Bring the Boys Home by Gilbert L. Morris

Author:Gilbert L. Morris [Morris, Gilbert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8024-7888-7
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Published: 1997-11-13T05:00:00+00:00

9

Tom Has a Problem

The job of putting the old Turner house into living condition consumed all the energies of the Majorses. Nelson, Tom, and Jeff hauled out trash, mopped floors, cleaned windows—those that were not broken—set up an ancient cookstove by bracing its missing leg with bricks, and worked from sunup to after dark every weekday until May.

One Tuesday morning, Tom thought he was getting up earlier than the others. However, he found Eileen in the kitchen baking bread and said with surprise, “What are you doing up this early?”

“Oh, I just couldn’t sleep. Sit down and let me fix you some breakfast.”

Taking a chair, Tom looked at his stepmother’s face. She looked tired. There were lines around the corners of her mouth that showed strain. “You don’t look like you feel well, Eileen. Maybe you better go in and see the doctor.”

Eileen reached over and pushed a lock of Tom’s hair back from his forehead. “Pooh! Who needs an old doctor? It’s only a baby!”

Tom sat sprawled in the chair, his mind going over the day that lay before him.

Eileen soon put eggs and grits before him, then sat down to drink a cup of coffee. “Real coffee tastes good,” she said. “I never could get used to drinking coffee made out of burnt acorns.”

“I couldn’t either,” Tom confessed. He sipped the hot brew carefully. “It was nice of the Carters to set us up in groceries—but we can’t keep sponging off them forever.”

Eileen gave him a quick look. “Things may be hard for a while, but you’ll find work.”

“That’s what I aim to do today. I’m going to walk as far as I can until somebody will hire me to do something. I’m not particular what this time. Just something to bring some cash in.”

“Are you going around to the farms or going to town?”

“Both. I’ll stop on the farms on the way to town. It’s a bad time to be asking for work, especially with so many Union soldiers coming back, but I don’t know what else to do, Eileen. Maybe I can get a job cleaning out stables—or just anything.”

“You’ll find something,” Eileen said. “I’ll fix a lunch to take with you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“You’ll need something to eat if you’re going to walk all the way to town and back. Some sandwiches, anyway. And I’ve got two of those doughnuts left.”

“Thanks. That would be a help.”

By the time Tom left, the sun was coming up over the mountains. He walked as quickly as he could, wishing he had a horse. But there was no money for luxuries like that. By the time he had walked an hour, his leg was beginning to hurt. He looked down at the offending limb and knew that he would never make it to town. Yet he could not turn back. He continued to walk until finally the discomfort became unbearable and he sat down on a fallen tree beside the road.

Half an hour later a wagon came by.

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