My Children Are More Precious Than Gold (5 page)

The first thing to go when Spring
arrived were their shoes. The children needed to save the pair Pap
made them until there was an important reason to wear them. Usually
that reason was winter. Not that the children minded going
barefoot. That was just the way things were done on the ridge. The
children could hardly wait to get out of their stiff leather shoes
that hurt their feet.

While they walked the two and half
miles to school that spring morning, the Bishop children had
bounced around the thought of playing hooky. They agreed the day
was much too nice to be stuck inside the school, especially with
the teacher, Mr. Steincross, whom the children had nicknamed Ole
Mr. Crosspuss.

Before they knew it the one room
schoolhouse with a row of windows on the south side loomed in front
of them. Not one of them had the nerve to turn and
leave.

At her desk, Bess watched out the
windows while birds fluttered from the trees to the freshly mowed
school yard, filling their beaks with fresh grass clippings to make
nests. Red blurs of two squirrels, playfully scampering around,
darted up a tree trunk as one chased the other. Bess caught the
streak of a white and gray form melting into the underbrush as a
rabbit, startled by the antics of the squirrels, disappeared from
sight.

“
Bess! Bess
Bishop!”

With a start, Bess looked toward the
teacher. “Yes, sir.”

The teacher gave her a stern look.
“Pay attention to your lesson, will you please?”

“
Yep, I will,” answered
Bess, meekly. She heard the snickers around her. Bess picked up her
slate and held it in front of her warm, blushing face.

At the front of the room, the younger
students practiced spelling at the blackboard. Dillard raised his
hand, waving it back and forth and spoke, “Teacher, kin I be
excused to go to the outhouse?”

“
May you,” the teacher
corrected. “It's almost time to eat lunch. Are you sure you can't
wait until then?”

“
No, I cain’t,” Dillard
assured him. Uncrossing his legs when the teacher nodded approval,
he pattered across the room to the door. He sprinted across the
yard, and disappeared into the boy's outhouse in the far corner of
the yard.

Suddenly a dark shadow crept over Bess
and across the room. She glanced toward the windows. An eerie hush
had fallen over the timber. A lone brown leaf left over from winter
skittered across the yard. All the animals had disappeared, but the
most terrifying sign of a fast approaching storm was the way the
sky had changed. Bess had never seen anything like it. Once a
peaceful, clear blue, the sky was a rolling turmoil as dark green
as a mallard duck's head. Dipping down as it rolled, the one huge
cloud touched the tree tops, edging toward the school.

Bess checked around her. She realized
the other children hadn't noticed the change. She waved her hand in
the air to get Mr. Steincross's attention, but he had already
spotted the approaching storm. He was standing at the window near
his desk at the front of the room, staring at the cloud.

“
Mr. Steincross!” Bess
called out.

“
Yes, Bess, what is it?”
The teacher asked in his precise tone without taking his eyes off
the storm.

“
There's a bad storm
comen!”

That got the attention of the other
students.

“
There is?”

“
Where?”

“
Let's see!”

“
Settle down, children.
I've been watching the storm's progress. No need for alarm.” The
teacher spoke calmly, but nervously, he rubbed his hands together
and paced in front of the windows. “To be on the safe side, all of
you in the middle of the room slide under your desks. Those of you
with seats by the windows join the children under their desk in the
middle of the room. All of you stay there until I tell you to come
out.”

Bess and the other children by the
windows darted across the room to do as the teacher instructed.
Bess went around the potbelly wood stove in the middle of the room.
She squeezed down under Susie Kate Parkin's desk along side of her
friend. The girls peeked out from under the desk toward the windows
to keep an eye on the storm.

The dark, green cloud boiled,
descending closer to the clearing. The room turned from a gray cast
to gloomy darkness. The tree tops swayed frantically back and forth
in the strong wind. The temperature dropped fast, creating a damp
chill in the air when the pelting rain rattled on the tree leaves
in the distant timber. The rattling leaves was a sound that grew
louder as the rain moved closer to the school. A sudden strong gust
of wind blew through the open windows, scattering slates and chalk
onto the students under the desks.

