and he
was running hard and they had a time catching up with him. And Zeb
looked over at Coyt and said, "I believe that he will make
a coon dog if he is hunted enough." Coyt said he didnt
believe he could last much longer and for us to just wait awhile,
but the dogs had topped the mountain by that time and Slim said,
"Boys, if that is Old Rip, and I believe it is, lets
go across that ridge and they will come down Shanty Branch and hit
the big swamp and there he will mess them up until they wont
know where he is." But the boy said, "He will have to
take a tree before the night is over." Slim said, "Son,
you have never run Old Rip before or you wouldnt talk like
that." They all took off over the other ridge and Zeb and the
boy got a way ahead of the others and the boy said, "Zeb, I
am sorry that you lost your dog for I know how it must hurt you
for I know how much you can love a good dog when you have hunted
with it a lot."
And when they got to the ridge where they could hear
the dogs if they came to the big swamp they sat down against a big
tree and all at once the boy said, "Listen, I hear Bigun and
there is a new dog with him but I don't hear the rest of them. Zeb
listened as hard as he could for ever so long and then he began
to pick up the bell tone voice of the Beagle and he heard the sound
of another dog and then they popped up over the ridge and he couldn't
believe his ears for a minute for it was Queen running for all she
was running for all she was worth and the Beagle was leading her
and letting that clear bell-like mouth really ring out in the cold
mountain air and Zeb said, I wonder what happened to the other dogs,
and the boy said, "I hear them coming trying to catch up."
And the other men caught up then and heard old Queen and the Beagle
putting the fire to the coon track and the other dogs behind try
to catch up. They couldnt believe their ears and asked Zeb
what happened and Zeb said, "I dont know what happened
and dont guess we will ever know but they picked up Queen
somewhere and her and the Beagle got ahead of the other dogs but
they will catch up the first bobble they make in the swamp."
And then the Beagle and Queen hushed for five minutes and the others
caught up and then Queen struck it off and they all put in with
her and they didnt hear the Beagle for a minute or two, and
then he grabbed the lead again and the race was on and Zeb said,
"I dont see how that Beagle can keep in front in the
water because he will have to swim where the other dogs can wade.
But he didnt know that the Beagle didnt do as much swimming
in the swap as he did jumping from one bunch of grass and swamp
weed to another and he could jump eight and ten feet at a time and
it was faster than trying to swim but you had to have a good nose
to do that and hold the track down, but the Beagle had that and
he had a trick or two that he had learned from running coons by
himself and one was that he could run a coon at a fast clip for
a couple of hours and then double the speed on him and you would
catch him off balance or surprise him and he would climb a tree.
He knew that this wasn't no ordinary coon for he was old and smart
and he hadnt got the urge to push him up a tree. He knew the
other dogs was getting tired for they wasnt pushing him as
hard as they did at first. Just as he was getting set to try to
make him climb, this new dog came in the race and he had to speed
up to outrun her but she was slacking off a little now so he was
about ready to make his move. One dog had quit the race but the
others was hanging on. When Slims Blue Tick bitch come out
she looked as if she had had it, but Zeb couldnt tell that
the Beagle had let up one and he knew that it was pushing Queen
to the utmost to keep up and the other dogs was still running only
because they had too much grit to quit. I dont know where
the Beagle gets his stamina from. But what he didnt know was
that the coon dogs was only out of the lot one or two nights a week
in the winter and not that much in the summer time and the Beagle
was out every day and night in the week chasing hogs, cows, rabbits,
squirrels, coons and chickens, or running and playing with the children.
Old Rip had tried about every trick he knew but they wasnt
working like they usually did. Oh, they would throw the dogs off
for a few minutes at a time but he just wan t getting as much
rest as he was used to getting for these dogs had kept him moving
for over four hours now at a fast clip and he decided that he had
better make one more loop through the swamp to get a start and head
for the big rock den at the top of the ridge, So he made his circle
over toward the men and then he turned and ran right back through
the dogs. He had done this many times before and it would mess them
up for there would be fresh scent going each way and the dogs would
get excited and run back and forward until they got so much dog
scent mixed with the coon scent that they couldnt make heads
or tails out of it and he could sink himself and just let the tip
of his nose stick out of the water and the dogs wouldnt find
him and when they got scattered over the swamp he would slip out
and go to the den.
