The Tender Flame (26 page)

Jed rushed to his friend and cried, “Casey, I’m saved, I’m saved! I’m going to heaven when I die!”

“Well, Jed, if that makes you happy, so be it. It’s just not for me.”

Josh took a few steps in Casey’s direction. “Is dying for you, Casey?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, are you going to die?”

“Well, sure. Someday. Everybody dies.”

“Some much sooner than they expect, like Neil and Bob. Could happen to you too.”

“Well … yeah.”

“So if Jesus Christ is not for you, Casey, hell is. The God who gave you life and existence also gave His Son to save you from hell. Without Jesus, all you have beyond your last breath is to suffer the wrath of God in an eternal hell.”

Casey wiped a hand across his mouth. “Josh, you’re the boss’s son, and I don’t want to insult you, but I want no part of this fanaticism.”

“Don’t worry about insulting the boss’s son, Casey. You’d better worry, though, about insulting God’s Son.”

Josh stepped closer and laid a hand on Casey’s shoulder. “I’m going to be praying for you. I want to see you saved before it’s too late.”

Casey looked him straight in the eye, started to say something, then changed his mind. “I … I appreciate that you care, Josh. It’s just that I don’t see it like you do.”

Josh smiled. “I’ll be praying that you will.”

J
ESSICA
S
MITH RUSHED TO HER ROOM
, carrying two letters that had just come in the mail. Her heart warmed to see Josh Cornell’s return address, but she decided to save it until she had read Brenda’s letter. She knew before she opened it that Brenda and Gil had married, for the name on the return address was Brenda Simmons.

Brenda loved her new church. She had become a member just before she and Gil were married, and now she was helping Gil with his Sunday school class by being class secretary and going with him on visitation calls. She had married God’s man for her, and the letter was filled with the happiness she and Gil had found.

As Jessica folded the letter and placed it back in the envelope, she whispered, “Thank You, Lord, for making Brenda so happy. Thank You for bringing her and Gil together.”

She laid aside the letter and carefully opened the envelope from Josh. Her fingers trembled as she unfolded the letter. It began:
My dearest Jessica
 … He had never used
dearest
before. It made her heart pick up pace.

Josh told her about Bob Lynch and Neil Stratton, and of the souls that were saved on the day of the funeral. He used almost a full page to give Jed Andrews’s story, then asked her to pray for Casey Harmon.

Josh told Jessica that the church was growing steadily and just last week had been able to raise his salary some. And the Cornell Lumber Company was prospering; the whole Cornell family was superbly happy.

Well, Jessica
, he wrote,
I guess I should say the whole Cornell family
is superbly happy except me. I’m happy in my church work, yes. I’m happy doing the preaching at the camp and in my work at the lumber mill. But there is one sad aspect to my life. I miss the sweetest girl I have ever known. I miss her very much. Know who she is? I won’t give you a name, but her initials are Jessica Smith. Love always, Josh
.

Tears filled Jessica’s eyes, and a smile lit up her face. She pressed the pages close to her heart and whispered, “Oh, Josh, you’ve come so close. If you’re in love with me, please say it. Please. I need so very much to hear it!”

After supper, when Jessica and her parents were in the parlor, she read them the letter. When she finished, she said, “Mama … Daddy … I so want to write back and tell Josh that I’m in love with him, and that I want to spend the rest of my life with him.”

“You must let him say it first, dear,” Carrie said. “If it’s in Josh’s heart, it will come out.”

“That’s right,” Grant said. “All you can do at this point is pray.”

“I’m doing a whole lot of that, Daddy.”

“Maybe you should casually mention to Josh the young men in our church who are showing interest in you,” Carrie said. “Might make him realize that if he’s in love with you, he’d better let you know.”

Jessica chuckled. “All right. I’ll just mention that some of them are asking me out for dinner and that kind of thing.”

“It might be a good idea for you to start accepting those invitations,” Carrie said. “Johnny, Hal, Dan, and Earl are all nice young men.”

“I suppose you’re right, Mama. They are very nice. I’ll accept the next invitation, but all I can do is be kind to them. There’s room for only one person in my heart.”

Josh Cornell faithfully worked at Lydia Price’s home on Saturday mornings, and the rest of the week he stayed busy with his church work and the three days he labored at the mill. But no matter what he
was doing, Jessica continually came to mind. The truth of it had been gradual in coming, but by late March, Josh knew that what he felt for Jessica was much more than the friendship they had shared as children.

The last two letters from Jessica had disturbed him. She had not mentioned dating anyone until then, but in her last two letters, she had mentioned going on dates with four different boys. He decided he should wait no longer.

Late that evening, Josh sat in his room to compose the letter. First he prayed, asking the Lord to help him word it just right and to not let Jessica fall for any of the men she was dating.

In the letter, Josh told Jessica that ever since they first met at Fort Union, he had felt a friendship love for her, and that as the years passed, the love grew stronger. He said that ever since the day they saw each other in Fairfax, the friendship love had been changing to another kind … and growing deeper. He told her plainly that he was in love with her and he hoped that she might possibly feel the same way toward him. He could wait no longer to find out.

Jessica
, he wrote,
there’s never been anybody but you for me, and there never will be. I’m asking you now, from the depths of my heart, will you honor me by becoming my wife? Will you marry me? If your answer is yes, I will send the money for your travel expenses. You have often mentioned your best friend, Brenda Moore—now Simmons—and how happy she is married to Gil. Just think, my proposal comes to you through the mail. If you accept my proposal, that will make you my mail order bride!

