The Old Barn


A young man and his new wife were looking for a place they could call their own, they were looking for a farm to buy and raise their future children. They searched and looked but no luck, one day they were visiting an old friend to see their new home, when suddenly they came across a farm that was simply beautiful. What really caught the attention of the young man was the old tobacco barn, with it's tobacco stalks hanging to dry. They turned around and drove up to the main house there on the porch sat an old man he looked like the house and he were one. The cap on his head was dirty, and his mouth was full of his chew. "Afternoon sir I just wanted to come here and say you have a beautiful place and we know, we've been looking for a farm to buy". The old man looked up at him: "Young man I've been here for fifty years I got it from an old man like I am right now. I got married in the front room, my three kids were born in the fifties up in the bedroom, I buried my oldest up on the hill next to his mother when he feel out the top of the barn, hanging tobacco. The two other kids moved out sometime back and have families of their own now, I ain't seen one in twenty six years, the other comes back when she needs money. I lost ten good hunting dogs to the wild hogs and coyotes, and I've gone through six good tractors here. You wanna know what I would trade for this farm?" The young man didn't know whether or not he had angered the old man but he went ahead and said "No sir what would you trade". "I wouldn't trade a thing I've had a full life in this old place. I sure love I just don't want it ending up in some development companies hands. So you want to be a farmer boy?" The young man getting a little confused but answered his question. "Yes sir I grew up on a tobacco farm and I sure do enjoy that kind of work." The old man smiled a mile long grin and stuck his hand out "My name is Johnny." The young man shook the old man's hand which was pretty firm for his age. "I'm Tom and this is my wife Ann we're the Wilkes, well sir if you don't mind we would like to come back sometime and see this place again." The old man was amused "That'd be fine, any time you wanna come over, come on it's just me and ol' blue here", he pointed at a blue tick hound with it's head sitting down on the porch near Johnny's feet. When Tom and Ann were on their way going to their friends house just up the hollow Tom said to Ann, "Ann I don't think that old man will sale this place but he said we can come back any time we want." The young woman looked her husband and said "I would like that maybe we could come back next week." To which Tom replied. "Sound great honey we'll do that". The next Sunday came and they went back to the farm, the old man was as happy as a young kid, the young man helped him bring wood in for the fire place, the young wife cooked up a fine supper from the quail he and the old man had killed that day from of their hunt. When it was time to leave the old man yelled out "Son come back next Sunday I'm looking forward to it." The young man was as happy as he could be "You can count on it Johnny". The next Sunday came again and when they arrived they noticed there was no Johnny on the porch no dog and no smoke from the chimney. They went down the friends house and they told him how old Johnny died last Wednesday in his barn but he went with a smile, and now the town was thinking of giving his land to his oldest son who worked for a development company. So Tom and Ann went to the farm one more time to give it one last look they went to the house and to the Fields, then they went to the barn. Nailed on the barn was a letter, it surprised Tom because if his eyes weren't looking in that exact location he would have missed it. Tom saw it had his name on it so he opened it. "Dear Tom and Ann Wilkes: I have taken pen in hand to deliver my last will and testament to bequeath to you my all possessions in life, including the four hundred thousand dollars I have in the bank in town, this old farm is yours now love her as much as I do".

A year later in the upstairs bedroom the midwife called down to Tom, "Tom you have a boy" Tom replied with tears in his eyes, "His name is Johnny".

Sometimes people just need a friend, sometimes a small amount of human kindness can go a long way.


Tommarow nature.