IN SPITE OF THE heavy blowing
snow the night before, the morning broke bright and clear. Slade was awake but lying very still. His leg
was not hurting and he didn’t want to do anything to make it begin again.
Instead he lay quietly, thinking
of Ellen’s salvation the night before.
It had been an incredible blessing to him. Without intending it, he was caring for her
more and more. His intention had always been to only find a wife who loved His
Lord and although he perhaps wasn’t fully aware of his own feelings, God had
provided that for him.
Slade thought of how she had
cared for him, coming through the night to find him as he lay beside the cut in
the hillside. His hand unconsciously
rubbed his broken ribs under the snug binding. He counted on his fingers. It had been a couple days more than three
weeks, if he was counting right, since she had brought him home through the
falling snow. That trip was a blur in his mind.
He only remembered her hands tying the bands around his broken bones and
her shoulder under his arm as she lifted and pulled him up the bank. His ride home was one long blur of following
her back above Roja’s rump so close ahead of him in the darkness
Then he had been in his house on
his bed without his shirt or pants and she was strapping his ribs. Slade
grinned at her embarrassment when she asked about checking his leg and how she
had settled for leaving his underwear on.
The leg had been healing well until he had abused it last night. The
thought brought a frown to his face. He
hoped he hadn’t damaged it seriously.
He had been selfish in not
following up her suggestion of a staff or cane.
He knew exactly where she could find a suitable staff. There was a nice stack of them leaning
against the side of the barn. They were
straight and slender. One of them would
make a perfect staff. If he had been
using one of those last night he would not have hurt his healing leg. Instead he had preferred to use her close
and willing shoulder.
And with that thought he was
sidetracked into musings of what it would be like to need no excuse for putting
his arm around her and pulling her against his side. What would it be like--
having her as a constant companion with no prospect of her leaving in the
spring when he would be able to return her to Santa Fe
Somewhere in that happy reverie,
he fell back asleep.
Ellen awoke with a feeling of
well being and deep joy. It was
something she had never known in her life.
And suddenly she remembered why.
She had begun a bond with the Lord last night. Ellen sat up and just as quickly flopped back
down.
“Lord God,” unconsciously she
adopted Eli’s favorite address to His God.
“Thank you thank you! If you
don’t do anything else for me, thank you for this feeling of joy and this,
this…security.” She jumped up. In a whirlwind of activity she dressed in her
everyday clothes, collected the skillets, made her bed and straightened up her
loft. She hurried down her ladder with
the skillets under one arm.
She tiptoed toward Slade’s bed.
He was asleep. She put the skillets on
the table, folded her quilt back across the chair. The first thing to do was take care of the
animals and the milking… The milk! She
hurried to the door and there was her bucket, still full of milk with a layer
of cream formed on the top. As Fetcher
rushed out, Ellen brought the milk in the house. It didn’t appear to have been bothered during
the night. She stirred the cream down
and strained the milk just as she would have done the night before. She left
the cold fresh milk on the table for breakfast.
She washed the bucket to use in a few minutes.
When the fragrance of fresh coffee
began floating across the room, Slade woke up. He moaned softly and tried to
sit up. Before he could strain his ribs
or move his leg, Ellen was at his side to support his shoulders and stuff the
extra pillow and folded blanket behind his back.
Then she burst out, “Do you know
how happy I am this morning! I can’t
believe how I feel. I don’t think I have
felt so much joy in months—years maybe.”
And she laughed out loud.
Slade could hardly stop grinning
at her. “It’s wonderful isn’t it? I remember when I gave my heart to the
Lord. The whole world seemed
brighter. You feel like you can walk on
air.
“It will not always be that, but
you will always have the deep peace of knowing you have the Lord on your side.
And you always have an advocate with the Lord.
That is a real blessing!
‘Now could you help me sit up?”
Ellen giggled. “I’m sorry.
I shouldn’t laugh at your difficulty, but it just keeps bubbling
out!
