My Children Are More Precious Than Gold Read Free Page B

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