Read Morning in Nicodemus for Free Online

Instead of falling, the water blew parallel to the ground. Shielding his face from the rain so he could see, Virgil grabbed Lady around her neck and swung astride her. Following the flight of the cow and calf, he led the other two horses in a north-westerly direction away from the storm. He and Marcus had been plowing in the river bottom land. The valley ended at a slight rise in the prairie where they had dug into the bank and built their soddy. As he cleared that rise, he looked back quickly. The tip of the funnel cloud touched the ground just west of their plowed ground. As it jumped and hopped across the field it sucked up the loose dirt. The funnel headed straight toward the soddy.
    Â Â  As Lady loped down the northern side of the rise, the mare and gelding broke loose and galloped north. 
    Â Â  They were soon swallowed in the murky air. Virgil tried to pull Lady to a stop in a small depression behind the rise. The mare pranced around. Virgil couldn’t hold her back as she raced north. She ignored his teachings as instinct took over. In minutes she was out of the storm. The wind wasn’t blowing, but behind them Virgil could hear the thunder and see the dark clouds spiraling close to the ground. Then the roar diminished as the storm sped northeasterly away from them.
    Â Â  Lady slowed down. Virgil managed to pull her to a stop and turn her around. “Easy, girl. Easy now. We’re fine,” he crooned to the trembling mare. He patted her neck. He leaned over to reach her head and petted it. “Easy, my pretty. It’s all over.”
    Â Â  From his position he couldn’t see the soddy. Now that he and Lady were safe, he didn’t know if Marcus reached it in time. Did Liberty stay safely inside or run screaming out into the storm? He vowed he’d never object to Marcus’s bossiness again if he saved Liberty.
    Â Â  And the horses? Would he ever be able to find Beauty and Buck? From their speed when they broke loose, they could be in the next township by now. He reasoned that their fast gallop in escaping would take them safely out of the storm’s path. He’d just have to find them. They’d be fine.
    Â Â  Reassured about the horses, thoughts of the newly plowed land being blown away entered his mind. He shut them out. I won’t think of that now. I just have to keep Lady and myself safe until this twister passes.
    Â Â  He tightened his hold on the mare’s head, though she had quieted down some. Maybe, he reasoned, she realizes she is safer here, more protected from the force of the storm in this depression than running loose on the open prairie.
    Â Â  In just a few minutes, though it seemed much longer, the storm passed, its roar disappearing into the northeast. Man and horse looked over the rise in the land which had protected them to see what was beyond. No fences. No horses, cow or calf. Not one pig, not a goose was in sight. But the soddy stood as usual, blending into the plains as if it belonged there. Only the closed, wooden door and the pipe that was the chimney announced that people lived there.
    Â Â  As Virgil watched, the door burst open and five screeching geese raced out. Their outspread wings flopping and half raised lifted them off the ground in their dash to get outside.
    Â Â  Virgil knew exactly how they felt. When Marcus and Liberty walked out, obviously unhurt, he shrieked out into the now quiet late afternoon, “Liberty! Marcus! I’m here. I’m all right.”

Chapter Three
    Â 
   Liberty and Marcus raced toward Virgil. He slid off Lady’s back and hugged each of them. 
    Â Â  “You’re safe,” Liberty said, hugging him back and patting him as if to make sure he was not hurt.
    Â Â  “Yes. A little wind won’t blow away a Lander,” he said, brushing the dirt from his trousers and straightening his hat.
    Â Â  “Or even blow away your old hat,”