“No you can’t sit up. You are going to stay put all day!
“What is this? All of a sudden you are coddling me?” Slade wanted to know. “I’m able to take care
of myself.”
“Yes,” Ellen responded. “I saw how able you were last night. You
could hardly put any weight on that leg at all and you were pale and
sweaty. You were asleep before I got your
leg wrapped up.
“Today, you are going to stay off
it and it will stay immobilized until I think you can put some weight on
it.”
Slade groaned at her mandate, but
when he tried to move the leg he was satisfied to stay put.
Ellen hurried around the room
getting ready to go to the barn, glad for the sunshine that would allow her to
release the animals and eliminate her need to carry water. When she was ready she poured a cup of coffee
for Slade and carried it along with his Bible to him.
“This will warm you up for a
while until I get back.” She smiled at
him. “And here is your Bible to keep you
company.” Once more Ellen tucked the
blanket around him.
“Wait,” he called to her as she
hurried toward the door. “What you said
a while back, about a finding a stick I could use for walking. I think you might find one around beside the
barn. There is a stack of poles I saved
to use for a pole fence. Maybe you can find
one there for me. “
“I’ll look.” Ellen answered him as she hurried out the
door.
The milking went quickly and the
animals were glad to run in the bright sun.
Sarah began picking at the sparse grass near the barn, but the rest of
them raced along the fence and turned at the row of rocks that bounded the
southern side of the field. Even the
calf ran with the horses.
Ellen stood watching them for a
minute and then walked around the barn to find the poles Slade was talking
about. Sure enough, there were a lot of
long straight poles that had dried in a cradle along the barn. She took quite a while choosing one that she
thought would work.
When she returned to the house
Ellen carried the milk in one hand and the pole in the other. She set the milk on the table and took a
minute to pull off her boots and heavy outdoor clothes. Then she proudly brought the pole to
Slade.
It was slightly longer than five
feet and tapered from one end to the other.
If the smaller end was placed on the floor and the wider one held up,
Slade could easily grasp it for support.
“Yes!” he said. “That should work! Let me try it!” And he rotated around in the bed so that his
one foot was on the floor and the other rested at an angle before him. He realized suddenly that he had no pants
on.
“Maybe you could help me with my
trousers first.” But there was no embarrassment in his voice. He was used to her help.
Ellen hurried to bring him his
trousers and helped slide the leg over his bulky soft bandages. The other she simply held for him to put his
own foot into and let him pull it up himself.
As always her shoulder held him while he manipulated his buttons and
belt. Then she handed him the
stick.
He grasped it firmly in his right
hand, but she refused to release his left side.
“You will still need to hold on
to me until this leg is well. And I’ll say when that is!”
Slade felt a deeper joy than he
could have expected when he realized that using a staff would not mean
foregoing the closeness of her support.
Even though he could not bend his
injured leg they made their way across to the table with a minimum of pain to
it. Slade sat down on the side of the
table where she usually sat, with his back to the room. That allowed Ellen to bring the stool for
supporting his leg. That arrangement
made it possible for her to work on the other side of the table.
It wasn’t until then that she
realized that she had not even thought of anything for breakfast. Her heart was light. She made Slade another cup of coffee. The morning milk was strained and set aside
for cooling. Ellen sliced some leftover
Christmas roast to heat and put on tortillas for breakfast. They sat down to a quiet and happy breakfast,
talking of the cows and the weather and inconsequential things that filled them
both with delight.
Ellen existed in a state of
exultation. She had never had an understanding
of any God or any relationship with God.
The discussions with Slade opened new doors for her and she leapt
through them with enthusiasm. And Slade
was drawn deeper into his love for her.
As Slade used his staff and
stayed off his leg it improved quickly. His ribs healed so well that Ellen
agreed to remove the binding completely.
Because he tended to over-use his leg, she insisted that he keep the
bulky soft blanket around it to limit his exercise.
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