The Glorious Prodigal by Gilbert Morris Read Free Book Online Page B

Leah’s pregnancy, however, Annie had become housecleaner, nursemaid, cook, and all other things. I don’t know what I would have done without Annie, Leah thought as she made her way into the living room. She sat down slowly and carefully in the overstuffed chair and propped her feet up on the hassock with a sigh of relief. She stared down at her legs, which were swollen, and a moment of fear came to her. Dr. Morton had called on her daily during the pregnancy, and often he had waved his thick forefinger in her face, saying, “If you want to keep this baby, you’ll stay in bed. Let Stuart and Annie take care of you.”
    Picking up the composition book that she used for a journal, she took her pen and began to write.
    November 20, 1904: I had a bad night. Stuart was not home. He went to play for the opening of a new bridge over in Clayton County. He told me he might not be home, but I hoped he would.
    For a moment she paused, and a quick memory came to her. She knew if she looked back over her entries for the past year, since the day she and Stuart got married, she would find many similar entries. Stuart gone to play for a wedding. . . . Stuart gone to play for the opening of a new building. . . . Stuart invited to play for the inauguration of the governor.
    She sighed at the remembrance of so many nights alone and continued to write:
    I try not to feel bad about his being gone so much, but it does get lonesome, especially with the baby coming so soon. I must be patient with him. How many prayers have I prayed, and I pray again. I’ll never quit. I remember reading that George Mueller prayed for two men for over sixty years, and neither of them were saved during his ministry, but they were converted two months after he died. The Lord is good and He will hear my prayers. I know the church is praying for him, and as for Diane, I don’t know of a mother who prays for her son more than she prays for Stuart.
    She continued writing for some time. It was a means for her to express her deep feelings, since Stuart was away so much.These past three months she had been a very lonely woman. The first few months of her marriage had been nothing but constant joy. Stuart had stayed with her, and they had enjoyed doing everything together. He had turned down hundreds of invitations, it seemed, to go away and play, but then something had happened between them, and she could not understand what it was. At first he accepted a few invitations to play, and soon he was away more and more.
    She flexed her fingers and then wrote:
    I don’t want to complain, for I love Stuart and I know he loves me. I had thought he would be saved by this time. He came so close a year ago at that tent meeting with Gypsy Smith, but now he seems to be drifting far away. As for me, I don’t know where I am. I was so happy during the first months of our marriage—and I believe I will be again after the baby is born. But right now I feel like I’m standing in the middle of a bridge and I can’t see either end of it. All I can do is look down at the water and wonder what to do next.
    ****
    Annie turned at the sound of the door slamming and watched as Merle clomped across the floor and dumped an enormous armload of wood into the woodbox.
    “Well, is that all the noise you can make?” she said sharply.
    “I don’t know how you expect me to put wood in a box without makin’ no noise.” He came over suddenly, and her back was to him. He put his arms around her and squeezed as he lifted her clear off the floor.
    “Put me down, you silly man!” she said sharply, but he held her there until she began to giggle. “You hear what I tells you? Now you put me down!”
    “Woman, you just get sweeter every year.”
    Merle was an enormous man, six feet four and weighing over two hundred fifty pounds. His strength was proverbial in the Lewisville area. He picked up loads no other man could even think of lifting. Once, he picked up a whole bale of cotton and carried it