At the end of this story you'll find 9 questions. So, put your thinking cap on and send me an e-mail with your thoughts and answers to Cowboy Lee's Club, PO Box 564 Comstock Park, Michigan 49321. In return I'll send you a free copy of our newest cowboy book: "Arty Goes West." Don't forget to give my your mailing address so I can send you your gift book. I'll be waiting to hear from you!
HOT, DRY & LOST
The sun was so bright that it bleached the blue right out of the sky. The cowboy swiped his arm across his forehead and squinted his eyes as he followed the faint trail. His horse was hot and sweaty too; each plodding step raising a little cloud of dust. The cowboy was beginning to wonder if this job was worth it. The pay wasn’t bad. $10 a head for each stray rounded up. But the cattle were hiding in coolies and thickets trying to find relief from the relentless sun, so locating them was difficult and driving them out into the open was harder. He was fortunate to have a couple cows with calves corralled up in the canyon because that doubled his pay. Right now he was tracking what appeared to be three head which were probably steers, but brother was he tired. Wild steers are wily critters and masters at avoiding the lasso. By his reckoning it was after four in the afternoon so he decided to find a camp spot to eat a little grub and siesta for awhile.
Soon his tiny fire was heating the coffee pot. He splashed his face and neck with tepid crick water; at least it was wet. His horse stood right in the middle of the shallow trickle and acted like he might even lay down and roll in it. That didn’t happen very often so it was a good indication that his mount was really feeling the affects of the heat. Dry biscuit and equally dry strips of beef made an acceptable cowboy supper when washed down with strong coffee. One of these days he was going to get him some of those canned peaches from the mercantile in town. On that refreshing thought, he pillowed his head on his saddle and fell asleep.
Anxious nickering woke him an hour or so later. The horse was staring intently at something in the distance. The cowboy saw a lobo wolf slinking across the range: he was probably having trouble finding anything to eat when all the varmints were holed up tight on account of the heat and lack of water. The temperature seemed slightly cooler or rather “less hot “ so the man stored the coffee pot in his saddle bag and tacked up the horse to continue his search. The team managed to find one scrappy steer and get him back to the canyon without too much trouble; those rangy ones sure fought the rope! It was now after midnight and the night was full of stars which looked huge in the unclouded black sky.
Probably because of his earlier nap, the cowboy wasn’t quite sleepy enough to fall asleep so he laid there staring up at the universe contemplating his part in it. Because of his solitary life, he often had times to do a lot of thinking. Right now the thought came to him of the God Who created this beautiful sky. He remembered the stories his mother had told him and bits and pieces of sermons he’d heard years ago before taking up the cowboy life. He actually had a battered New Testament in the bottom of his saddlebag. There wasn’t enough light to read so he didn’t get it out but he promised himself that before breakfast he’d fish it out and read some. He realized that this life he was living was only temporary and he had an eternal life to be concerned about. On the back flyleaf of the Bible, his mother had written a list of verses which she told him were very important about that eternal life, and he planned to look them up and read them. In fact, recalling some of the dangers he’d encountered in his life recently, maybe he’d better not wait till morning. He reached for his bags to find the candle stub and find that Bible.
1. Why does the cowboy like to find cows that have or are going to have calves?
2. Would you like to be a cowboy? Why?
3. What are some of the things the cowboy carries in his saddlebags according to this story?
4. How much will the cowboy earn if he rounds up 100 head of cattle?
5. When you look at the sky on a starry night does it make you think of God?
6. Why do you think the title of this story includes the word “LOST”?
7. If the cowboy looks up verses like John 3:16 and Acts `6:31 and believes what they say do you think he will find God and not be lost any more?
8. How about you, are you “lost “?
9. What do you have to do to be sure you are not lost?