My Children Are More Precious Than Gold Read Free

overcast sky spit
a few lacy flakes at them as a last reminder of the storm. They
trod toward the blue gray horizon. The only sound breaking the
silence was the rhythmic crunch underfoot as the boys struggled
through the deep, crusted snow.
    Rolling the ball of icy yarn while he
walked, Lue gently pulled to lift it from under the snow so he
wouldn’t break it. This yarn was the only trace of Jacob, because
the blowing snow had long ago filled his tracks.
    At the base of the hill's backside,
the boys found the Christmas tree laying where Jacob dropped it. A
flock of sparrows fluttered off the branches and flew away,
disturbed from their popcorn feast by the boys noisy
approach.
    Lue cupped his hands to his mouth and
yelled, “Pap, Pap!”
    The echo, P-A-A-P, P-A-A-P, bounced
back at them from the distant ridge over the wind’s eerie moan. The
wind whistled through the frosted, white pines and the leafless
trees blanketed in snow.
    “ Look! There's the cows
over yonder by the creek.” Lue pointed in the livestock's direction
and felt the cold air sting the tip of his chilled, blue finger,
sticking out of the hole in his wool glove. “Maybe Pap's over
there.”
    “ Maybe he did go to see if
the creek's froze over. He'd have to break the ice so the cattle
could drink ifen it was,” Don puffed, sending small clouds of steam
floating away in front of his face.
    At the top of the knoll, the boys
spotted at the same time a brown hump moving in the snow some
distance from them.
    “ Pap!” Lue and Don yelled
together as they staggered along through the deep snow.
    Lue stopped rolling the yarn and stuck
the ball in his coat pocket. The rest of the yarn trailed behind
him, leaving a small groove in the snow as it popped to the
surface.
    The boys heard a groan escaped Jacob's
blue lips when they reached his snow covered form. “Pap, what
happened?” Lue panted, dropping to his knees beside his father.
“What's wrong with ya?”
    Jacob’s face contorted with pain as he
struggled to speak. “I -- I tripped on an icy rock hidden in the
snow. I -- I think I broke my leg.”
    “ Hold on. We'll get ya
home,” Lue assured him. “Don, break off some branches on that old,
snaggled tree over yonder to make a splint. I'll roll up the rest
of this yarn.”
    “ Why bother with that old
yarn now?” Don puzzled. “We done found Pap with it.”
    “ We need it to hold a
splint on his broken leg. Now hurry up afore Pap freezes to death.”
Lou heard his father's teeth chattering behind his trembling, blue
lips. He knew they had to work fast.
    Don laid the sticks down around
Jacob's leg, and gently lifted it. Jacob moaned softly as the
movement caused his pain to increase. As fast as he could, Lue ran
the yarn ball around and up and down the splint to hold the sticks
tightly to the leg until the ball was gone.
    “ Pap, we’re ready to start
toten ya home now. Don, hep me lift him.” Lue lifted under Jacob’s
arms. Don picked up his father's legs. Jacob felt the pain sear
through him. He cried out and fainted. “Pap's better off not feelen
this,” Lue comment, struggling to keep his balance in the snow.
“He's heavy to tote in this deep snow so we’re not gonen to be able
to move fast.”
    Soon exhausted, the boys gently laid
the unconscious man down in the snow and sat down beside him to
rest.
    “ Kin we make it home with
Pap afore dark?” panted Don.
    “ Sure we kin. Just rest a
minute.” Lue had to be optimistic for Don’s sake even though he
knew it would too soon be dark.
    “ I don't know. I'm
pooped,” Don complained.
    “ I sure do wish we had a
cart to carry Pap,” Lue wished, trying to get his brother on
another subject besides himself.
    Moo -- oo! Just then the jersey cow,
Daisy, greeted them as she climbed the hill on her way to the barn
for the nightly milking. A creature of habit, instinct told her
where the cow path was even when it lay buried deep beneath the
snow.
    “ Don!” Lue grabbed his
brother's