Snuffy Johnson's Cowboy Christmas

By Jon R Horton

James "Snuffy" Johnson wakes up two days before the Christmas Eve dance with his whole life planned around his engagement to the daughter of a neighboring homesteader. If you want to hear God chuckle, it is said, tell him your plans. That Christmas of 1926, the young man's path leads him far afield, where he demonstrates to a frightened boy the Christian teaching that charity - the giving of one's self - is the greatest gift of all. And Snuffy, in turn, gets a Christmas present from Jesus greater than any he could have dreamed for himself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jon R Horton
• Release date: Apr 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310666674

Jon R Horton

Jon R Horton aka J Royal Horton was one of those kids who read by flashlight and dreamed of becoming a writer. He attended the U of Wyoming for a year before joining the US Air Force where he served as a Russian Linguist and Intelligence Analyst while stationed in Germany. After his discharge he attended California State University at Northridge and received a B.A. in Russian Language and Literature. After making a run at Hollywood he attended Idaho State University where he finished the coursework for an M.A. in English. However, the academic gender wars of the 70s inspired a shift to a long career in international oil exploration.

Book preview

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Snuffy Johnson’s

Cowboy Christmas

angel

by Jon R. Horton

Snuffy Johnson's Cowboy Christmas

By Jon R Horton

Also by Jon R Horton:

Gib

Snuffy Johnson’s Cowboy Christmas

By J Royal Horton:

Murder in Jackson Hole

Murder in the Tetons

Murder in Moab

Murder on the Red Desert (pending)

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in review. The characters and events in this book are wholly fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Copyright © 2004 by Jon R Horton

Published by

SUNLIGHT PUBLISHING LLC

Colorado Springs CO 80903

Cover Design by Callie Peet

eBook Formatting and Design by

First Steps Publishing Services

Chapter One

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The year was 1925 and Christmas was coming once again to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It had been one heck of a winter so far. The snow started coming down about the middle of October and just kept right on a’comin’. By late November the fences couldn’t be seen because the white stuff had covered them to a fare thee well. Now it was late December and every morning the telegraph poles looked like they were getting shorter and shorter because the snow from the night before had crept further up the poles.

Snuffy Johnson looked out the window of his little cabin at the Bar BC ranch and sighed. He hadn’t seen another soul for over two weeks and he was feeling pretty dang lonesome. In the fall he’d figured that real winter would set in on the country about the middle of December, like it usually did. But this year the cold season turned out to be a real woolly booger, as his fellow cowboys called something which was bigger and meaner than usual.

Today the sky was clear and the sun was just coming up over the horizon. Now, in a lot of places when the sun shines it means that it is going to be warm. But in the Teton Valley during the long winters a clear sky and sunshine sometimes means it is going to be colder than usual. And this morning was one of those times. The thermometer outside the cabin door said that it was thirty-seven degrees below zero!

The young cowboy crossed the little room and opened the door to the stove. He picked up a piece of pine wood and shoved it into the red embers. A little puff of smoke came out the door and got in Snuffy’s nose, making him sneeze. He closed the stove door, took out his hanky and wiped his eyes and then his nose.

Dang smoke! he said.

Snuffy took the coffee pot off the hot stove and stepped to the small table nearby. He poured coffee into his blue metal cup and returned the pot to the stove. A mail order catalog was open on the table and he sat down to read in it as he sipped at his hot coffee and forked off a big chunk of mock apple pie, his favorite breakfast.

The catalog was from Montgomery Wards Company, but just about everybody called the company Monkey Wards. It was a funny name and Snuff didn’t have any idea how it came to be known that way. It just was.

Looking at the catalog’s pictures was one way to pass time in the winter when there wasn’t much to do. There were a couple of them in the cabin, along with a few precious magazines and two thick books. Right now the cowboy was reading both of them, Rob Roy and Lorna Doone. They were stories about Scotland and one had lots of action and sword fights while the other was a romantic adventure story. Sometimes he felt like reading action and other times, when he thought about his soon-to-be fiancee Sina Christiansen, he wanted to read about the life and adventures of a beautiful young woman.

As he looked at the catalog he began to think about the package waiting for him at the Wilson store. It had taken a lot of his money to pay for it, but nothing was too good for Sina. It was going to be a real special Christmas present for her—five yards of blue watered silk for an engagement party dress. Sina had long blonde hair and he’d asked Mrs. Lundy what would be the best color for a girl with blonde hair. She’d picked out blue silk, saying that any girl would be flattered by a gift that thoughtful— and expensive.

He turned to the page that offered the silk he’d ordered. It read:

OUR SPECIAL SILK DEPARTMENT

Of Evening Shades or Light Colors in Plain and Figured Silks.

At $1.09 per yard we are offering these goods at less than the largest wholesale dealers can buy the same grade of corded silk in any quantity. No illustration or description will give you an idea of the beautiful effect and the fine quality shown in this, our $1.09 line. Don’t wait to write for samples when ordering. No set of small samples would give you any idea of the value. Simply enclose our price with your order, give us an idea of the coloring wanted, state your complexion, what garment you wish to make, and leave it somewhat to the judgment of an expert silk man to give you the finest thing in our line to match your complexion.