More on Heavenly Wisdom
Later that day after their successful talk with Dodge the Captain and Cody rode over to John’s ranch. As they sat on the porch, Cody told them of the happenings, including the attempted poisoning of his horse and Dodge’s accepting their proposal.
“Amazing! I have never heard of a rancher backing down like that!” exclaimed Amanda.
“Well,” said the Captain, “using Heavenly Wisdom definitely helps, as does having forty soldiers with me!” They all laughed. “And really, Dodge didn’t back down, he took a step ahead into the future.”
Suddenly Sam jumped up, “Look, Pa, the barn’s on fire!” As one they all stood and saw the smoke billowing up from behind the barn.
Cody and the Captain took off running. John stopped in the barn to get three shovels and a tarp. By the time he got behind the barn, Cody had already begun beating at the flames with his vest.
It was the haystack leaning on the back of the barn that was on fire. “Here,” John shouted,” take a shovel and put dirt on it, it’s better than water!”
He gave the other shovels to Sam and the Captain, then threw the tarp over the center of the flames, smothering them. Sam and Cody shoveled as rapidly as they could on the edges of the fire, and in a few minutes the flames were out.
John, Cody and the Captain then used the shovels to pull out the burned hay to prevent any re-ignition. They stepped back and surveyed the damage.
“We are really fortunate that Sam saw this in time,” exclaimed John. “A few more minutes and the whole barn would have been engulfed in flames,”.
“It’s more than fortunate, it’s God watching over you,” Cody said. “This is what I call a ‘God sighting.’”
“A what?”
“A God sighting is when you see God reach into your life and do something good for you. He alerted us through Sam, and we were able to get the fire out in time. Your only loss is some hay, not the barn.”
Sam smiled, “Hmm, I think that you are a God sighting, Mr.
Cody! God sent you to help us! And the Captain, too!”
Cody laughed, “Yes, I guess you are right. If I hadn’t found you out on the plain, I wouldn’t have been here to help you. Now I want to look around and see what I can find out about how this fire started.”
He went to where the fire had begun, found some boot prints and followed them away from the barn to a stand of poplars. There he saw where a horse had waited and traced the tracks of the rider coming and going. He leaned down to look at the horseshoe prints.
Each horse has distinctive ones. In fact, each horseshoe is distinct. After studying these prints, Cody knew he would be able to tell the horse that made them when he looked at it’s shoes.
He went back to the barn where the others were waiting. “I’m going to follow those tracks and see who made them, and where they go” he said.
Picture: Haystack on fire from internet, royalty free
