Jimmie Moore of BucktownTrotter, Melvin E. (Melvin Earnest)
General
Jimmie Moore of Bucktown
Trotter, Melvin E. (Melvin Earnest)
Christian life -- Fiction; Missionaries -- Fiction; Poor families -- Fiction
On one occasion, when the Mission woman had gone, Mrs. Cook,
who was present, turned to Jimmie and said, "I sh'd think you'd
thank her for all she's doin' for you folks. She's the best
friend yer ever had, and I'll bet none of yer ever even said
'Much erblidged.'"
"We don't have ter tank her," said Jimmie. "Jesus is der one
we're ter tank. Everyting belongs ter Him, and I'm His'n, too.
When we needs anyting we jus' tells Him an' He sends it."
"Well, she's the one who brought that flour this morning, fer
I seen her come," said Mrs. Cook, "and none of you thanked her
at all."
"Aw, yer go on," replied the boy. "Yer don't know wot you're
talkin' about. Dis ain't no graft dat we's a-workin'. Jesus
is our friend an' He loves us; dat's why He takes care of us.
He'd love yer, too, if you'd let Him, but when yer takes Him
for your friend yer got to cut out dose cuss words an' de growler,
too. Dat's wat me an' Pa has done, and we belongs to Jesus now.
'Twouldn't be de square ting by Him for us ter tank anybody
else, and we ain't afeard but wat He'll give us all we needs."
As for Moore, while he never doubted his salvation, there were
times when he was despondent and gloomy. The memory of his misspent
life and the consciousness that he had nearly reached the end
lay heavily upon his mind, and, left alone as he was for hours
at a time, with no one but Jimmie and the other children in
the house, he brooded upon his troubles until he grew very
miserable. At such times it was interesting to hear Jimmie hold
up Jesus and preach the gospel of love as his juvenile mind
comprehended it.
"Pa, yer act jus' as though Jesus didn't love yer," he said
one afternoon, when the superintendent's wife was present. "He
knows yer coughin' spells hurt yer, and He'll help yer to stan'
'em, 'cause He was hurted once Hisself. Ain't He takin' care
of us, and didn't He send der Mission Guy ter help us? Yer ain't
got no right ter worry; just look how good He's been ter all
of us."
One morning when Dr. Snyder, who had been called in on the advice
of the Cook family, came to see the sick man, Moore anxiously
inquired if there was no chance of his recovery. While he was
conceded to be an able man in his profession, the doctor, himself
a drinking man, was sometimes rough and heartless in his manner,
and, replying to the question, said:
"Well, if you've got any unfinished business on hand you better
call a special session and close it up. You'll be pushing clouds
within a week."
"Do you mean he's goin' ter die?" asked Jimmie, whose quick
ears had caught the remark.
"That's just the plain English of it, my boy," replied the doctor.
"The old man's a goner, and no doctor on earth can save him."
"Well, he'll go straight ter Jesus," said Jimmie, "'cause he
got saved las' Friday. Gran'ma and Gran'pa er up dar, and Pa
an' Ma an' the rest of us is all a-goin'."
"What's the matter with the kid, Moore?" asked the doctor. "Has
he gone daffy?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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