Business j j r BY MARTHA S. HOOKER f o r C fjrtè tm a s i
by Rachel Borne A re we lost ? ” asked Patty, and her voice had a little quaver in it. “ Course not. We can’t be far from home,” said Mike scornfully. But he didn’t really feel that way inside. He was scared, and he didn’t know what to do about it. “ I can’t walk another step,” declared Patty, and she sat down suddenly on a big log and held her hurt ankle with both hands. Steve grinned, but his face was a little pale. “ Look, Mike — why don’t you go on by yourself. By this time Mom and Dad ought to be back from wherever they went with your Mom, and Dad can come with you and bring a light and carry Pat back. I’ll stay here with her. Okay?” Mike scowled and drew the back of his gloved hand across his forehead. It was a good idea — except that he was completely turned around and didn’t know which way to go. But it was as good a try as aiiy. They couldn’t jtay here all night in the cold. “ Okay,” he growled. “You kids stick close together, but move around as much as you can. I’ll be back soon.” “We’ll be praying, and I know everything will be all right,” Patty called out as he turned away. He didn’t answer, just marched off down the trail in what ought to be the right direction. His boots made a scrunching noise in the snow, but there wasn’t another sound. He was awfully cold, except for his feet and he couldn’t feel them at all. He walked on and on for what seemed hours. It was get ting dark now, and the snow was swirling around him in big flakes. All the big snow-covered firs looked alike. He had to slow down to keep from stumbling over the things in the path that he couldn’t see. Just now he wasn’t worrying a bit about what a terrible Christmas it was going to be, without getting that bike he’d hoped for before Patty fell and hurt her ankle. He was thinking about Patty and Steve, and how terrible it would be if somehow he didn’t make it home in time to send their Dad back after them. He tried to run, but almost at once he caught his foot in a snow-filled hole and fell. It was then that he knew he’d have to have help. But who could help a fellow alone in the woods like this? No one but God, of course! He tried to remember what Steve and Patty had said about how you could be saved and could pray to God. Mike hadn’t paid much attention at the time, but now. . . . “ God,” he prayed — the first f-eal prayer he had ever prayed — “ I do want Jesus for my Saviour, and I’m sorry I was so cross with Pat and
Steve. Help me find my way out of here so they won’t freeze . . .” It was a queer, disjointed sort of prayer, but he felt better afterwards. And he got up and began to walk again. He thought he had never been so glad to see anything in his life as the light that suddenly gleamed through the trees off to his left. He plunged toward it, and after what seemed like more hours, he was close enough to recognize the place. It was the back of the little two-room cabin where Aunt Sadie Mathews lived alone. Mike resisted the urge to go inside where he knew it would be warm and went on around the house and out into the main road in front. Aunt Sadie didn’t have a phone, and she wouldn’t be any help getting Patty back; and anyway, he knew now where he was — only two miles from home! He could make better time on the road, and he ran most of the way. He was so tired he didn’t dare sit down when at last he burst into the warm kitchen and gasped out what had happened all in one breath. Before the words were out of his mouth, Uncle Lee was swinging into his coat, shouting for Aunt Jess to bring him a flashlight, and Mom whirled to the cupboard and got a thermos bottle and poured some hot soup into it from the big pot on the stove. “ Come on, Mike, Mike, let’s go!” And he and Uncle Lee were out again in the white darkness. It was queer, Mike thought, as he finished the bowl of hot soup and reached for his glass of milk. Everything that was wrong before, was still wrong. He was as sure as he’d been before that he wouldn’t get his bike for Christmas — and he still wanted it, sure he did! But it just didn’t seem to make any difference. All that mattered now was that they were all safe inside the house, with the storm gathering force outside. They were all there and getting warm, and Uncle Lee said Patty’s ankle would be all right. And best of all, he, Mike, knew the Lord Jesus like Steve and Patty had been talking about. Out there in the dark, when he’d prayed and ac cepted Jesus in his heart as his personal Saviour, some thing had happened. Through the kitchen door he could see the Christmas tree in the front room, all shiny and sparkly with its soft lights and tinsel, and the presents stacked under neath. It was going to be a great Christmas! What dif ference did just a BIKE make, when you could know your sins were forgiven, and that you belonged to God, and He could give you joy like this? That was the best thing of all — ho had joy for Christmas!
42
THE KING'S BUSINESS
Made with FlippingBook Online document