The Transformation of Job: A Tale of the High SierrasFisher, Frederick Vining
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The Transformation of Job: A Tale of the High Sierras
Fisher, Frederick Vining
Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.) -- Fiction
Andrew Malden never doubted the blue-eyed, homeless boy who had grown
to be the stalwart young man on whom he leaned more and more. It was a
great comfort to Job when the old man told him this, and declared he
would go over there in the morning and settle this matter; they would
believe Andrew Malden. Then he thought of the mortgage; he had paid
that, and no one knew where he got the money--and now perhaps they
would not believe him if he did tell them. Perhaps he had better not
go after all.
Late into the night the two talked it over, till they saw how dark
things really looked for them. Well enough they knew who was the
guilty person, but who could prove it? Finally Andrew Malden took down
the old family Bible and read: "What shall separate us from the love
of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" The reader laid stress on that
word "persecution." On he read: "I am persuaded that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus."
"Amen," said Job, as the old man laid down the book. "Yes, and it says
that 'all things work together for good to them that love God.'"
Together they knelt in prayer, and to Him who knows the secret
integrity of our hearts, as well as our secret sins, they committed
the burden that rested on their souls.
The next day was Sunday, a lovely June Sunday. The sunbeams were
playing across his face when Job awoke, and the fragrance of roses
filled the room as they looked in at the open window. How still and
beautiful was all the world! No thumping machinery, no jangling
voices, no grimy faces passing the window! Flowers and sunshine and
the songs of birds, and--home! Oh, how happy he felt!
He dropped on his knees the first thing, in a prayer that was almost a
psalm. He went downstairs in two jumps, and was out hugging Bess in no
time, telling her she was the best horse that ever lived. Then he went
racing Shot down to the milk-house, where he nearly upset Tony with a
pail of foaming milk. The big fellow stared and said:
"'Pears like you done gone clean crazy. Marse Job! Guess you think
you's a kid agin!"
When Job took the pail away from him and bore it safely in on his
head, Tony chuckled and said, "Bress de Lawd, Marse Job! You's mighty
good to me."
Job waited for no more of Tony's praises, but hurried off, with Shot
barking at his heels. Never had the old ranch looked more beautiful to
him--the house yard, the big barns, the giant pasture lot with the
clump of live-oaks next the yard, the forests on all four sides, the
wild-flowers covering the pasture with a variegated carpet, the garden
on the side hill. Job was a boy again, and he came in panting, to
nearly run over Sing, the new Chinese cook, who was not used to such
scenes at quiet Pine Tree Ranch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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