Yankee Belles in Dixie Read Online Free

moon. Finally Royal said, “He’s all right, isn’t he?”
    â€œI guess so. He was when I left—but you know how it is, Royal.” There was fear in Jeff’s voice, and uncertainty.
    Royal said, “You worry about him, I know. I do too.”
    * * *
    Â Â Â Back at the house, about dawn, Jeff and Leah went to an outside table to clean the fish. He was wearing a pair of old faded overalls, and a slouch hat was shoved back on his head.
    â€œRoyal’s worried, isn’t he?” she asked him. “I can tell.”
    â€œI guess everybody is. This war’s crazy—brothers shooting at brothers! There’s Royal on one side and my brother on the other side. The best friends that ever were—and now they might have to kill each other.” He reached down, took the tow sack, and spilled the catfish into a pail. The fish thumped wildly about.
    Jeff had dressed many catfish, and he did it quickly and efficiently, using a pair of pliers. When one was clean, he threw the trimmings into a small bucket and the pink body of the fine fish onto the table.
    Then he said to Leah, “I can’t seem to believe it’s going to come out all right. There’s my father in jail, and we hear the prisoners die by the hundreds in those prisons.”
    â€œJeff, you can’t think like that,” Leah protested. She watched as he picked up another fish moodily and began cleaning it. “You’ve got to remember that God is going to answer our prayers. He’ll take care of our men in His own way.”
    â€œI don’t know about God anymore.”
    Leah reacted to his words as though struck. “Why, Jeff, you know God’s good!”
    He turned, holding the pliers in his left hand so tightly that his fingers were white. “If God’s so good, why did He let this war happen? Why did He let my father be in prison? Why did He let that boy get killed who was about to get married? I don’t see anything good about it.”
    â€œBut, Jeff, you can’t talk like that!”
    Jeff’s face was pale, even in the dawn light. “Leah, my mother died. I don’t have any home anymore. My father’s in prison. Maybe my brother’sdead. What have I got to be happy about? Why should I trust God?”
    He knew Leah had never heard him speak like this. He had always been a faithful attender at church.
    She looked shaken. “Jeff,” she whispered, “we’ve got to trust God.” She moved to stand beside him. “We’ve got to remember things don’t always go well, but God always does what is right. You know the Bible. Look at Daniel down in the lions’ den. Why, things looked downright terrible for him! And the people of Israel, when they were caught and Pharaoh’s army was about to kill them all. Think about them, what they must have felt—but Moses didn’t doubt! He knew God was going to deliver them—in His own way. And He did.”
    â€œThat was in the Bible,” Jeff said. He turned and began skinning another fish. “But this is now, and somehow I just feel so—well, I don’t know how to say it …”
    Leah moved closer. She reached out and touched his arm. “Jeff, please don’t talk like that! I know you feel bad, and I do too. But God wants us to trust Him. He’s never failed anybody yet.”
    Jeff continued cleaning the fish, and Leah kept talking quietly, trying to encourage him.
    Finally, when all the fish were cleaned, he said, “Let’s go to the pump and wash these off.”
    She pumped while he washed the fish. When they turned to go to the house, he said, “I’ll try to believe God will make things be right—but it sure is hard.”
    â€œI know.” Leah’s eyes were warm. “You and I, we’re going to pray that your father will get out ofjail—unless God has something better in mind. That would be something,