The Pickwicker, Volume 18, 1950 Page: 19
42, [8] p. : ill. ; 22 x 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Bear Creek! Joy's thoughts meandered down it from the rock bottom
shallow hole at the extreme south of her Dad's pasture to Big Hole at the
northwest. She became quite sentimental thinking of Long Hole. Long
Hole was just west of the fields where Dad used to have grain. She remem-
bered shocking oats for hours and then jumping into Long Hole for a re-
freshing swim. The other kids had been there too-her sisters, Jane,
Dorothy, Mary Nell; and Bud, too. Tim had been too little. He was the
baby.
Thoughts of the folks at home crowded the surrounding territory from
Joy's mind. She had not told them that she was coming just now; she
preferred to walk in on them. She didn't want them to prepare to meet
her. She hoped to walk into the living room and have Dad look up from
the paper with a "Hello, my Joy." Dad was sweet.
The kids wouldn't be there. That is Bud and Jane and Dorothy
wouldn't. Dorothy had married and lived in Massachusetts. Jane had a
big-time job on a Dallas paper, and Bud was in the army. He seemed like
a gawky high school kid to Joy, but he was some sort of a soldier. She
smiled at the thought of him in uniform and hoped he would be home soon.
She realized how much she loved "the kids"-her sisters and brothers.
Mary Nell would be at home and Tim. Two years change growing kids
so much. She wondered how they would receive her.
Joy got off the bus and walked home. She preferred it that way. She
wanted to prepare herself. "The Return of the Native," she thought. She
loved the oaks, the old bridge across the creek that ran in front of her
home. She looked at the old house. It needed painting badly-worse than
two years ago. The green roof was faded, a yellowish green now and the
house proper looked grey instead of white. That didn't matter to Joy. She
loved it. The great oaks towered behind it! She was afraid those oaks
would lose part of their grandeur but they had not.
She saw old "sway back" and wanted to run to it. "Sway-back" was
the drooping limb of the live oak that grew in front of the house. How
many kids had sat there and dragged their bare feet in the dirt below! She
walked quietly to "sway-back" and sat down. She didn't want anyone to
hear her just yet. She slipped her shoes off and dragged her stockinged foot
into the dirt. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. She determined
she would not cry; for Dad's sake and Mary Nell's and Tim's. She wouldn't;
she wouldn't.
She remembered Mom standing at the picket gate and saying, "God
be with you, my child," and Mom smiled and kissed her. Now Joy had
come home but Mom had been dead four months. Joy had known that her
mother was dead but now she had to face it-home without Mom. She
wouldn't cry; she wouldn't, she wouldn't!
Joy ran into the living room, into Dad's arms and wept.-19--
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Abilene Christian College. The Pickwicker, Volume 18, 1950, periodical, 1950; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth335175/m1/19/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Christian University Library.