Bringing Ezra Back Read Online Free Page A

back on Ezra’s trouble, or sending you off after him. I keep wondering what your mama would say about all this.”
    â€œShe’d want me to help Ezra,” I said without hesitating a minute. “You know how she was.”
    â€œYes, but she’d rather have died herself than see you come to harm,” Pa said.
    My eyes blurred with sudden tears, and I tried to blink them away. “Nothing’s going to happen to me, Pa.” After a moment I added, “Though I wish it was Isaac I was going with, instead of Beckwith.”
    Pa looked at me curiously. “Beckwith gave me his word he’ll stay with you until you find Ezra. He seems a decent fellow.”
    I shrugged. I didn’t want Pa to change his mind, so I decided not to say any more. But it was like Pa knew how I was feeling.
    He sighed and said, “Nathan, there’s another reason I’m going to allow you to do this, besides Ezra’s needing help.”
    â€œWhat’s that?” I asked.
    â€œEver since that business with Weasel, you’ve reminded me of a horse I used to have,” he said.
    â€œA horse? ” I repeated. “Which one?”
    â€œI called him Amos,” Pa said.
    Pa named all his horses out of the Bible, but I didn’t recollect one by that name.
    â€œIt was before you were born,” Pa went on. “I don’t know what happened to old Amos before I got him, but whatever it was, it made him skittish. If I raised my hand just to scratch my nose, he’d buck or shy away. Now, you know I’d never strike an animal, but you couldn’t have convinced old Amos of that. It didn’t matter how kind and gentle I treated him.”
    Beckwith had as much as called me a pig, and now Pa was saying I reminded him of a horse. I didn’t take to being likened to a creature as foolish as the one Pa was describing. I waited to see just what he was getting at.
    â€œI reckon what I’m saying is, I don’t want to see that happen to you, son. A man who’s suspicious of everybody ends up in a mighty sad and narrow place.”
    I was struggling to understand. “You said this had something to do with Weasel. Are you saying I’m wrong to be wary of him and his kind?”
    â€œNo,” Pa said softly. “The trouble comes when you can’t see the difference between him and his kind and regular, well-meaning folks.”
    I waited for him to go on.
    â€œThat’s why I’m thinking it might do you good to go out in the world a bit. Open your eyes to all the different sorts of people out there.”
    I stood quiet, trying to let my thoughts settle. Pa was going to let me go after Ezra. That was good, even though I didn’t much hold with his reasoning, especially the part about the horse.
    Pa reached into his trouser pocket and held something out to me. It was a cloth pouch with a leather drawstring. “Take this,” he said. “If you need it, spend it.”
    I opened the pouch and stared at the five-dollar gold piece. It hardly seemed real. “But, Pa, how—I mean to say, where did it come from?”
    â€œIt was your mama’s. She was saving it. She always said there’d come a day when we’d have need of it. I reckon she’d want you to have it now.”
    It made me feel safer, somehow, to have Mama’s gift with me, close to my heart. I slipped the pouch over my head and hid it under my shirt so nobody, including Beckwith, would know it was there.
    â€œI hope not to use it,” I said. “I’d like for you to get yourself some of those spectacles.”
    Pa smiled. “Wouldn’t that be something?” After a moment he said, “Beckwith’s anxious to get on his way, Nathan, so when you’re finished here, we’ll get you packed up. And then—”
    He stopped there. I didn’t want to think about saying good-bye till I had to, and I reckon he didn’t,