“
Don and Lue, help me
close these windows,” the teacher commanded.

Lue grabbed the top of a window and
felt a blast of cold air push against him. As he shoved the window
down, he noticed a movement by the boy's outhouse. “Mr. Steincross,
Dillard is still at the outhouse! The wind jest pulled the door out
of his hands and knocked him down. He cain't walk in this wind by
himself. I'm goen after him.”

Crack! Kaboom!

“
You will do no such
thing. That lightning is wicked. I'll go get Dillard. You get under
your desk. Now!” Mr. Steincross ordered when Lue
hesitated.

The teacher ran for the door and
turned the knob. He pushed with all his might, struggling to shut
the door behind him. Don and Lue rushed to help him. Despite the
teacher’s orders once the door was shut, they eased along the wall
to the windows to look out.

Leaves and small twigs filled the air
as the gale force winds carried to the school cries of help from
the small, frightened boy, laying face down in the grass with his
arms folded over his head. The teacher tried to walk straight
toward Dillard. He staggered sideways against the storm's
intensity.

Crack! Kaboom! A vivid lightning bolt
forked across the dark sky. The teacher blinked from the brightness
that lit up the yard for an instance then steeled himself to the
deafening boom. He felt the earth shuttered beneath his feet. The
lightning's target, a large oak tree at the edge of the school
yard, toppled to the ground in a crash of limbs and
leaves.

Finally, the man reached the little
boy as the rain hammered down on them. “Dillard, get up. We have to
get back to the schoolhouse quick,” he shouted.

“
Mr. Steincross, I can't
-- sob -- sob. I'm scared,” Dillard cried.

“
Nonsense. This is just a
little rain storm.” The teacher knelt down by Dillard. “Come on,
boy. It's just like being on a pirate ship in the middle of a
choppy sea. Get up and take my hand. Let's sail this stormy sea
back to the schoolhouse, me mate.”

“
All right,” Dillard said,
staggering to his feet. Holding the boy close, the teacher bent
forward to shield the child from the flying timber debris while
they struggled to walk in the down burst and gusts of
wind.

“
Let's hep them, Don,”
said Lue. He watched the two wet forms, one big and one small,
blurred by the pelting rain, struggle to get back to the
schoolhouse. “They'll never make it alone.”

“
Ole Crosspuss will be mad
as a hornet if we don't mind him,” warned Don.

“
I don't care. That's our
little brother out there in that storm.” Lue ran out the door with
Don right behind him.

Large drops of rain and pea size hail
stung their faces as the brothers joined hands and moved slowly
across the yard to meet the teacher and Dillard.

“
Here take Dillard's
hand,” Mr. Steincross shouted. “I'll get back on my own. You boys
go on.”

“
No sir! Give me yer hand,
teacher. We came to get both of y'all,” Lue ordered. “Don, take
Dillard's hand. We're goen back together.”

With an effort the four of them, bent
almost double, fought against the storm to get back to the
schoolhouse. Once they were through the door, they all pushed it
shut. Exhausted, the four of them leaned against the entry hall
walls, dripping water on the floor which was already soaked from
the boys leaving the door open.

“
Thanks for the help,
boys,” said Mr. Steincross. He reached around Lue for a towel on
the nail above the wash basin, wiped his face, then Dillard's and
handed the towel to Don.

“
Ya ain’t mad cause we
didn't stay put under our desks?” Asked Don, sounding surprised and
relieved.

“
No, I'm not mad.” Then
Mr. Steincross did something the boys thought they would never see
happen. He smiled at them.

Dillard smiled back, hugging the
teacher’s legs. “Thanks, Mr. Steincross. I'm glad our pirate ship
made it back to the school. I don't mind sayen I was mighty
scared.”

