Where the Red Fern Grows

by Wilson Rawls

I remembered a passage from the Bible my mother had read to us: “God helps those who help themselves.”

This is not from the Bible. The sentiment and a similar phrase may have originated in ancient Greece. God teaches us to rely on him, not ourselves though he doesn't teach us to simply lie back and do nothing.

The silence was broken by the “Whee-e-e-e” of a red-tailed hawk. This seemed to be a signal. All around me the happy atmosphere resumed its natural state. I heard the “Bam, bam, bam” of a woodpecker high in the top of a box elder snag. The cry of a kingfisher and the scream of a bluejay blended perfectly with the drumlike beat. A barking red squirrel, glued to the side of a hackberry tree, kept time to the music with the beat of his tail. Each noise I heard and each sight I saw was very familiar to me but I never grew tired of listening and watching. They were a God-sent gift and I enjoyed them all.

The screams of the big cat and the deep bellowing voices of my dogs echoed through the mountains as if the demons of hell had been turned loose. Down the side of the mountain, the terrible fight went on, down to the very bottom of the canyon.

“Wonderful indeed is the work of our Lord.”