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