Susannah
couldn’t sit still. Every nerve inside and out stood at attention. She giggled. “When
those pickers showed up, I praised the Lord right then and there. Must have
been a dozen counting the ones who fired up their steam powered gin. I’d never
seen anything like it in my life—oh, the Baylor Brothers’ saw mill, but they
only cut up trees. This machine ate sacks of cotton like a calf sucking its
mother’s milk.
“The
pickers traveled those rows like they were steam powered, too, stuffing two hundred
pounds of that soft white cotton almost so quick that if you blinked you’d miss
it. I swear I knew every row like my baby’s sweet smile, and the very ones I figured
would be the best produced lots extra just like I thought.
“The gin
men fed those full bags into their wonderful machine, and on the other end, out
popped a five hundred pound bale. Every time they stacked another one on my
wagon, I thanked the Lord for His bounty.
“One after
another, until the first wagon was filled. I figured eight bales, two tons each
total would be about as much as I wanted to load on the wagons. I sure was
proud Andy and Jacob had beefed them up for hauling timber.
“I couldn’t
believe it when Levi pulled up the second wagon. Becky and I did a little dance,
then Levi even came and joined in. The children were so excited, too. I never
thought—and you know I’m a guardian of the truth—I didn’t ever think for a wink
that my thirty-two acres would produce sixteen bales! Can you believe it?
Sixteen! That’s four tons of cotton, eight thousand pounds! And Littlejohn’s
offered three-and-a-half to four cents a pound depending on the quality. I’m no
expert, but I think it’s really good lint.
“Anyway,
that’s three hundred and twenty dollars. With Levi and Becky, and the Lord’s help,
of course, we’ve earned three hundred and twenty dollars. God is so good! So, I
figured if I didn’t have to spend the month going to Jefferson
and back, I could stay home, and Levi and I could get the fields plowed and
ready to plant wheat. Everything was working out better than I’d ever hoped. Isn’t
that just like our awesome Heavenly Father?
“Now, all I
have to do is deliver the cotton to Mister Littlejohn at the Sulpher Fork
Trading Post morning after next. I told the children we could spend a night
there, you know, for a treat. I intend to let them order a new pair of shoes
and pick out a bolt or two of fabric for some new clothes.”
She sighed
and her vision blurred. A tear rolled down her cheek. “For the first time since
the accident—since me losing my husband and Levi losing his daddy—we’ll finally
have extra. Getting through the year won’t be so hard. You can’t imagine how
grateful I am to the Lord. He’s truly blessed me.”
VOW UNBROKEN begins on that next morning after when Sue and Levi drive their wagons to the trading post to meet Mister Littlejohn..
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