Title: The Magic River Stone Author: Wanda K. *Disclaimer: I acknowledge that "Christy", by Catherine Marshall is the property of the LeSourd family. Neither I, nor any other individual receive any compensation whatsoever from this work, and it is solely produced for personal, non-profit entertainment. "THE MAGIC RIVER STONE" "Why, you are light as a feather!" exclaimed Christy Huddleston as she effortlessly lifted little Mountie O'Teale off her lap, then regretted the words even as they escaped her lips. She had not rightly considered the constant lack of proper nourishment which plagued the children of these mountain families before she spoke. "How beautiful you look with your new buttons, Mountie!" she quickly added. The precious child just gazed at Christy with big, grateful eyes. This was the second set of buttons Christy had sewn on for her, and she had been very ashamed to return to school in the worn, buttonless coat just a few weeks after the first ones were sewn. Mountie had originally given one of her precious buttons to her mother to sew on her sister Mary's threadbare coat, then the others were torn off in a fall from a footlog near her home. She was out of school for three days. Teacher came to visit her during that time, so the accident had been almost worth its pain just to receive Christy's undivided attention. Although the early spring morning was somewhat cool, lessons went very well. The children were learning faster than they ever had before, but Christy had noticed that around eleven o'clock each day, they were almost all nodding off to sleep and unable to concentrate. She decided this day to be a little nosy. During lunch each day, she had noticed the children taking their lunch pails outside and sitting on any available step or tree stump and quickly devouring their "vittles" brought from home. Whenever Christy walked near the children, they would immediately conceal any uneaten food under the greasy brown paper so as to prevent her from knowing what they were eating. Today she was determined to see what they had been hiding from her! Part 2 At noon, Christy dismissed the children for lunch and picked up her own pail containing two sandwiches and two apples, then retrieved her dipper gourd from its hanger. She then proceeded outside, loving the natural beauty all around her and quietly thanking the Lord for allowing her to be in such a wonderful place at that very moment. It occurred to her that this present second in time is all that any of us really possess, but what a precious and priceless gift! As Christy nonchalantly strolled over to where a group of children sat in the grass under a big shade tree, she cheerfully called, "May I join this group for lunch? It has warmed up a lot and the shade is so nice!" The children all quietly nodded an almost simultaneously hesitant agreement to her request. "Okay, let's unwrap our lunch now! One - two - three - - -!" Christy said with more enthusiasm than she actually felt. As the brown paper wrap was slowly removed by each child, Christy suddenly fully understood the inability of her students to stay focused on their lessons. It almost seemed that each little bucket had been packed by the same mother, and all she had to give them was either a small piece of cornbread or biscuit filled with lard. "We was ashamed, Teacher," Little Burl intuitively explained. Tears sprang to Christy's eyes and she sprang to her feet, mumbled something inaudible to the children and ran back into the schoolhouse. "Why didn't I realize before now just how bad it really is?" she lamented aloud to herself. With tears streaming down her face, Christy took the little paring knife she kept in the secret drawer of her desk and cut the two large sandwiches into small, equal pieces. She then sliced the apples in like manner, picked it all up in a cloth and went back outside. Silently she meandered through the group carefully and lovingly dispensing her gift of her own sacrifice of food to the children. She was shocked by the happy reaction of the children, because each one received so little. Then she bowed her head and prayed, "Dear Lord, thank you for the food which you have provided. Please bless it and make it like the loaves and fishes in the Bible. In the name of Jesus we ask this. Amen." Christy could see that, indeed, to her students it was a feast, and somehow everyone was full and no one lagged in attention for the rest of the day. In addition, she had formulated a plan and would enlist the help of the Lord and of everyone in the Cove to fulfill that plan. Part 3 "The Magic River Stone" Christy was awakened very early the next morning by the crowing of the mission chicken yard's rooster. She leapt out of bed and rushed to the window for her usual view of the Great Smoky Mountains. There was a heavy fog lying low over the peaks, and the name "smoky" was truly appropriate this day. She poured water from the big flow blue porcelain pitcher into its matching wash bowl and hurriedly bathed and dressed for her busy day. As the first rays of sun began to cut through the smoky fog, they penetrated the window and fell kindly upon the lovely face of Christy Huddleston as she reached gingerly into her top bureau drawer and retrieved an oval shaped rock. It was the one she had found at the river in front of Neill's cabin and slipped into her skirt pocket. She had noticed that the rock had a white vein running across its surface, which created the perfect shape of an "m". When she showed it to Neill, she held it flat in her small hand and said, "I guess the letter in this rock stands for MacNeill since it came from your place!" He had jokingly replied, "Christy, if you're looking for the letters of the alphabet in rocks, you've quite a way to go yet if "m" is all you have." Now, as she gently lifted the rock from its resting place in the drawer, it fleetingly occurred to her how easily he could make her laugh over the most trivial things. The first thing that morning at school after roll call, Christy said to the children,"I've brought a surprise today!" She dramatically pulled the rock from its hiding place in her dress pocket and held it up so her students could clearly see the letter on it. "That's