“
What pirate ship?
Dillard, are ya feelen all right?” Don reached over to feel the
little boy’s forehead.

“
Never mind, boys. He's
just fine. Listen! Sounds like the storm has let up. Children, you
can come out from under your desks now. When the rain stops, how
would you all like to go home early?” announced Mr.
Steincross.

“
Yes! Yes!” The children
cried in unison, gleefully thinking about what they could do with
the remainder of the day.

That afternoon, the Bishop children
rushed home to tell their parents about their exciting day. The
last one in the house was Dillard. He let the screen door bang shut
behind him.

“
Sh! Younguns, Lydia is
taken a nap,” Nannie scolded. “Hey, what are y'all doen home this
time of day anyways?”

“
Mr. Steincross said we
could go home cause of the storm,” explained Lue.

“
What storm?” Asked
Jacob.

In a hushed voice, the children took
turns telling their story about how the teacher rescued Dillard
with Lue and Don’s help.

“
Mercy sakes, sounds like
y'all had quite a day, and we never saw a drop of rain here,”
declared Nannie.

Dillard turned to survey his napping
sister. “Mama, when is Lydia gonen to get better so we don't have
to be so quiet all the time?”

“
Soon, youngun,” Nannie
said.

“
Mama, it does seem like a
long time, she's been sickly,” reflected Bess.

“
Why ain't she getten
better faster?” Veder asked, coming directly to the
point.

“
Jacob, Doc said the
younguns should know the truth. This looks like the time to tell
em,” Nannie surmised. “Y'all gather around the table and sit down.
Pap and me have somethin to tell ya. Jacob, ya do need to sit down,
too. Ya've been on that leg long enough.

Good news, younguns. Did y'all notice
Doc took the splint offen Pap's leg today? Pap’s almost as good as
new now if he takes it easy on that leg fer a while.

Don, will ya go hollar at Sid and Tom.
I think they’re in the barn wateren the horses, and Cass went to
gather eggs. Ask em to come to the house. Pap and me want to talk
to ya all about somethin.”

After the children sat down at the
table, Nannie glanced in Lydia's direction to see if the child was
still asleep. She began in a quiet voice, “I know y'all have been
wonderen why Lydia's been sick so long. Doc says we should tell ya
all what's wrong with Lydia so ya can hep take care of her. He says
she has a bad heart so she needs a lot of rest. She won't be able
to play with ya as much as she did afore she got sick, but ya can
play with her jest like ya always have. It's jest that she'll get
tired easy and needs more time to rest.”

“
Mama, is Lydia goen to
die?” Squeaked Bess.

All the children turned instantly to
look at the tiny, slumbering figure by the fireplace to see if she
was breathing.

With tears in her eyes and unable to
speak, Nannie looked at Jacob for help. “Now, now, younguns.” Jacob
cleared his throat, hoping he’d be able to say the right thing. “We
don't know that. Doc says jest keep her happy and comfortable while
she's with us so that's what we have to do. Right?”

“
Yep, Pap,” Sid said with
a look of concern. “We’ll do jest that, won’t we?” He looked from
one to the other of his brothers and sisters.

The other children nodded their heads
in agreement.

Nannie studied the sad, young faces
looking at Jacob. “Now the first thing ya can do is get rid of
those long faces afore Lydia wakes up. She doesn't know she might
not get better so smile and hep make her feel better. All
right?”

“
Yep, Mama,” The children
agreed together.

“
Now this meeten is over,”
Jacob announced with a sigh of relief that Nannie and he had
finally managed to tell the children the truth.

Chapter 4

Pecker

The blue haze that gave the mountains
their name, the sparkle of dew in the grass, and the gentle warmth
of the sun made for a delightful morning on the ridge. The sheep
flock, big bundles of wool in their winter coats, laid on the
shaded side of the barn, chewing their cud. The meat hogs grunted
while they rooted up their pen, looking for the last morsel of
their morning mash. The chickens, scattered all over, busied
themselves clucking and scratching for something to eat.