from here. Tom and Tim, look in that box in the corner and you’ll find some old slickers. Bring them here. Put them over your night clothes, all of you, as best you can and we’ll try to reach the haymow, if it is still standing. It will be warm and com fortable there. The rain has cooled off everything and it will be chilly. Here, Mother, I’ll help you with Alice,” he said, taking the still- sleeping baby in his arms. They made a strange-looking pro cession in their bare feet, night gowns and pajamas, with the old raincoats draped over them. It was indeed warm in the haymow, for the cold air that follows a tornado had not penetrated its walls. Very thank fully they noted that the barns and other out-buildings were intact. Only their beautiful house was gone. In the sweet, warm hay the chil dren burrowed their cold, bare feet and everyone found a place to sit. The cats immediately scampered to the big barn but Mr. Benson would not release the dogs. “ They’ll be snooping around the house and be electrocuted by those electric wires,” he explained. From the window of the haymow, they could see that all that remained of their home was the basement fast filling with water. Literally the house had disappeared. Months later pieces of its walls, roof, floors and furnish ings were discovered hundreds of miles distant. The Bensons were comfortable but they were far from happy. Little Amy was weeping loudly for her family of dolls; the twins were mourning the loss of all their sports equipment; Ann was bewail ing the destruction of her fine little library. Peggy, the clown of the fam ily, even introduced some humor into the tragic situation by making a be lated confession to her mother: “Mommy, I had a baby gopher in my room. He was so cute! And now he’s dead!” “Oh, he’s probably alive some where,” muttered brother Harry, “ You can’t get rid o f those pests so easily!” Mrs. Benson said nothing but tears were running down her cheeks. Her husband sat down on the hay in front of his bedraggled family. He passed the baby over to his wife and then he began to speak in low, earnest tones: “Now, children, I want all of you to stop crying and complaining. We have much to be thankful for. Ap parently our horses, and cattle, chickens and pigs, are all right and I do not think this blow did much
minutes had passed since they had been in the cellar, but it seemed to the Benson family the longest pe riod of time through which they had ever gone. Now another sound fell on their ears, that of falling rain. “ Stand back,” said Mr. Benson, “Jim my, you go over there beside Harry. I am going to have a look.” “ Oh, be careful, Daddy!” cried Ann. C H ILD R EN 'S Q U IZ At the commemoration of Chil dren's Day many churches conduct special programs, so let us get ac quainted with some of the Bible boys and girls. Correct answers to the fol lowing will give us their names: 1. The first baby boys born into the world. 2. The boy who had a coat of many colors. 3. The girl who attended a prayer meeting in the home of John Mark's mother. 4. The boy who "purposed in his heart" that he would not defile himself with the King's food. 5. The boy who gave five loaves and two fishes to the Lord Jesus. 6. The little girl who worked in Naaman's home. 7. A boy who was named by an angel. 8. A boy who played his harp for a King. 9. A boy whose mother and grand mother taught him the Holy Scriptures. 10. A lad whose voice the Lord heard as he sat under a shrub, thirsty because the water in his bottle was gone. 11. The boy whose mother "lent him to the Lord as long as he lives." 12. The boy whose name meant "laughter." -Hsl 01 'AipounjL '6 'P!ABC 3 '8 -deg 344 uqof 'pieui 3 |«!| 341 9 'A jojs /;puesnoL)j_ 3 Ay 344 ¿0 6uipaa-j »HI,, pe| 3 4 1 g '|3|uea > 'epo4^ •£ ' 4 dasof ’2 '| 3 q y pue *[ Cautiously Mr. Benson lifted the door above his head until he could see through a crack. The rain splashed in and it was cold outside. “Did it wreck the house?” asked Mrs. Benson anxiously. “What house?” replied her hus band, “ It’s gone! completely gone!” He came back to the family, most of whom were now crying, “ It must have been a ‘big blow,’ one of the very worst. I cannot see the barn ANSWERS: ■pees| " jt '|3niueg '¡sew
beside Peggy. The only sound was deep breathing and an occasional snore. Mr. Benson was having a dif ficult time getting to sleep and he didn’t like sleeplessness, for it gave him too much time to think. Lately he had the vague feeling that in spite of his labor, his prosperity and his possessions, he and his family were not getting out of life as much as they should. Looking at his wife, sleeping serenely in the twin bed beside his, he wondered if she too felt that they were missing some thing in life. He tossed and turned. He was uncomfortably warm. Not a breath of air stirred the window cur tains. It must be even more airless upstairs where the boys slept, he thought. He could not remember a night as humid. The heat was like a drug. Finally he fell into a trou bled sleep. But suddenly, unaccountably, he was awake. Was it a sound which had alerted him? Was something wrong in the barn? He ran to the window, and there it was: a fearful, black, funnel-shaped cloud moving right toward the house. Instantly he turned and shouted in stentorian tones: “ Everybody up! To the cy clone cellar! Don’t stop for robes or slippers! Hurry! Hurry! Run! Now!” Mrs. Benson leaped out of bed and ran for Baby Alice. The boys and dogs ran down the stairs and the younger girls came with their cats in arms, aided by their older sister Ann. Mr. Benson scooped up Jimmy. As they reached the cy clone cellar, Harry, with one bound, jerked open the door, and Mrs. Ben son, the children and pets stumbled down the steps. Mr. Benson, who held Jimmy in one arm and the door in his other hand, now let down the door with a bang. As he did so, a two-by-four whirled by, just missing him. The Bensons stood in their night clothes, bare-footed and shiv ering. The dogs whined, the cats bristled and growled, and the little children whimpered as they listened to the dreadful roaring and crash ing above them. Only Baby Alice slept peacefully in her mother’s arms. Jimmy, clinging to his father, asked plaintively, “Daddy, can it get us here?” “No, thank God,” answered Mr. Benson, “ it cannot get us here.” He held the little fellow tightly and stood very still, with bowed head. Mrs. Benson wondered if her hus band were praying. She knew that she was and had been doing so since Mr. Benson had called out the warn ing. After a while, there was a sudden, dead silence. Actually only a few
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MARCH, 1965
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