My Children Are More Precious Than Gold (3 page)

“
Ya've gone crazy from the
cold. That's Daisy, but we do need to get her to the barn to be
milk,” Don said.

“
I know that. Stop her,
and we'll put Pap on her,” Lue said in a hopeful voice.

“
Think we kin?” Don said,
brightening up.

“
Sure. She lets the
younguns ride her to the barn all the time, don't she?” Lue
reasoned.

“
Yep, but Pap is heavier
than the younguns, and he cain't sit up,” Don reasoned.

“
So we'll hold him on. Go
catch her,” Lue ordered.

Don met the family's tawny milk cow
and walked along side her toward Lue and Pap. Calmly, she watched
him with her large, dark brown eyes while she tromped up the hill.
As soon as the cow and Don were even with Jacob, he put his arms
around her neck to stop her. “Lue, undo what's left of that scarf
around Pap's neck and hand it to me. I'll put it around Daisy's
neck for a halter to hep lead her.

“
Here it is.” Lue tossed
Don the scarf. “Now hold on to Daisy.”

Lue put his hands under Jacob's arms,
straining to lift his father's limp body. Don, with his free hand,
grabbed the seat of Jacob's pants to help boost him, but Daisy's
ice covered, broad back was slick. So were Jacob's snow covered
clothes. Add to that the fact their fingers were numb from the
cold. The boys couldn’t keep their grip on the heavy man’s clothes.
Jacob slid head first over the other side of the cow and sank into
the deep snow. Fluffy flakes billowed around him, dusting him with
a new layer of snow. He lay in a motionless, frosted heap with his
brown yarn covered, splinted leg sticking up in the air like a
fence post.

“
Don, y'all shouldn't have
pushed so hard,” Lue accused running around the cow.

“
Me push hard! I only had
one hand to use. I'm holden the cow with the other one. Y'all was
supposed to hold onto Pap!” Don argued in his defense, trying to
hold Daisy still. She nervously sidestepped to see what had
happened beside her.

Once again, Lue lifted Pap. Don
grabbed hold of the seat of his pants. Together, they boosted him
slowly onto Daisy's back.

With a better grip this time, Lue held
his father in place. “Don, get Daisy moven.”

“
Come on, Daisy. Head fer
the barn,” Don coaxed, tugging on the scarf around the cow's
neck.

The dusky, afternoon light rapidly
faded into dusk. Standing in the barn door, Sid and Tom strained to
see through the twilight, watching for Daisy. They spotted their
brothers wading the snow on the pasture hill, leading the milk cow.
When Lue and Don were close enough for Sid and Tom to make out that
Daisy had a burden on her back, the boys burst from the barn door
to meet the cow.

Don led the cow close to the porch and
held her as Sid helped Lue remove Jacob. Tom held the door open
while the boys carried their father in and laid him by the
fireplace.

Cass and Bess hurried to the cookstove
to get Lue and Don a cup of coffee while the cold boys dropped down
close to the fire, sticking their numb hands toward the
warmth.

Alma and Veder scurried off to bring
quilts to cover the boys to stop their shivering. Nannie knelt down
beside Jacob to see what she needed to do for him.

“
We'll need to set his leg
afore he wakes up, Mama. It's broke,” Lue said as he wrapped his
cold fingers around the steaming cup Bess handed him. “He tripped
on a rock hidden by the snow in the pasture.”

“
Boys, after I get this
splint cut away, hep me get his pants offen him,” Nannie
said.

Sid and Tom removed Jacob’s jeans.
Nannie rolled his red long john leg up to inspect the white
indented spot on his right leg shin.

“
Sid, Tom, Lue and Don
hold him still while I pull on his leg to set it. I got to get this
done afore his leg starts to swell now that he’s in here where its
warm,” Nannie instructed.

The boys took a tight grip on each
side of Jacob. With a pained expression on their faces, they turned
their heads away so they wouldn’t have to watch. Nannie jerked hard
on the leg. The grating crunch sounded loud as bone ground against
bone when the two pieces popped back into place.

