On the day of Jack’s funeral, a man gave the kids’ mother a dollar to get something special forJack’s younger brother and sisters. They found their treasures at the Big Timber Golden Rule – three fuzzy stuffed bears – a gold one, brown one and green one at 35 cents each. Even the store clerk’s heart was pricked, and he sold the three bears for a dollar. Even though Brownie the bear offered some comfort to Jack’s little brother, loneliness still crept into his world.
To little brother Buck, that bear was special. In his young mind, that was all he had left of Jack. For a year after his brother’s death, little Buck thought they were all doomed. One night tears slid from his eyes when he said his prayers, “God, let my Teddy Bear be buried with me when I die.”
The Privy
The little boy carried his bear with him everywhere. One day when he took the bear with him to the outhouse, he set the bear beside him very carefully, but the bear toppled over and fell into the deep pit out of the boy’s reach. Indian Charlie heard him cry and scream all the way up at the sawmill. His mama heard him probably before he even screamed because mamas have premonitions and know things before they actually happen. She ran to the outhouse thinking something terrible had happened. It had.
Little Buck’s mama was a hero. He thought she was an angel. She assessed the situation, got the garden rake, and rescued Brownie, the brown fuzzy bear, out of the dark murky hole. Immediately, she tossed the bear into the horse trough. When the bear came up for air, little Buck grabbed him from his watery grave. His mama brought his teddy bear back from the dead. It was too bad she could not have done the same for his brother Jack. It took years for the little boy to get over the loss of his brother. In fact, it took all of eighty-seven.
Brownie almost lost his life again when Sister Ellen wanted to give her doll funeral rites. Not wanting the doll to be buried alone, she convinced Buck that the bear should be buried, too. It’s a good thing the bear was buried with his ear sticking out. He was soon rescued when he was pulled from the sawdust pile by his ear at the hand of a little boy.
At the old homeplace way back in the heart of the mountains, the outhouse, known to some as the privy, though it was the smallest “house”, may have been the most important building of all.
It was a place to read the “Monkey Ward” magazine, which was also used for other things. It was a place to think or make up a song. It ranked high as a place of necessity. Someone could sit and rest and hear the water piped from the spring splash into the horse trough and spill over the sides. Little kids learned how to run fast from imaginary bears that lurked behind the privy ready to pounce. In the wintertime it wasn’t much fun having to make the trek to the little house even though grown-ups cut a trail for such emergencies.
Sometimes privies were used for pranks. On one such occasion Sister Ellen sent sister BJ on a mission to run to the privy and open the door. Little did BJ know the outhouse was occupied. The door flung open and there sat Effie Bowlegs reading Monkey Ward. He didn’t get rescued! I guess he didn’t have an angel watching out for him.