Seasons of the Heart: Omnibus

by Janette Oke

  I stopped in my tracks, too scared to even holler.

  The horses pitched and plunged and then out from under them-some way-the preacher rolled, and he held Pixie in his arms.

  Everyone else had been too busy talkin' to even notice what had happened, and I guess the preacher was glad that they were. His new suit was snow-covered and had a patch of dirt on one pant leg where a horse's hoof had struck him.

  He brushed himself off quickly. I noticed that when he walked toward me he limped, though he was tryin' hard not to.

  He felt Pixie to make sure that she had no broken bones. She was trem- blin' but she seemed unhurt. He handed her to me and I cuddled her close. I finally found my voice.

  "Ya coulda been killed."

  He didn't say anything for a minute and then, "She's okay, Josh."

  "Are you?"

  "Sure-I'm fine-just bumped a little. Don't bother mentioning it, all right?"

  I nodded. I swallowed hard and stroked Pixie's brown curly head.

  "I didn't know;" I said, "that ya liked dogs so much that you'd-you'd risk yer life for em."

  He looked at me then, and reached out and put a hand on my shoulder.

  "Sure-sure, Josh, I like dogs real well. But it wasn't for Pixie that I had to get her out. It was for you, Josh."

  My eyes must have shown my question, for he steered me away from the crowd and we walked off a few paces together, him still limpin.

  "I know how you love Pixie, Josh, and I know how a fella can feel cheated when he loses what he loves. You now, you've already lost your mother and your pa, and then you lost your first dog. Lou told me all about it. Pretty soon-well pretty soon-I hope that you'll be called on to share the most important person in your life, Josh. You might feel like you're losing her, too-but you won't be. Lou will always love you-always. She's worried about you, Josh. She's afraid that you might not understand, that you'll be hurt and grow bitter."

  He stopped and turned me to face him.

  "Lou is afraid that you blamed God for your first dog being killed. She's afraid that she couldn't make you understand that God loves you, that He plans for your good, not your hurt.

  "It's true that things happen in life that seem wrong and are painful, but it isn't because God likes to see us suffer. He wants to see us grow. He wants us to love Him, to trust Him:"

  I thought back about Willie sayin' that he felt clean and not scared or mad inside anymore; I knew that that's what I wanted, too. I fought with myself for a minute, wonderin' if God could really forgive me for the selfish way that I'd been thinkin' and feelin: The preacher said that God loved me. If He loved me, then I figured that He'd forgive me, too.

  "Can we go somewhere private a minute?" I asked.

  "Sure;" he said. He placed an arm around my shoulder, and we went through the side door into his study in the little church.

  Still clutchin' Pixie close, I poured it all out-how I'd been feelin; how I doubted God, blamed God, even tried to ignore Him if I could. I told, too, about what Deacon Brown had heard and passed on to my grandpa and how I had withheld the truth in a selfish effort to keep Auntie Lou. I cried as I told the preacher, and I think that he cried some, too. Then we prayed together. Willie Corbin was right. It did work! I felt clean and forgiven-and even better yet, loved.

  I smiled up at the preacher, and I even thought I loved him, too. I was glad that Auntie Lou had picked him. She sure knew how to pick a man.

  "Thanks, Nat;' I said. That's what Auntie Lou had been callin' him, and I guessed that I'd better get used to it, too-at least until I could rightfully say Uncle Nat.

  We hugged each other close; then I picked up Pixie and went to find my family. I had something pretty excitin' to tell them on the way home.

  CHAPTER 28

  Postscript

  Well, I guess that jest about sums up the tellin' of how Auntie Lou did her own choosin' and ended up with the best man in the whole county-and how I did my own choosin' and made friends with God.

  Auntie Lou and Nat didn't rush about gettin' married. Nat was determined to have somethin' to offer a wife, so it was the next fall, jest after Auntie Lou's nineteenth birthday, that they became man and wife.

  Gramps worked out a couple of little things for them. First off, he reminded Grandpa that it was quite the accepted thing for a girl to have her mother's fine things when she married; so all of our front parlor furniture and the fancy dishes went with Auntie Lou to the parsonage.

  Gramps went a step further, too. As his weddin' gift to Auntie Lou and Nat, he gave them a fine one-horse buggy.

  Grandpa and Uncle Charlie caught the feelin' of excitement about the comin' event, and both managed to find ways that they could be involved in helpin' the young couple, too, without offendin' Nat any.

  And Auntie Lou-she was about the prettiest and happiest bride that anyone had ever seen. Nat, standin' there beside her with his grin almost as broad as his wide shoulders, looked real good, too.

  And then-bless their hearts-they had a surprise for me!

  I was at the end of the schoolin' that could be had in our one-room school, so they convinced Grandpa that since I was an apt student, I should have the advantage of the extra grades that the town school had to offer. So when Auntie Lou and Uncle Nat settled into the parsonage, I moved in with them. I even got to take Pixie with me.

  I would spend the week with them and go home every Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with the menfolk at the farm. Gramps and I crowded in a lot of good trips to the crik.

