The Owls of Thunder Hollow

By Dan Barnwell

The Owls of Thunder Hollow have a perfect teaching system for teaching their young. The young owls learn to fly, hunt, and survive within this perfect system. There never has been a problem with the system.

Everything changes when the owls accidentally hatch a strange egg. The young bird is not an owl. It does not fit into their perfect teaching system.

This is a story about an honest effort that was made by both teacher and student. After months of frustration and failure, it appears that they have parted with bitter feelings.

The young bird is banished from the presence of his friends. The teacher has been denied the affection that she should have received from the young owls that she taught.

Many teachers and students have lived through the sadness of a story like this one.

If you had hoped for a happy ending, but never were able to find one, you really need this book.

The Owls of Thunder Hollow were able to find an end to the story that is seldom achieved in the world of people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 12, 2005
• ISBN: 9781420876413

Dan Barnwell

            Born the eighth child in a family of twelve children, Dan Barnwell is a native son of Jacksonville, Alabama. His father died when he was seven years old, leaving his mother with ten boys and two girls. Although they had a small farm, the family struggled for years to survive together.             The Barnwell home, however, was full of happiness and hope. Every child believed a better day was coming, because their mother, Alice Barnwell, made them believe. Dan was a dependable source of stories and poems for his brothers and sisters. Each tale carried a positive message. “Keep trying. You will find greatness soon.”             Dan still lives in Jacksonville on a section of the property where he was raised. He has written many church plays and gospel songs, as well as some wonderful short stories.             In his first book, “The Owls of Thunder Hollow”, he escorted his readers through the childhood of a misfit who finally found his talent and became great. The birds in that story became personal friends of the readers. In this book, Dan uses his amazing storytelling talent to create a family around the reader. This is not an emotional roller-coaster. A person knows that there is no pain at the end of a roller-coaster ride. Not so, this ride. Dan has exposed the pain of love, faithfulness, honesty, and loneliness. He has also created a very real adventure full of great struggle and amazing accomplishment. Dan doesn’t tell this story. He grabs the readers by their minds and jerks them into the middle of it.

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© 2006 Dan Barnwell. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 8/8/2006

ISBN: 1-4208-7641-4 (e)

ISBN: 1-4208-7640-6 (sc)

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

CHAPTER ONE - THUNDER HOLLOW

CHAPTER TWO - THE CROWS

CHAPTER THREE - AN ANGRY EAGLE

CHAPTER FOUR - A SOCIETY OF OWLS

CHAPTER FIVE - THE HATCHLINGS

CHAPTER SIX - BROWNIE

CHAPTER SEVEN - LEARNING TO HUNT

CHAPTER EIGHT - A PATH IN THE TREES AND A PATH IN THE SKY

CHAPTER NINE - BROWNIE’S PROBLEMS

CHAPTER TEN - TRAPPED ALL DAY

CHAPTER ELEVEN - A VISIT FROM THE OLD MASTER

CHAPTER TWELVE - FIGHTING A SNAKE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - LIGHTNING AND FIRE

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - COOL WEATHER AND COLD STARES

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - SUNNY DAYS AND TROUBLESOME NIGHTS

CHAPTER SIXTEEN - A SAD GOODBYE

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - COLD

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - SURVIVING DURING WINTER

CHAPTER NINETEEN - THE SEASONS CHANGE

CHAPTER TWENTY - THE CAT

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE - THE GOLD LIGHTNING

A FEW FINAL THOUGHTS

ABOUT THE BOOK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FOREWORD

Have you ever had to deal with a child who was just a little different, who didn’t learn the same way as the others? Have you ever decided that something was wrong with a child, only to see that child grow up to be a person of great talent? Have you ever felt that you or one of your friends did not quite fit in? The owls of Thunder Hollow will soon meet a strange young bird. They must teach him to survive. The only problem is that he does not use the same method to learn that they use to teach.

The birds in this story take on the abilities and the nature of people. There will be no people mentioned in this story because the birds are the people. The areas in the forest are the communities, but the types of birds define their personalities and they retain their natural behavior as birds. I hope that this story will help everyone who reads it to look for the God-given abilities in each young person they meet. It is better to help a person develop his talents than to crush the hope out of him by constantly pointing out what he cannot do. Please read, think, learn, and enjoy.

