JEANNIE OF THE 2-BAR-A
By Mina Arnold Young
JEANNIE OF THE 2-BAR-A
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What happens when a nine-year-old girl moves from her comfortable city home to an isolated ranch in Wyoming?
Jeannie doesn't want to move, but she discovers that, as frightening as the change seems, it can be an adventure. And the most exciting change that happens to her takes place in a little country church.
® Copyright 1976 by Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, ISBN: 0-8024-3443-6, Used by permission
Contents
| 1 | Trouble! |
Jeannie was thinking so hard as she walked toward home that she almost stumbled over the shaggy little brown dog.
"Oh, Muffin!" she exclaimed, as she gathered him up in her arms. "What are you doing so far from home?" Then she noticed that he was shivering. She wiped his feet with her handkerchief and snuggled him under her coat. Protected from the chilly January wind with only his head sticking out, he tried to lick her face.
Jeannie rested her chin on the dog's silky head. "Muffin," she said, "I can talk to you, and you won't tell! There isn't anyone I can talk to, and talking to a dog is better than nothing! Muffin, I'm so worried about Daddy. He has to go to the doctor every week. When he comes home from work, he's so tired he just lies down. Sometimes he doesn't even go to work!"
The dog had stopped trembling now, and Jeannie went on, "Jan lost her daddy last year, and Myrna's father died when she was just a baby. Oh, I couldn't stand it if anything happened to Daddy! I'd better hurry home and see if he's all right!"
She started to run, then slowed down. "But maybe he isn't all right!" she said. "Maybe when I get home, Mother will tell me that Daddy is in the hospital and that he won't ever come back. I don't know if I'm in a hurry to get home or not!"
But all this time she had been walking, and now she had reached her neighbor's gate. She went up the walk and rang the doorbell. "Here's Muffin," she said. "I found him just a couple of blocks this side of the schoolhouse. I'm afraid he'll get lost if he keeps running off like that."
Mrs. King took the little dog from Jeannie's arms. "I fixed the place under the fence where he's been getting out," she said. "He won't have a chance to run off again."
Jeannie went home. She almost hated to open the front door. Then she heard Daddy call, "Hi, J. J!"
"Hi J. J. yourself!" said Jeannie, relieved that he felt like teasing her. She could remember a time when he had been too sick even to talk.
Daddy and Mom were in the living room, and they made room for her between them on the divan.
"I guess we'd better tell the General what we've been talking about," said Daddy, mussing up her blond hair. Then he added, "Why don't you ever comb your hair, Susie Cute?"
"Tell me what?" asked Jeannie. She knew it was something serious, even if Daddy did keep on teasing her.