Joe ’ s old pickup truck coming up the road . " Well , it ’, about time ! I ’ m going to chew him out for being , o late What does he think I m running here . ” country club ?” Lonny muttered to himself .
As the door at the front of the barn slid open , Lon ny turned to say something and noticed that it wasn ’ t Little Joe at all , but his young son Martin Luther Lonny lashed out without thinking , " Well , where is your old man . . . don ’ t he know today is a working day ?” Lonny was about to say something else but noticed that something was wrong . " What ’ s the mat ter , boy ?” he said , as the youngster looked at him with tear-filled eyes and said , " Mister Lonny . . . SUm pin happened to Paw last night . He didn ’ t get up this morning and Maw called the doctor . He s not coming
to work this morning and he ... and he . . .” Lonnv broke into his conversation and , setting his saddle
by Charles Barry Sanderson
It was a cold , dark morning , and Lonny had just arrived at the barn . He was busy checking everything , as was his routine , and noticed that he was getting low on feed and should call the co-op for some more grain . As he walked up and down the hallway briefly looking over each horse , he could not help but feel that he had a pretty good string of stock . He was particularly pleased with his young
horses .
Little Joe wTas usually at the barn by six every morning , but on this particular morning he hadn ’ t shown up yet , so Lonny set about the duties of graining and haying his horses . He turned on the radio to his favorite country-and-westem music station and started filling up his wheelbarrow with grain . It was a cold morning but Lonny felt good . The crisp morning air had awakened him , and the horses were also feeling good . As he made his way down the hallway , he took pleasure in the sound of each horse ’ s whinny as he neared its individual stall . He loved to see them pace back and forth and register some excitement as feeding time came . They knew Little Joe a lot better than they did him at feeding time because it was Joe who fed them twice a day and wTorked around them ail day while cleaning their stalls .
As he climbed up into the loft and separated a bale of lespedeza hay , he began to wonder where Little Joe was , It was not his custom to be late . As he contemplated Joe ’ s -whereabouts , Lonny was reminded of the fact that Joe had worked for him almost three years and he didn ’ t know7 what he would do without him . He recalled how persistent Joe was in doing everything right , how he insisted on staying at the barn just as long as Lonny was there and how he never questioned anything that Lonny told him . Lonny thought to himself , " OP Joe is a good one . He would be hard to replace .’’ Little did Lonny know that he would never see Little Joe around the barn again .
It was about the middle of the morning and Little Joe still hadn ’ t shown up for w7ork , and Lonny was getting a bit mad about the situation because he didn ’ t like to work horses alone . By ten o ’ clock Lonny had finished working four horses . As he was about to put the saddle on another two-year-old he heard Little
64 down , said , " What do you mean . . . is he sick , or what ?” The boy wiped his face with his hand and said , " Could you come over to the house , Mister Lonny ... we don ’ t know nothing about this kind of
thing .”
Lonny had called his wife , Helen , telling her that he would be gone for a little while , and , with the colored boy showing him the way , he headed up into the hills toward the house that Little Joe had always called home . As they wound their way down by the creek and up a steep dirt road , Lonny was reminded that he had never been to Little Joe ’ s house . He had always let him off at the paved road and Joe just walked , as he said , " just a short way over yonder .’’ The boy spoke up and said , " Mister Lonny , you better stop here and let ’ s walk .” There were two other cars already in front of him , and he stopped and got out of the truck . He noticed a small group of people on the small front porch sitting in the morning sun where it was warm . As he approached the steps the front door opened and a woman came out . It was Little Joe ’ s wife . She looked at Lonny and said , " Mista Barnes , I sure am glad you ’ re here . Little Joe has been asking for you .” Lonny nodded and stepped inside . He recognized Dr . Whitland , who was over by a bed where Little Joe was lying . Trying to be casual , Lonny stepped up to the bed and said , " Joe , what you doing in bed ? Get up - we got work . . •” The
doctor put his hand on Lonny ’ s shoulder and Lonny stopped talking . It was more serious than that !
As they filed out of the little country church Lonny tried to wipe a tear out of his eye without anyone noticing . Helen was crying . . . not so much because of Little Joe but because of the service . She ha whispered to Lonny during the service that it was the most touching funeral she had ever attende • On the way home Lonny didn ’ t say a word- * they got to the house he started to take of his tie and said , " Damn . . . damn . . . dammmmm .” He e said , " Now , Lonny , what ’ s done is done . Cussi g isn t going to help .” Taking a deep breath , he said , I know , but . . . well , Little Joe was such a go
( Continued on page 68 )
Voice of the Tennessee Walking Horse