open? He decided to run away, maybe to Buddy’s place. On second thought, he couldn’t do that either. What would he tell Buddy’s family? No, he’d just have to run away and hide somewhere by himself. But where? Then he thought of an abandoned homestead, the Leaver place. Just about this time, Johnnie’s father and I rode into the barnyard back at his home. “Man, 0 man, am I glad to get home and out of this storm!” John Lander said as we got off our horses. “ That goes for me, too,” I replied. “ Be nice to get warm and sit down to a home-cooked meal.” We had not more than stepped inside the door that led to the kitchen than Mrs. Lander rushed up to her husband and threw herself into his arms, crying. “ 0 John—I’m so glad you’re here—but Johnnie, he’s gone!” she sobbed. After some questions and answers we learned what had happened. It was decided that as soon as we got a quick bite to eat we’d start out to look for the boy, even though the storm had become really bad. “Try not to worry,” I said to Mrs. Lander. “ But do pray a whole lot, not only for Johnnie, but for all of us. In the meantime, as we learned later, Johnnie was fighting his way through the storm, looking for the Leaver place. Some two hours later, Brownie stopped beside the old Leaver bam. Just then the wind banged the bam door, the noise scared Brownie, and he jerked the reins out of the boy’s hand and disappeared into the dark. Johnnie crept inside, hoping to find a protected spot. He came to a manger with some old hay in it, and he crawled in. The first thing Johnnie’s father and I did after we got back into the saddle was to look around the pasture. The cattle were gone, and when we came to the gate we realized why. Naturally, we thought that Johnnie had found this out earlier in the day, had started to look for the cattle, and had got caught in the storm. We reasoned that in the storm the cattle would have drifted toward Thunder Creek for shelter in the brush, and that Johnnie would be with them. So we headed for Thunder Creek. Our guess about the cattle was right. We ran into them, hiding in the thickets behind the creek bank, but no Johnnie. We called and called, but there was no answer. Next we headed for the Boggs place. It was a big disappointment when we found he was not there. John insisted on returning home, because his wife would be worried. It sure looked like Johnnie was a goner. All along, I’d been doing a lot of praying. As we were putting the horses in the bam I said to John, “ Only a miracle, in answer to prayer, can save your boy’s life.” “You’re right, Leonard,” he answered thoughtfully. “ You know, it’s strange how a man like me never thinks of praying when things are going all right. But at a time like this—well, it seems to be the only thing left to do.” “ John,” I answered sympathetically, “ we must never think of prayer as being the only thing left to do. It should be the first thing to do, a constant part of our daily lives.” He leaned back against the side of his horse. “ This may seem like a strange time' to tell you,” he said, “ but when I first learned you carried a Bible in your saddle bag, and that you sort of went around praying all the time, I considered you as part old woman! Right now I’m thinking you have the right idea, and that I’ve been wrong.” I put my arm around his shoulders and gave him a ‘sling hug.’ “We’d better get on over to the house,” I said. Mrs. Lander was waiting for us. She had not gone to
bed at all. She was very brave when we came in—without Johnnie. But we could see her heart was breaking. Our plan now was to rest a while and then start out again at daylight. We were just heading for the bam to get our horses for another venture when we heard someone outside, calling. It was George Boggs. He had Brownie, but no Johnnie! We learned from him that after John and I had left his place he had got the notion that the boy might have wandered to the old Leaver place and could be there waiting for the storm to blow over. When he found Brownie behind a haystack not far from the Leaver bam, he was sure he’d find Johnnie there. So he went there and called and called. There was no answer. If only George Boggs had gone over to the manger where Johnnie was hiding under the hay, numb from cold! And if only Johnnie had answered when L j heard Boggs’ call! He would have saved his parents and himself a lot of suffering. I felt a definite urge to go to the Leaver place. John and George went along. We entered the bam and looked around. “ Just like it was last night,” George said sadly. I stepped over to the manger, and when I saw the bulging pile of hay, I quickly brushed it aside. There was Johnnie! At first I thought he was dead, he was so still. No doubt that by the end of the day he would have been, if help had not come. In a moment Johnnie was in his father’s arms, snug gled against his breast, under a heavy machinaw. We hurried back to the Lander homestead. Johnnie’s mother was overjoyed! After hugging him, she tucked him into bed as we all stood by watching and waiting for him to tell us what happened. Mrs. Lander asked the boy whether he had heard Mr. Boggs when he called him. “Yes— I did— ” he said hesitantly. “ Then why, Johnnie, why didn’t you let him know?” “ Because—well—you see, I was afraid.” “ Afraid? Why were you afraid of Mr. Boggs? Or didn’t you know it was he?” “Yes, I knew. I wasn’t afraid of him. It was you and Daddy,” he sobbed. “ Afraid of Daddy and me? Of all things, what came over you?” His mother’s voice was tender and pleading. “ It was because I had disobeyed you by leaving the place—and because I had disobeyed Daddy by leaving the gate open—and all the cattle got out—that’s why I ran away!” For a moment there was silence. Then the mother buried her face against Johnnie’s chest and cried. “ O son, what a price you paid to learn you can’t run away from the consequences of disobedience, and that a second wrong never erases the first one!” “You know,” she added, “Adam and Eve had to learn that lesson too. And like you, they learned it the hard way. The Bible says, ‘They heard the voice of God, walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid . . . and I hid myself!” Johnnie never forgot his lesson. He grew up to a fine young man, but all his life he was reminded of how foolish he was that day when he tried to run away from the wrong he had done by being disobedient—reminded by the fact that he lost all his toes on both feet and part of the fingers on his left hand, because they froze that night he hid in the manger. Whenever he looked at those stumps of hands and feet he said to himself, “ To obey is the best thing to do.”
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AUGUST, I960
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