Excerpt #6 - Tales of a Texas Boy

Excerpt from Tales of a Texas Boy

Moonlight Ride

In December, the crops were already in so there wasn’t much to do. One night, we were just sitting around in front of the fire doing our homework. It was getting late, so Pa went out on the porch to smoke his cigar before bedtime. Ma didn’t like the smell, so she didn’t let him smoke inside. He came back in and whispered sumpin to Ma. She went out on the porch for a bit, then she come back herself. They whispered some more.

“Eddie,” Pa said to me, “I want you to go saddle up Brownie and take a ride over to Mrs. Garner’s place.”

“Why’s that, Pa?” I asked him.

“Oh, no special reason. I’d just like you to go check up on her. Her lights are still on and she’s usually not up this late.”

“Sure, Pa.”

I didn’t mind a little moonlight ride, so I hustled on out to the barn and saddled up Brownie. When I was all ready, I led him up to the house and Pa was waiting there with a kerosene lantern. I mounted up and Pa handed me up the light. Ma came out and gave me a bag.

“Just tell her we thought she’d like some leftover cornbread,” she said, pointing to the bag. I thought it pretty strange to be deliverin’ cornbread at ten o’clock at night, but it wasn’t up to me to question.
I started out across the prairie, going slow so Brownie could see his way and not step in a hole. Horses got real good vision at night, so you can always trust ‘em to find their own way.

The moon shone down on the frost forming on the ground. Lookin’ across to Mrs. Garner’s, I thought it a beautiful sight. The frost and the big moon hangin’ close to the horizon looked like a postcard picture. I thought it was real pretty, though boys aren’t supposed to think of such things.

When I got to her place I saw the only light was in the kitchen, so I went round the other side of the house to knock on the door. When I come up to the door, I looked through the glass and saw her down on the kitchen floor. I started to pound on the door, but she didn’t move and that got me worried.

Read the rest of the story and more in Tales of a Texas Boy.

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Tales of a Texas Boy is available in Large Print on Amazon. It's also in ebook format on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. And if your father has vision issues beyond the help of large print (as my father did), the audio book is available at audible.com.