really somethin', Miss Christy!" exclaimed Ruby Mae. "Aw shucks, you writ that writin' on that ol' river rock," said Creed Allen. "You're right, Ruby Mae, it is something," replied Christy. "Creed Allen, you are mistaken. No human hand wrote the letter on this rock," she added. This is a magic river stone, and the "m" on it stands for just that - magic. We are going to do something very special with this old rock, and I'll tell you where I got my inspiration. Years ago I heard a story about a village full of people who fussed and fought all the time. Then one winter things got really hard," related Christy. By then she had the attention of everyone, even Lundy Taylor. "Then what happened, Teacher?" Lundy intoned. "Well, Lundy," she continued, "the village wise man found a rock just like this one and announced his intention to make a big pot of stone soup. Well, you can imagine how ridiculous that sounded to the villagers. Then the wise man placed the stone in a big old cooking pot and instructed each of them to bring just one thing to go in that pot with the stone the very next day. So, they did as he said. Sure enough, they made the best pot of soup any of them had ever tasted and decided cooperation beat fighting any old time!" "Can we make stone soup, Miss Christy?" asked Ruby Mae excitedly. "Yes, oh yes, that's just what I had in mind!" answered Christy enthusiastically. The classroom began to buzz excitedly, and she felt a small fluttering of hope that perhaps this project might really be the beginning of a solution to more than one problem. "THE MAGIC RIVER STONE" by Wanda King - CONCLUSION So it went for the next three weeks that Christy and the children made their now famous "Stone Soup" frequently. By this time they were forced to move their cooking project outside to a big cast iron kettle on an open fire. The very first day the endeavor began, Christy had removed the stone from the kettle and declared that it had worked its magic completely and would no longer be required in the pot. Everyone was so proud to contribute their single item to the pot. There were dried carrots, onion tops,turnips, potatoes, half cups of lentils and peas, grits, onions, summer savory from Opal McHone's herbal gatherings, and many other assorted small offerings which, when combined, really did add up to a significantly hearty pot of soup. Christy continued to eat very sparingly and also in sharing her usual lunchtime sandwiches. Miss Ida had even helped her one day to kill and dress one of the mission's chickens to make an especially rich soup stock. The spirit of cooperation was rampant, and Christy and the children were all getting free cooking lessons in the bargain. One Monday morning, Christy was in the process of building the Stone Soup fire when she suddenly felt very faint. She stumbled with the firewood, and Ruby Mae exclaimed,"What's wrong,Teacher? Are you dizzy or somethin' this mornin'?" Christy never heard the exclamation because in a moment she was completely unconscious on the schoolyard ground. "Lordy mercy!" cried Ruby Mae. "Go get the doctor, somebody. Miss Christy has plumb fainted dead away!" There were choruses of offers from all the boys, but Ruby Mae assigned the job of fetching Doc MacNeill to Joshua Beck and further ordered him to go quickly. In less time than Ruby Mae had anticipated, Doc MacNeill rode up on his horse. He had not wasted a second, and the expression on his face puzzled Ruby Mae. She had seen him very concerned about his patients, but this time he looked almost frantic. By this time, Ruby Mae had put Christy's head on a rolled-up shawl and had begun washing her face with a cool cloth. Doc MacNeill grabbed his worn medical bag and ran over to where Christy lay. "What happened here?" he demanded. Creed Allen, ever the insightful one, explained that their teacher had been giving her food to the children instead of eating it herself. "Doc, I'm pretty sure she ain't been eatin' too good. She lets the little kids have all the Stone Soup and even gives them her sandwiches. We tried to get her to eat, but she wouldn't!" Neill's expression softened as he observed the pallor in Christy's face and noticed for the first time how thin she had become in just the past few weeks. He realized that he would have to chide her, but not just now. For now, he would carry her back to the mission house in his arms and put her in bed, leaving doctor's orders that she was to receive proper nourishment and rest for the next several days. Neill had seen yet another level of maturity in this young woman, and he could not quite explain his own fierce reaction to himself, much less to anyone else. He found himself for quite some time afterwards exclaiming to himself the words, "Stone Soup!" and shaking his head and laughing. After that incident, Neill also found himself opening his dresser drawer and gently caressing the large bolt of tartan plaid of the ancient Scottish Clan MacNeill of Barra and visualizing Christy wearing those colors. Could it really be that someone of the Huddleston lineage, an enemy of his people as far back as the days of Caerlaverock, could it be that she was truly the one worthy to wear these noble and historic colors? Was she the one destined to bring reconciliation in a way that might never have been imagined? Margaret had been a true Scot, of the Henderson Clan, and yet their union had been too short to result in all Neill had hoped for. In truth, Margaret had refused to wear the MacNeill colors in favor of the Clan Henderson tartan. She had discovered her roots and rejected the conversion of her immigrant forebears to the Quaker faith. Alice Henderson had commented that the Scots and the Quaker faith were not mutually exclusive, but Margaret had only become more determined. Oh, Neill had loved her. In fact, he had thought he would never love another woman again. He was sure that had been resolved, but now this young woman had burst into his life and turned his resolution upside down. "Just when you think you have solved an issue, it returns to demand your attention yet again," sighed Neill as he stared at the beautiful plaid material and tried in vain to smooth his unruly locks away from his face. THE END