  The three men worked out their own system for the batchin' chores, and it seemed to work out quite well. Of course Lou still fretted some about them and visited often to sort of keep things in order. She never let me leave on a Friday without sendin' home some special bakin' with me.

  So my weekdays were spent with Auntie Lou and Uncle Nat, sharin' in the life and the love of the parsonage, and my weekends were crowded with activities on the farm with three men who loved me. I got the very best of two different worlds. Now how's that for a happy endin'?

  Th eWmn ds

  of A utumn

  With love to my Uncle Ralph Steeves, just because he's special.

  CONTENTS

  Characters ...................................................186

  Chapter 1 An Autumn Surprise 187 ................................

  Chapter 2 Pleading Our Case 193 ..................................

  Chapter 3 A Little Help ....................................... 200

  Chapter 4 Off Camping 205 .......................................

  Chapter 5 The Campsite ...................................... 212

  Chapter 6 The Spring 220 .........................................

  Chapter 7 Return Home 225 ......................................

  Chapter 8 School Again 231 .......................................

  Chapter 9 The New Teacher 237 ...................................

  Chapter 10 The Storm 244 .........................................

  Chapter 11 Camellia 252 ...........................................

  Chapter 12 The Tutoring ....................................... 257

  Chapter 13 Good Old-Fashioned School Days? 266 ....................

  Chapter 14 Revenge 273 ...........................................

  Chapter 15 Questions and Answers 278 ..............................

  Chapter 16 Christmas 285 .........................................

  Chapter 17 Back to School 291 .....................................

  Chapter 18 Hard Days 299 .........................................

  Chapter 19 Spring 303 .............................................

  Chapter 20 Pain 309 ..............................................

  Chapter2l The Baby 315 ..........................................

  Chapter 22 Adjustments 320 .......................................

  Chapter 23 Picking U
p the Pieces 327 ...............................

  Chapter 24 A Fishing Trip 337 ......................................

  Chapter 25 Lessons in Living 342 ...................................

  Chapter 26 The Beginning ......................................349

  CHARACTERS

  Joshua Chadwick Jones-When Josh's parents were killed in an accident while he was still a baby, he was raised by his grandfather and his great-uncle Charlie on the family farm. Though Aunt Lou was not many years older than josh, being a latecomer to the Jones family, she also took delight in caring for young josh, and he saw her as a friend and a mother rather than an aunt.

  Lou Jones Crawford-Josh's aunt whom he had fought to keep with the family unit in Once Upon a Summer. Pretty and vivacious, yet with deep concern for others, Lou was a fitting helpmate for the young minister she married.

  Grandpa-the grandfather of Joshua and father of Lou.

  Uncle Charlie-the quiet yet supportive brother of Grandpa. He had never married but worked along with Grandpa on his farm.

  Gramps-Josh's great-grandfather who had come west to live with his two sons, his granddaughter Lou, and great-grandson Joshua after the death of his wife.

  Nat Crawford-the young pastor Lou married. Josh now spends his weeks in town with Lou and Nat in order to continue his education in the town school.

  Pixie-the answer to Josh's dream for a dog of his own. She was given to Josh by Gramps who went to great effort to find josh a second puppy after his first pup was accidentally killed.

  CHAPTER 1

  An Autumn Surprise

  I don't remember a prettier fall than the one we had the year I was fifteen. The long Indian summer days stretched on into October with only enough sprinkles of rain to keep the flowers blooming in Aunt Lou's flower beds and the lawn green enough to contrast with the yellows and golds of the autumn trees and bushes. Even the leaves seemed reluctant to "tuck in" for the winter and kept clinging to the branches week after week in all their fine, colorful array. The sun warmed up the air by noon each day, and the nights were just nippy enough to remind us that we'd best be spending our time getting ready for winter instead of loafing along beside the crik, pretending that this good weather would stay with us forever.

  The farmers in the area took in all the crops, the women cleaned out their large farm gardens, we stayed loafing by the crik whenever we could, and still the good weather held. People started talking summer picnics and parties again, but I guess no one wanted to exert themselves enough to do the fixing, for the days went by and no one actually had a picnic-we all just sat around in the sun or took long, lazy walks through the colorful countryside.

  As you probably have figured out by now, my favorite place was down by the crik. I took my fishing pole and headed there every chance I got. Most often Gramps, my great-grandfather, went along with me. He likes fishing-and loafing-most as much as I do. The only thing that got in the way of my fishing trips was school. Most all the area boys my age had given up on school and gone off to farm with their pa's or to work in a store or something, but I still hung in there.

  Part of it was due to my aunt Lou encouraging me a lot. She was sure I had a good head and kept telling me that it would be a waste, should I not use it. Her husband, my uncle Nat, chimed right in there with her. Since he was the parson in our little town church, I felt that if anyone knew the importance of education, my uncle Nat would be the man. He had gotten his the hard way, having to work his way through school and seminary on accounta he didn't have a ma or pa to see him through, them having died when he was still quite young.

  Me, I had it easy. I not only had Lou and Nat but I had Grandpa, a greatuncle Charlie and my Gramps, my great-grandpa. All of them were right keen on me getting all the education I could.

