The Life of Me: An AutobiographyJohnson, Clarence Edgar
History
The Life of Me: An Autobiography
Johnson, Clarence Edgar
Fisher County (Tex.) -- Biography; Fisher County (Tex.) -- History; Johnson family; Johnson, Clarence Edgar, 1906-1994
The idea of sin being connected with shooting a gun on Sunday had
probably been handed down from pioneer days when men lived by
hunting game. In those days hunting was a means of making a
living, therefore it was work, and work was not to be done on
Sunday.
Despite the dry weather that seemed to threaten our very
existence, we used water from our well and grew quite a bit of
garden produce. Our garden was like an oasis in a dust bowl.
And then, one day we received a bit of news that was like an
oasis of good news in our desert of bad news.
Uncle Robert got word to us that Old Scotch had returned home to
the Exum place. Papa began getting the car ready immediately and
went after him. I think maybe Joel went with Papa.
A family named Bristow was living on the Exum farm when Old
Scotch returned. Mr. Bristow thought this might be our dog, but
he was not sure. He said it looked as though the dog had
traveled a long, long way. The first thing Old Scotch did was
lie down in the yard and rest. Then he chased all the chickens
out of the yard as he had done many times before. Next he went
into the house and slowly looked through all the rooms, as if
looking for something familiar to him. Finding no one he knew,
he went back out into the yard to rest again.
Then Mr. Bristow phoned Robert Johnson to see if he might know
our dog. Robert drove over in his Buick. Old Scotch met him way
down the road and leaped for joy beside the car all the way back
to the house. He had finally found new hope. The Buick motor
was music to his ears and, although Robert was not home folks, at
least the dog knew him as a friendly neighbor.
When Robert got out of his car, Old Scotch leaped up into the
front seat, sat down and put his paws on the steering wheel.
When Robert saw him do that, he turned to Mr. Bristow and said,
"That's their dog all right."
We had no telephone on our farm on the plains. And we were ten
miles from Lamesa. I don't know how Robert got word to us about
Old Scotch, but Papa lost no time in bringing him home. The
round trip was 280 miles.
When Papa brought the dog home he was covered with lice, there
were sores on his body, some of his beautiful coat had fallen
away and his feet were sore from traveling so far. He had lost a
lot of weight, was poor and half starved.
We believe that some Gypsies stole him and tied him to their
wagon. Gypsies came by our farm now and then, and both we and
our neighbors had a low opinion of them. Theirs were the only
poor, skinny dogs we ever saw.
Anyway, we were mighty glad to have Old Scotch back with us and
we soon had him as fat and sassy and as good looking as ever.
And he was right there with us all the rest of his life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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