Unexpected Christmas blessings come from the 'Orphan Train'

They never had any children although they had prayed for many years to be blessed with a little girl or boy. The good Lord never blessed them with that child, but we must remember He moves in mysterious ways as you soon will hear. So without further ado, here goes ...

THE ORPHAN TRAIN

Note: This is the farmer talking.

Hello friends and neighbors.

It surely is good to see you here tonight.

I have written this poem to read to you,

And I hope it comes out right.

I hope this poem warms you up,

Clear down to your big toe.

And I hope it does a right smart job,

Before it starts to snow.

Our Father who art in heaven

I come to you today.

It’s Christmastime in the country, Lord

And there is something I want to say.

Christmastime is for rejoicing,

For Christmas is your holy birth.

Maw and I thank you, Lord,

For our health here on earth.

In a way, Christmas is a sad time,

For poor Maw and me

We prayed for a boy and a girl

That would have made us a real family.

Christmas is a time for giving, Lord.

Me and maw do every year

We help the less fortunate, too,

By giving big hams to others,

And always a goose or two.

So I jump into by bib overalls

And step spryly down each stair.

I get close to the table

And pull up a chair.

After a prayer and a big breakfast with Maw —

Coffee, sausage, biscuits and four eggs.

I slowly get the milk buckets

Down from the wooden pegs.

So out to the barn I trod

Through the new fallen snow.

Then here comes Belle, my old coonhound jumping and bawling

Telling me something she thinks I ought to know.

Old Belle races to the cow barn

And looks up at the hay mow.

She makes so much noise

She actually scares one old cow.

I climbed cautiously up the ladder,

And to my great surprise,

In the corner of the haymow sat two little boys

Both with great big brown eyes. “Please, sir, do not harm us,”

One had the guts to say.

Just last Tuesday Maw and Paw got killed

When the horses ran away with the sleigh.

Maw and Paw are in heaven

Where Jesus is today

The neighbors told the sheriff we had no relatives left,

That we had no place to stay.

So I dressed my little brother here

In the warmest clothes we had

I told him we were leaving

And he seemed very glad.

So out across the fields

We started through the snows

I had to carry my little brother,

For he was frozen down to his toes.

When we got to the clearing and saw your great big barn,

We climbed up the ladder where nothing would do us harm

So we snuggled down without making a single peep

And quite quickly went right off to sleep.

I sat right down in there in the haymow

With tears running down each cheek.

Lord, forgive me, but I swallowed my cud of tobacco.

It was a while before I could speak.

Finally I got the boys down the ladder,

And we started off to the house

Those boys walked right behind me,

Each as quiet as a field mouse.

When we got to the warm kitchen,

Maw said, “What have we here?”

I told Maw I found these boys in the barn

As each of my eyes shed a tear.

So Maw set the boys down to the table.

She could see they were nearly starved to death.

She quickly filled their plates with warm food;

She could see they were a little afraid and nearly out of breath.

But before they took a single bite,

They bowed their heads to pray,

Thanking the Lord for the food,

And a nice warm place to stay.

Me and Maw talked it over,

Very quickly, so we did.

“Why,” Maw said, “If we were lucky,

Them boys could just be our kids.”

We went into the living room

And we kneeled down to pray.

We asked the good Lord for his permission,

To let these little boys stay.

The Good Lord answered our prayers

And he answered them just this way.

“You’ll have to go the Court House

To get the final say.”

I then heard the cows bawling fearfully.

They were still out there in the lot.

Those old girls still needed milking.

In my happiness I had near clean forgot.

I hurried to the barn, took care of the cows

And got the milk to the house right away

I told Maw we had to hurry

We had to be on our way.

I harnessed up our mules,

Old Kate and Old Nell

They hadn’t been hooked up together

For quite a long spell.

As I hooked them up to the sleigh

In the hallway of the barn

Here comes my neighbor, Tom.

He seemed to be all in an alarm.

“Howdy, Willie,” he struggled with each word,

But he finally managed to say to me,

“Have you seen two little boys,

Both as cute as they can be?”

“They were supposed to be staying

With my sister, Nell,

But they slipped away

When she made a trip to the well.”

I put my hands behind my back and says to Tom,

I was sure to cross my fingers real tight,

“If I see them little boys, I’ll come get you,

Even if it is in the middle of the night.”

Maw filled the sleigh with blankets

And I grabbed the two little chaps up

Covered them both with the blankets

And I told the mules to getty-up

Over the road we rapidly traveled

And soon we came to town

Maw made sure the boys were covered up

And warned them not to make a sound.

I tied the mules to the hitching rack and started up the courthouse steps.

Then I stopped in the middle, not able another step to take.

I looked to the sky and told the Lord he was in charge

Me and Maw would live with whatever decision he was to make.

I walked on in to the courthouse

And walked right up to the desk.

The secretary gave me one look and said,

“Hello, Willie, you old pest.”

“I have come to see the judge,” says I.

“I surely hope he’s in today,

Because an important matter has come up,

And I need to see him right away.”

“He can’t be seen today,”

The secretary says to me,

“He has a terrible cold,

And all he does is sneeze.”

But I just had to see the judge that day.

I told her it concerned two little boys.

They might be leaving on the Orphan Train

And have not Christmas joys

So off to the judge’s chambers we went,

She decided to let me in

And there sat the judge

He was six feet tall and thin.

“Hello, Willie, my old friend,

It’s sure nice to see you once again.

I hear there is a problem

Out on the west end.”

There surely is, Your Honor

And I just had to see you today.

It concerns two little boys

The county may take them away

Me and Maw would love to have them.

We’d like to make them our little boys

It’s Christmas season, you know, your honor,

They need a new home filled with many joys

The judge then considered the evidence

And then put it to me this way.

“Willie, those little boys are yours,

Take them home and there they will stay.”

So out to the hitching rack I go,

I’m taking two steps at a time.

And when I reach the sleigh,

I quickly untie the line.

I spoke to the two old mules

And soon we were on our way

Back out to our old farm

Where the two little boys would stay.

After a quiet and swift ride back to the farm house,

Maw finally asked, “What did the judge say?”

I told her in a real calm way,

“These are our little boys and they are here to stay.”

So out to the wood lot we soon hurried

The two little boys, Maw and me.

I found the old broad ax

And we went out to cut a Christmas tree.

Soon we got it back to the house

And we decorated that tree

And then I realized

That it was durn near chore time for me.

So out to the barn I scurried

And I milked the old Jersey cows.

I went up to the hog lot

And fed the old brood sows.

I fed the mules their grain

And threw fresh hay down from the mow

The animals were all fed and happy

Ready for the night by now.

Then, I saw John, one of my new sons

Had followed me out to the barn on our farm

And there my old hound go wagged her tail

And really turned on her charm.

From there under the manger

Was a litter of newborn bluetick pups

He then leaned gently down

And picked one of them up.

He says, “Paw,”

As the little pup let out a grunt

“Do you reckon me and Tommy

Can teach this little fellow to hunt?”

“You sure can,” I told John

As we hurried off to the house leaving the little pup

We all ate a hearty supper

And then we hung the stockings up.

That Christmas, the Lord surely blessed Maw and me

For now we finally had our family.

The next Sunday morning I would go out and hook up each mule

And all FOUR of us would be off to Sunday School.