  It wasn't a problem to me. In fact, I really liked book learning, even if our school wasn't a very big one and most of the students were young kids or girls. Oh, a few of the boys still attended-like my best friend, Avery Garret. He didn't care too much for school and didn't know what he wanted to do with any schooling that he did get. I figured he just continued on because I was there-and, then, there was a certain amount of fun to be had at school. I mean, with all the girls still going and all.

  Then there was Jack Berry. His pa was bound and determined that Jack would be a doctor. Jack wasn't so sure. Truth was, he kinda had his heart set on being a sailor. Only there wasrit any water handy-like, any big water that is. So he didn't know just how he was going to manage to get on a boat-at least a boat anybigger than the rough-looking little two-oar one left down on the small pond near the town for anyone's use who might want to do some rowing.

  Willie Corbin was still going to school, too. I wanta tell you about that Willie. He was the biggest rascal in our community when he was younger. Used to get himself in all kinds of trouble. Folks thought that he never would amount to anything but most likely end up in some jail or something. Me, I knew that Willie wasn't really bad; he just liked to have fun, that was all. But that all changed when Willie decided he'd rather spend his future in heaven than hell.

  This happened way back after my uncle Nat preached his first sermon in our church. He had just been asked to be our new minister. Willie straightened himself right around and never did go back to his wild ways. I figured if God could make such a change in the likes of Willie Corbin, then He ought to be able to handle almost anyone. Anyway, Willie about had his mind made up that God wanted him to be a missionary. Willie found studying rather hard, but one had to admire him. He kept plugging away at it, determined to prepare himself for some kind of work with heathen people somewhere.

  Those were the three fellows from my old country school who were still hanging in there. Then there were four older guys from town. We all hung around together, but I spent most of the time with my old buddies, mostly I guess because they were also from our small church. A couple of the town fellas were a little "wild;' according to Aunt Lou, and though she didn't forbid me to see them or anything like that, still she did prefer me to make close friends with the church young folks.

  I didn't complain. I liked the church kids and we had us a lot of fun with our corn roasting, sleigh riding, skating on the pond and such.

  It seemed hard to believe that me and Pixie, my little dog, had already been two years with Aunt Lou and Uncle Nat in town. We didn't stay in town all the time. Whenever the weather was good-and as I said, it was good most of the time that fall-we went on out to the farm for the weekend to spend time with Grandpa, Uncle Charlie and Gramps, who batched together there.

  I would have been hard put to try to say which place I liked best. While I was in town during the week I counted the days till the weekend when I could get back out on the farm again and chop some wood, or go to the pasture for Bossie, the milk cow I had milked so many times myself. I even enjoyed the squealing and grunting of the pigs as I sloshed the slop into their troughs. The chickens seemed to sort of sing their clucking when I poured out their water and grain.

  Then as soon as Sunday night came around, I found myself hardly able to wait to get back to town and Aunt Lou and Uncle Nat again. I wondered what Aunt Lou had fixed for Sunday dinner and if she'd saved a piece of pie or an apple dumpling for me. I wondered if Uncle Nat had been called out on some sick call and I hadn't been there to harness Dobbin for him. I thought of all kinds of things that I wanted to ask them or tell them when I got back. You'd think I'd been gone for days the way I chomped to get back again. The truth was, I had just seen both of them at the church service that very morning.

  So that was the way I spent the fall, going back and forth, back and forth, and trying to grab the best of two worlds with both hands, so to speak. I would have tired myself plumb out if it hadn't been such a long, lazy-feeling kind of fall. Even after every lick of work was done, we still had us lots of good weather for catching up on just loafing around.

  Only one thing wrong with that kind of weather. It sure made it
hard to concentrate on studying. I had to take myself in hand every other day, it seemed, and just make myself sit down and study. And then another strange thing happened. Miss Williams, a maiden lady who had been teaching in our school for almost forever, went and threw in a surprise that nearly rocked the whole community. She was getting married, she said, just like that!

  Now, no one in his right mind ever picked Miss Williams for the marrying kind. I mean, why would you? She had lived for years and years all alone and looked like she was enjoying it, and then, real sudden-like, she says she is getting married. To a sweetheart of some thirty-seven years, she says. Now, no one in the town knew anything at all about this fella. We'd never even heard of him. But that didn't stop Miss Williams any. She was quitting, she said, and she never gave notice or anything, just packed up her books and her bags and took the train back to some eastern city to marry this man.

  Well, that left us without a teacher. There weren't none of us sitting around grieving much. Not even me who liked school. Jack Berry didn't try to hide his enthusiasm-he just whooped right out. A couple of the girls gave him a real cross look, but he didn't care. He whooped again and threw his plaid cap up into the air.

  "Well;' demanded Jack, "what we gonna do with this here unexpected blessing?"

  "What do you mean?" asked Willie. He was already having enough trouble working his way through English without losing precious time. "Blessing? Not a blessing far as I'm concerned. Miss Williams was an okay teacher. Wisht she would have stayed around and finished the job:"