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LITTLE JENS Reva Tennant Jensen Santa Maria, California First Place Story Senior Division T'was early fall and the leaves turn quickly in Herragard, Denmark, but I was anxious for snow to fly and for the slopes to pack. Grandfather surprised me with the greatest gift a boy could want, a bright; shiny sleigh, just big enough for me! Yet an undefined fear dampened my every joy. For days my Father and Mother had been acting strange , and I felt secrets in the air, talk I could not understand. Angry words spilled out when grandfather Falter came to visit! "How could Papa and Mama dispute one so noble as Grandfather?" Then suddenly I learned why. We were leaving Herragard, leaving our home for a new faith, for an unknown journey, and I would not be permitted to take my sleigh! I watched my Mother pack the trunks, sorting sure and slow, and hidden in among the sheets was her accordion; it must go! I watched her face so full of beauty, her arms around my waist wiping little dried-up tears. "The sleigh we'll soon replace." T'was eighteen hundres sixty-six, a legendary year, a battered boat with a hard-bitten crew and long suffering anxious men and women holding a child or two. A firm demanding voice bellowed from a horn, "All emigrants take the lower decks and make the line go fast." "Mama, what's an emigrant?" "Now Jens, don't ask questions, just let us not be last." The restless sea, the long long days, rain splashing with the wind in the ships dark fold, there were prayers N' faith N' Mama's hand to hold. Tnen one day our steainer docked. Mama patted me from behind, "We'11 be crossing the Plains. You can run and jump and watch the road unwind." "Mama, what's the Plains? N' why must we go on?" Her answer I scarcely heard, "We must be ready by dawn." - 42 - |
