Christmas on Valley View Farm

By Brian Nash

This third book in the Valley View Farm series, suitable for children 9-12, has everything a young reader could desire. Christmas is coming, and young Daniel Riggs is dreaming of what might be in store. But a kidnapper has plans for Daniel's feline friend Midnight. Helped by the talkative farm animals, Daniel faces a bloodthirsty panther, rides a thrilling ghost train, and revels in holiday magic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brian Nash
• Release date: Nov 13, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452362588

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

CHRISTMAS ON VALLEY VIEW FARM

by

Brian Nash

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2010 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.

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Chapter 1

The wind moaned around the eaves as it blew large snowflakes against the windows of the old one–room schoolhouse. The building sat nestled in a grove of elm trees far out in the country. The door rattled slightly as the winter storm continued to pick up force. The oak logs in the cast–iron stove that sat near the coatroom door crackled as they burned, making the room cozy and warm. Children from the first through the fifth grade had studied their lessons for over one hundred years in this schoolhouse. It was so old that some of the nails were square instead of round, the kind used in construction during the 1800s.

Just a couple of months earlier, in the nearby town of Mitchell, the city council had approved plans for a new elementary school to be built right next to the junior high in the center of town. This made the students in the one–room schoolhouse sad, especially the older ones, who had been at the little country school since first grade. They knew this was the last year before they would have to go school somewhere else.

Ms. Jackson, a slender, dark–haired woman in her mid–forties, put down a book of short stories called The Night Before Christmas, which she had been reading to her students. With a worried expression, she looked out the window at the gray, fast darkening sky. I’ve got to gets these kids out of here and safely back to their homes, she thought as she closed the book and rose to her feet.

Class, I’m going to dismiss school early so you can all get home before this storm gets really bad. You all have your homework assignments, and I want you to get your lessons done right away. That way, you’ll be able to enjoy your Christmas vacation without having to worry about school.

The kids all cheered and clapped as they thought about the two wonderful, long weeks that stretched in front of them, two weeks filled with endless possibilities of having lots of fun. Some of them would sleep in after staying up late watching TV and listening to their radios. Others, especially the farm kids, would have to get up early and help with the milking and other chores around their farms. That didn’t bother them, though, because they were used to it; doing chores was a way of life for them. Later, they would have a great time sledding and ice–skating. And if there was enough snow, they could even build snowmen.

Some of them would help their parents make homemade ice cream, while others would play indoor games of hide–and–seek, snug and warm, safe from the cold winter weather just outside their doors. A few of the kids would go out of town with their families to visit relatives in other parts of the country.

Daniel, would you be so kind as to play us one last Christmas carol before I call your parents to pick all of you up? Ms. Jackson’s gray eyes sparkled with pleasure as she looked fondly at the little red–haired boy named Daniel Riggs sitting in the front row.

He certainly has changed, she thought as the boy walked confidently toward an old–fashioned upright piano in the middle of the room.

At one time, Daniel had been the school bully, but he definitely wasn’t anymore. The great change in him had occurred just a few months earlier, back in September, after he had nearly drowned in the Johnsons’ pond. Ms. Jackson had read somewhere that near–death experiences often change people for the better, and Daniel was living proof of that. He was now talkative and light–hearted. She often saw him helping the younger children with especially difficult math problems, and he was great about keeping the wood box full and opening the doors for girls without even having to be asked.

Once he had been the most disliked child in the school. Now he was one of the most popular kids, having apologized one afternoon to all five classes for his rude and thoughtless behavior in the past. Along with his new attitude of kindness toward both people and animals, he seemed to have gained a new appreciation and love of life.

Daniel was in his fourth year of piano lessons and was getting pretty good. He enjoyed playing for groups of people and especially liked it when they sang along. The music was great today. With the excitement and good cheer felt by all the students, one song turned into two. After they sang Away in the Manger, the teacher glanced at her watch. That’s enough, now! she said with a smile as she headed for the telephone to call their folks.

After putting on their hats and heavy coats, the boys and girls all rushed outside to play in the snow. Now it was three or four inches deep, and it continued to fall steadily. The playground gradually emptied as cars and farm trucks pulled up to collect the children and take them home for the holidays.

Daniel walked over to an idling car. His new friend Billy Smith was clambering into the back seat.

Hey, Billy, said Daniel. He smiled at the boy’s mother, who was adjusting the radio to a country music station. If we don’t get too much snow, why don’t you come over tomorrow and we’ll go ice skating on the river. Oh, by the way, the Johnsons are having a party on Christmas Eve. If it’s okay with your folks, you’re welcome to come. When they invited me, they told me I could bring a friend.

Can I, Mom? Can I? cried his friend excitedly.

I don’t see why not, especially since your father and I are going to be there, Mrs. Smith said, smiling at the boys.

Ms. Jackson locked the heavy front door of the school and headed for her car, now the only one left in the parking lot. Her feet crunched through four or five inches of powdery snow. Her mind was filled with happy thoughts of visiting her parents in sunny Arizona, where they had lived ever since her father had retired five years earlier.

Once her car was on the road, she was glad she didn’t live far from the school. The snow was pelting the windshield so hard she could barely see. If it kept up, they would soon be in the midst of the first blizzard of the season.

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Chapter 2

Marshall Mims trudged through his front door, stomping on trash and kicking it out of his way as he entered his shabby, rundown house that sat far back off the road. He opened the door of his old wood stove and tossed in two or three skinny logs. He was in a bad mood because he hadn’t cut very much wood for the long winter ahead, and he hated the thought of all the hard work it would take to get more.

Why can’t I just be rich and live in Hawaii or somewhere where I’d never have to worry about keeping warm? he whined to himself as he scuffed his way across his dirty, sagging floor that had a couple of big holes in the center. He had to be careful not to fall through those holes when walking around at night.

He had inherited the old rundown farm three years earlier, after his father’s death. His father had been almost as lazy as his son. He left Marshall with a ramshackle house and lots of tall weeds and grass in the fields that came clear up to the back door, which had almost no paint left on it. After his father’s death, Marshall had moved to this house from a shack in Mitchell. He spent most of his time driving around in his old Ford pickup, collecting cans and any other kind of metal or iron he could get his hands on. Then he sold the metal at the junk yard.

He was a large, red–faced man with a huge stomach that stuck out at least two feet in front of him. His curly blond hair was dirty and uncombed. His scraggly, flowing beard was always stained dark brown, since he dearly loved to chew tobacco. His teeth – or what was left of them – hadn’t seen a toothbrush in years. They were a horrible yellow and stained with tobacco juice.

Marshall Mims smells like something that crawled out of a swamp, Daniel Riggs had once told his father. So behind his back, everyone called him by the nickname Daniel Riggs had