Midnight to the Rescue

By Brian Nash

The adventures on Valley View Farm continue! In this dramatic story, a mean and selfish boy, Razzie Riggs, nearly drowns in a pond. He’s rescued by Midnight the kitten and other brave animals. Razzie learns the value of love, kindness, and honesty, and changes his ways along with his name. The cats and the owls also overcome long-standing differences and form new friendships. For children 8-11.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Nash
• Release date: May 16, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452374291

Brian Nash

Brian K. Nash was born in 1961 and grew up on a farm in Kansas. Blind from birth, he enjoyed the loving support of his parents and five siblings, who kept him active exploring the woods and riding horses. The many stories they told him and read to him fostered his love of fiction. He began composing his own fiction for children when his daughter Evelyn was small.He edited the school newspaper at the Kansas School for the Blind. Later on, he received computer training and became an adaptive technician, teaching other blind people to use a computer. He has extensive public speaking experience, especially to groups of school children, seeking to educate others regarding blindness and the capabilities of the blind.Henrietta of Valley View Farm is the first of Brian's several books for children that are being published by Smashwords. His lively, entertaining stories are set in a fictional place that has a lot in common with the locales he knew and loved as a child. The animals - chickens, cats, dogs, horses, birds, frogs, and many more - can talk to each other, and are among the most vivid of the many characters. They often have much to teach their human friends as they work together to overcome whatever challenges are thrown at them. Adventure abounds, and friendship always triumphs in the end.

Book preview

MIDNIGHT TO THE RESCUE

by

Brian Nash

Illustrated by Glenda Felbush

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 by Brian Nash

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

* * * * *

To Susie, Reg, Leonore, and David

with thanks for their support and help

* * * * *

CHAPTER ONE

In a beautiful valley not far from the town of Mitchell was a dairy farm called Valley View, owned by Mr. Johnson and his wife. The rolling hills of the farm sloped down to a sparkling river that ran along the far edge of the property. There was a large pond behind the barn that many of the animals who lived on the farm liked to drink from and splash around in on hot summer days.

Freshly painted white board fences and outbuildings shone in the afternoon sun. The green of the pastures was fading to a light brown with the leaves of the maple and cottonwood trees starting to come down. Fall had come to the valley.

Farmer Johnson had finished with all the haying and was busy repairing machinery and doing a lot of other things that needed to be done before winter. It was mid-September and the days were still quite hot, but the nights were getting cool. All the animals knew it wouldn’t be long before cold weather was upon them.

The farmer and his wife were wonderful people. When their neighbors weren’t feeling well or had fallen on hard times, the Johnsons would take them food and help them with their chores. They would stay up at night with their animals when they were sick and nurse them back to health. They were kind of like everyone’s mom and dad, so everyone called them Momma and Poppa.

Momma and Poppa also tried to help out the wild animals as much as they could. Momma kept the bird feeder behind the house full all the time. She threw her garbage into the woods where it was feasted on by birds, rabbits, and squirrels.

There was a little squirrel that lived in a big hollow tree by the barn. He was named Chatter Box because of all the noise he made when he found an especially delicious nut. Chatter Box had hauled lots of nuts up to his comfortable nest of soft bird feathers that he had found on the ground around the chicken house. Those nuts would last him over the long, cold months ahead.

In a tall tree by the windmill lived an old owl named Hooter, who had a young son named Eagle Eye. Hooter had named his son Eagle Eye because the young owl could spot a worm from farther away than any other bird Hooter had ever known. Eagles have the best vision of almost any bird in the animal kingdom and can see things from miles away.

Eagle Eye was very imaginative, which made him awfully curious about the big, wonderful world in which he lived. He followed his father around when Hooter would let him and tried to imitate everything he did. His father was his hero.

Eagle Eye watched the night his dad drove Midnight the kitten under the tool shed with his fearsome hooting and thought at the time, Gee whiz, that was really cool! I wish I could scare someone with my voice, too. He tried a little hoot. It came