So when he made his circle and turned to run back through the dogs
the Beagle decided to turn on the speed and make him climb a tree.
So he quit letting out the bell tone and cut it down to a short
hacking bark that sounded like a dog trying to get a bark out but
something cutting it off in the middle and he got the wind scent
of Old Rip in his nose and it was as if he was looking at him. And
for the first time Old Rip felt fear flow through his body and he
gave off more scent so the Beagle sensed the fear and he reached
back into the reserve that people and animals have and turned on
more speed. And Slim said, "My God, what is that?" And
the boy said, "That is Bigun and he is going to catch that
coon if he dont climb."
Every man there couldnt believe his ears for the Beagle went
back across the swamp a lot faster than they had ever heard any
dog go and the coon took to the ridge but he had to climb or get
caught so he went up a big white oak without a leaf on it and the
Beagle was quiet for about a minute and then he started treeing
with the best chopping mouth that Zeb had ever heard on any dog.
It made his hair stand on end to listen to it and all at once he
wanted that dog worse than anything that he had ever wanted and
then shame ran down through him as he remembered how the boy and
dog looked at each other. He had Queen back and here he was lusting
after the kids dog. He felt like kicking himself. Of course
the boy wouldnt have to sell now for somehow he knew that
Old Rip was up that tree and the boy would take his hide to Si and
get the hundred dollars he needed and he was glad that the boy didnt
have to sell the dog for they was part of each other. They got to
the tree and someone spotted Old Rip laying on a lower limb and
he was some coon to look at and his right foot was on the side of
a limb and two toes was missing from off his foot and every one
knew without a doubt that it was Old Rip.
Hal Parson had his rifle and he loaded it and handed it to Brett
and said, "Here, boy ,he is yours, all fair and square because
your dog struck him, outran all the other dogs and treed him and
that is something that our dogs cant do for they have had
a lot of chances and didnt do it. I want to ask you to forgive
me for what I thought about your dog although I didnt say
nothing. You can have the honor of shooting him out and I for one
will hold my dog and not let him put his mouth on him with yours
for he isnt in the same class with him." Ben Sloop spoke
up and said, "I think that Hal has pretty well spoke for all
of us so go ahead and shoot him." The boy took the gun and
the other men caught their dogs and all at once the boy felt sorry
for the men and. for Old Rip and he looked at Zeb and said, "I
can't shoot him and if any of you want the reward here is the gun,
and Zeb, if you think you would be interested in my dog you can
still have him for a hundred dollars." Zeb cleared his throat
and said, "I don't know if I like him or not. I want you to
promise to hunt with me some more, son, until I find out if he is
my kind of dog. I didnt like his mouth when he ran that last
race before he treed. Oh, by the way, if I remember right that place
over there where you live has a lot of black locust on it and I
need about two hundred posts and if I get someone to help cut and
load them, would you let me have them? I figure they should be worth
about sixty cents apiece." The boys face lit up and he
said, "I sure would and what day do you think you can come
after them?" Zeb looked at the men and said, "Can I get
some of you to help me cut and load them Monday?" The men said,
"Well, I guess we all can help and it wont take but a
couple of hours to get them."
The boy took off up the road home with a spring in his step that
can only come from being at peace inside and out, and he looked
up at the stars and said, "Thank you Jesus for what you have
done this night." Zeb looked at the men and said in a low voice,
"Men, you have just saw a man and his dog and there isnt
a one here that is fit to be in his company but you all can find
out from Si what size clothes that the whole family wears and if
they find a box of clothing and groceries on the porch Sunday when
they come home from church it wont hurt no one and you all
will feel much cleaner inside and out than you do now. And I think
it is time for us to go home so we can be at church tomorrow"
And as he walked away he heard one of them say, "Beats me why
Zeb bought two hundred locust posts when he has more black locust
trees than anybody in the valley, but you know Zeb, and I didnt
say anything." Zeb smiled and looked up at the stars for a
minute and then pulled off his old cap and bowed his head and said,
"Thank you Jesus. I love the way you do things."
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