Are you ready to go on an adventure in the forest of life? You might find a hero here, and you might just find yourself.

Very well, then, children, let’s go!

CHAPTER ONE - THUNDER HOLLOW

Welcome to the forest of life. These are the deep woods. Time moves slowly here. It is not measured in hours or days or even weeks. It is measured in seasons. Change comes slowly as well. A generation of trees may last one hundred summers surviving storms and droughts and fires. Generations of forest creatures follow the same paths and live the same way in an almost eternal landscape.

The forest of life begins in the lowlands where a small river rolls along. The river is bordered by meadows and thickets of low brush and small trees. This is Little River which is fed by mountain streams that trickle down from the lower ridges of the surrounding hills. Little River flows away south from the forest of life.

The ridges spread out from the center of the great mountain called Rocky Knob. Along the ridges near the river as you fly up the slope, there are first cedar trees and blackjack oaks. Then, on up are the loblolly pines, followed by the giant mountain oaks and red oaks which cover the mountain all the way to the crest of Rocky Knob. Here, the very backbone of the old mountain seems to run right out of its skin because the granite and sandstone form the top of the last high ridge. The rocks weather away season after season. Here at the top also grow many of the great mountain longleaf pines. These trees are most beautiful with long thick bunches of needles supported by big strong limbs that reach outward to make a wide tree. Each tree has its own peculiar shape. The birds navigate the mountains by recognizing the silhouette created by the great longleaf pines along the top.

Now, there is one thing that is constant from the banks of Little River to the crest of Rocky Knob. Through seasons and years, through fire and snow and dust and rain, for turkey and hawk, jay and heron, one thing is sure.

Crows are trouble. Nobody likes them; especially owls.

The owls live in Thunder Hollow between two ridges that branch out facing a long meadow that slopes down to Little River. The hollow is deep and wide. During a storm the thunder echoes and echoes, bouncing back and forth between the two ridges. The sun shows itself late here and leaves early, giving less actual daylight hours, but giving much dusk..

The oak trees that grow in the hollow are old and full of holes which are nests for the owls. The limbs are wide and strong and spread apart, so the young owls can learn to fly without too much difficulty. It is a still, silent place.

Very little ever changes here. The first owl to come to this hollow believed that it was the most beautiful place for an owl to live. The owls of this generation agree and as far as they are concerned, nothing should ever change. Nothing ever would have changed if it had not been for the crows.

CHAPTER TWO -

THE CROWS

There is no family like the crows. It is the crows against the world as far as they are concerned. From the beginning to the end, crows like each other and hate everybody else. Let one crow give the fight call and you will have to fight every crow within hearing distance. While a single crow will fly away from an angry mockingbird, a flock of crows will fight a bear just for the fun of it.

They can cause more trouble in an hour than a tornado followed by a three-day snow storm. After all, you can recover from natural changes, but the meanness that the crows do can be disheartening.

So, it just happened that one fine sunny spring day four crows flew along the banks of Little River. Their bellies were full of the bountiful crop of grasshoppers they had eaten in the meadow and their minds were full of mischief.

As they cruised above the water, nothing stirred below. It was noon and the river was quiet. Its inhabitants were taking a nap. Up along the thickets, all was the same. Nothing moved. But many an eye watched as the four dark fellows passed overhead. Each creature said in its heart, Fly on, you crows. Don’t bring your trouble down here.

Luckily, they did pass on up the ridge, over Thunder Hollow where the owls slept through the day.

Then, with a call to his fellows, the lead crow climbed steeply upward. He set a course that would take them to the very crest of Rocky Knob.

There, he hoped to rest through the day and think of some torment to bring down on any non-crow that they should meet on the return trip to the river this afternoon.

Haaw, said the leader. A good nap up here in the breeze, then we get back to the meadow and some serious crow business. He cuffed his wings to stop on the top branch of a longleaf pine tree. The other three crows landed in a half-circle around him. All of the crows surveyed their surroundings carefully, knowing that they must watch out for their enemies. Enemies are numerous to say the least, if you are a crow. Craak! croaked one. Quiet! What’s that in the next tree over there?