“
Dillard, bring me some of
the longer pieces of kindling from the wood box. Alma, get some
strips of cloth out of the medicine box. Sid and Tom get back at
those chores now. That cow needs to be milked. Might as well get
‘em all over with,” Nannie ordered.

“
We’s about done cept fer
milken Daisy, Mama. She’s still standen in the yard. I’ll take her
to the barn,” said Sid, putting on his coat.

With Cass and Bess holding Jacob's leg
between the sticks, Nannie wrapped the cloth strips tightly around
the kindling. “Now, younguns, get busy rubben Pap's hands and feet.
He may have frostbite. We don't want him to lose his fingers and
toes. Lue and Don, y'all ought to get back over by the fire and
warm up. Ya look most froze to death.”

Jacob groaned softly. The family
stopped what they were doing and quickly gathered around him He
opened his eyes and turned his head from side to side as he focused
on the concerned faces leaning over him.

“
Lay still, Pap. Ya're
home now,” Lue assured him, patting his father's
shoulder.

“
How ya feelen?” Asked
Don.

“
My leg throbs somethin
awful. I know it's broke and should hurt, but fer some reason, I
have one heck of a headache, too,” he said, rubbing the top of his
head.

Nannie caught the look that passed
between Lue and Don. She decided this was no time to find out what
they knew about Jacob's headache. It could be he hit his head when
he fell. Maybe he just didn’t remember it, but she made a mental
note that later she should get the boys alone. She'd like to find
out the details of Jacob's rescue.

“
The boys found ya and
brought y'all home, Jacob. Yer goen to be okay so jest rest easy.”
Nannie stroked her husband's shoulder, relieved that Jacob seemed
to be alert.

“
Thank ya, boys,” Jacob
whispered weakly. “I don't know how y'all found me so fast, but I'm
glad that ya did afore I froze to death.”

“
We are, too,” Don
agreed.

“
It was easy to find ya,
Pap,” Lue said with a grinned. “That scarf Bess made led us to
ya.”

“
My scarf?” Pap looked as
if he hadn't heard right.

For proof, Don held the much shorter,
brown scarf up for Jacob to see. Bess's Christmas gift had loops
showing all along one end with a piece of yarn dangling and ready
to release a new row. “The scarf was coming unraveled from your
coat nail when you left so we followed the yarn to you.”

A weak smile spread across Jacob's
face. “I hope all of y'all hold Bess's gift in a new light after
this.”

“
Yep, we sure do. It
helped keep y'all warm, and saved yer life, too,” Don
said.

Wanting to contribute something to the
scarf's praise, Dillard piped up with, “It sure made a great lead
rope for Daisy.”

Everyone burst out laughing. Bess
looked over at her mother. Nannie was watching her for a reaction,
because Nannie knew how sensitive Bess had been about that scarf.
Her mother shouldn’t have worried. Bess laughed right along with
everyone else. She could see the humor of their milk cow wearing
Pap's brown woolen scarf around her neck.

Chapter 2

February Ice Storm

On Valentine's Day, a tempestuous ice
storm set in. To the Bishop children it felt like another miserable
winter day to be cooped up in the cabin rather than a
holiday.

In the front yard, the mulberry tree's
branches hung to the ground, encased in the same thick coating of
glassy ice as every other object outside.

Standing at the window, Jacob watched
his boys slip and slide to the barn on the slick ground to do the
morning chores. He chewed on his lower lip as he silently yearned
to be helping them.

Jacob prayed his leg mended fast. He
couldn’t afford to be laid up in the spring when it was time to
plant fields on his seventy acre ridge farm. His sons could do only
so much without him to show them how.

It would soon be time to plant corn
and tobacco. It took the whole family to plant the fields by hand.
Jacob and the boys had broadcaster wheat, rye and flax and harrowed
over the seed last fall. He expected to see green plants shining in
those fields in the spring, moistened by the snow cover
melt.

Carefully turning, he hopped on his
left foot to the wood cook stove, using a sassafras walking stick
for support. Turning the latch below the large letters -- MAJESTIC
-- painted on the white enamel door of the warming shelf, Jacob
opened it. He stuck a finger in a grease blackened bread pan filled
with shelled corn to see if the yellow kernels had warmed up enough
to feed the chickens.