The next day, Pastor Farrington knocked at the door of Josh’s small office at the church.

“Hello, Pastor,” Josh said. “Something I can do for you?”

“I’d like to talk to you in my office if you can spare the time right now.”

“Sure. I was just working on my sermon for next Sunday afternoon.”

When both men were seated in the pastor’s office, Farrington said, “I want to commend you, Josh, for the marvelous job you’re doing as my assistant. I’m hearing many good things from the people.”

“I’m glad you and they are pleased with my work, sir.”

“I am especially pleased with the way you’ve managed the counseling jobs I’ve given you. You’ve handled them quite well, and you will find this experience invaluable when you’re the pastor here. This leads me to what I want to talk to you about.”

“Yes, sir?”

“You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t had you doing any marriage counseling.”

“Yes, sir. I just assumed it was because I’m not married.”

“Right. Which brings us to the next item of business. We’re getting closer to the day when I’ll be stepping aside and you’ll become pastor. I really think to be as effective as you can be, you need to have a wife. We need to pray for God to give you the young woman He has chosen for you … and soon.”

Josh leaned forward on the chair. “Well, Pastor, this may happen within a few weeks.”

Farrington’s eyes widened. “How can this be? I haven’t seen you with a young lady.”

“That’s because she lives some fourteen hundred miles from here. I told you once about Major Grant Smith and his family, who meant so much to me when Dad was chaplain at Fort Union.”

“Yes, I remember.”

“Well, sir, let me tell you about their daughter, Jessica.” Josh told the pastor the whole story, from the time he was twelve and Jessica was seven, up until the present moment, including the letter he had mailed to her just that morning.

Farrington stroked his jaw. “Josh, I’m glad to hear this. Seems to me this calls for a two-man prayer meeting right now. Let’s take it to the Lord and ask Him to reveal His will to both you and Jessica.”

Two days after sending the letter, Josh trotted his horse into the lumber camp and reined in at the tool shack where foreman Luke Kimble stood.

“Morning, Luke.” Josh swung his leg over the horse’s back to dismount. “Dad said you had a little shortage of manpower today.”

“Mack Potter wrenched his back yesterday and can’t swing an ax or work a saw. I sent word to your pappy late yesterday afternoon that I needed a man to fill in for him. Didn’t know he’d send you.”

“I guess Dad’s scraping the bottom of the barrel, but here I am.”

“You’ll be working with Herman Jacobs. He’s already up at the cutting site.” He pointed toward the west. “They’re only about three hundred yards straight up toward that rock that looks like a church steeple.”

“All right. I’ll just leave my horse here and walk on up.”

Josh started up the steep slope and came upon a crew of men loading cut and trimmed timber onto wagons to be taken to the mill in town. Jed Andrews and Casey Harmon were working side by side. A half dozen other men stood nearby.

“You heading up to the cutting area, Josh?” Casey said.

“I’m substituting for Mack Potter. Luke said he’s got a sore back.” Josh continued on up the slope.

“That’s what we hear. Take care up there.”

Josh raised a hand in acknowledgment and kept walking.

When Josh was out of earshot, Casey said, “I really like that guy, Jed, even though he’s a preacher.”

Jed laughed. “Even preachers can be likable.”

One by one, the crew looped ropes on the ends of the huge logs, lifted them with a hand-cranked crane on wheels, and placed them on ox-drawn wagons. They used steel bars about five feet in length to position the logs at the bottom of the stack so they could be picked up by the crane. After a while, a log about a third of the way up the stack angled itself slightly crossways when one of the bottom logs was rolled from the stack.

“Hold it!” one of the men called. “Log jam!”

“I’ll get it,” Jed said.

Jed maneuvered his way cautiously up the stack while the other men waited and watched. When he reached the spot, Jed slipped the end of his pry bar into a strategic spot and slowly gave it pressure to straighten the angled log. He had it almost in place when his right foot slipped.

The log dislodged and rolled down the stack. Jed jumped out of the way, but the next log behind it slid, and suddenly there was an avalanche of logs rolling and tumbling down, sounding like thunder.

By the time the jumbled logs came to a halt, Jed was pinned from the chest down between two logs. His teeth were clenched in pain as he tried to get a breath. He was barely able to breathe for the weight against his chest.

“Jed!” Casey cried. “Hang on! We’ll get you out!”

By this time, Luke Kimble was on the scene, calling out orders and warning the men to be cautious and not set off another avalanche. While the men worked to free him, Jed labored to breathe.

“Casey, if … if I don’t make it, tell Josh—thank him … for leading me to the Lord. Tell him I—tell him I’ll meet him … in heaven.”

Tears shimmered across Casey’s vision and slid down his face. “Jed! Don’t die, Jed! You’re my best friend. Please don’t die!”

Josh Cornell was swinging his ax, timing his blows alternately with Herman Jacobs’s as they chopped a wedge-shaped notch in the trunk of a pine tree. Suddenly Josh noticed a man running up the steep slope toward him and calling his name.

“It’s Casey,” Josh said. “I think something’s happened.”

“Josh!” Casey called, panting as he drew up. “Jed … Jed’s been caught in a log slide!”

“Is he—?”

“He’s still alive. At least he was when I left to come and get you.
Luke and the men are trying to get him out. He’s pinned from the chest down.”