After Jacob shut the warming oven
door, he poured himself a second cup of coffee out of the large,
blue granite coffee pot sizzling on the back of the stove. He set
the pot down next to the steaming tea kettle, blackened around the
bottom from years the cook stove.

Hearing the soothing tone of Nannie's
voice, Jacob turned, letting the cook stove's heat penetrate his
backside while he watched Nannie try to spoon feed Lydia. Their
youngest had been sickly for the better part of a month with what
Nannie thought was the grip. Nannie made her a pallet on the floor
next to the fireplace, trying to keep her warm. The little girl's
hacking cough had let up some, and Lydia seemed cooler to the
touch, but she stayed weak. It didn't help any that she refused to
eat more that a few bites at a time.

Finally, Nannie gave up, dropped the
spoon into the blue speckled, granite bowl of stewed rabbit broth
and crumbled cornbread. She gently lowered Lydia's head back onto
her plump, goose down pillow.

After she placed the bowl on the work
counter, Nannie joined Jacob by the stove. Glancing in Lydia's
direction to make sure she wasn't listening, Nannie spoke in a
lowered voice, “Jacob, when this storm lets up we need to send Sid
for Doc Jensen in Christensenburg. Lydia’s been sick fer too long,
and she don’t seem to be getten any better.”

Jacob frowned.“I can see that. Wish I
could go myself. That's a fer piece for a youngun to go alone in
weather like this.”

“
Well, y'all cain't so do
it so jest be patient. Yer leg's about mended, but it ain’t that
good yet that ya could go gallivanten around,” scolded
Nannie.

“
How well I know. It
itches clean to the bone,” Jacob complained as he glanced down at
his dingy cloth covered splint, partly hidden by his split jean
leg. He wished he could figure out a way to scratch the deep itch
that was driving him crazy.

The next morning, the sun rose over
the east ridge, bouncing rays off the glistening ice covered
surroundings. Soon the rise in temperature began to thaw the ice.
Chunks turned loose, shattering nosily like broken glass when hunks
hit the ground.

After breakfast, Nannie spoke to Sid.
“Son, think y'all could make it to Christensenburg for Doc Jensen?
We need him to take a look at Lydia.”

“
Sure, Mama,” Sid agreed.
He was proud to be picked for a job he knew Pap would have done if
it hadn’t been for his broken leg.

“
Let me go,” pleaded
Tom.

“
No, Sid's the oldest,
besides ya need to stay here to help the younger boys do the
evening chores. Y'all may get yer turn soon enough, youngun, if we
all catch what Lydia's got.” Nannie glanced worriedly over at the
youngest of her children. She seemed to be peacefully napping. “I
cain't figure out why none of the rest of us has caught the grip
from Lydia.”

“
It’s best to let Doc take
a look at her and tell us what ails her,” agreed Jacob. Sitting at
the table, he vigorously rubbed the splint on his leg as though he
could stopped the itch underneath.

On good days, the trip to town down
brush lined, narrow, rocky roads, was a long journey for anyone
riding bareback. When old Major, one of the Bishop work horses, had
to pick carefully where he walked, the going was very slow indeed.
At least with the chunks of ice strewed about on the ground that
had fallen from the trees and brush, the ice roughened road wasn’t
so slick under the horse's hooves.

It was noon by the time Sid rode up to
the doctor's house. He dismounted and tied the horse to the hitch
rack. He went through the squeaky hinged gate in the picket fence,
up the walk to the front door, and knocked.

“
Mornen, Mrs. Jensen. Doc
here?” Sid asked, removing his worn, black felt hat.

“
Sure is. We jest finished
an early lunch. Come on in out of the cold. Lands sakes, you look
about froze. Why, you're one of the Bishop younguns, ain't you?
Doc's still sitting at the kitchen table,” the doctor's wife
rambled on, leading Sid through the living room with a hand on his
elbow. She didn't talk like folks around there. Sid had heard
somewhere Doc found his wife out east in Vermont. Where ever that
was. “Doc, one of the Bishop boys is here to see you.”