Elsa
hauled a wooden bucket of dirty water out of the tavern. She carried it downhill and poured into a
coarse gully leading to the bay. She
planned to next retrieve a clean bucketful from the well and finish her
cleaning, when she saw a man walking up toward her. Not many men came around the tavern in the
middle of the day—they were out hunting.
The man
was tall and unshaven, gaunt like he hadn’t eaten in a while, with dark hair
and eyes, and tattered clothing smelling of seawater. He stumbled like he’d been wounded in his
right leg, while burns plainly showed themselves on his rugged face.
“Young
man, are you all right?”
He turned
toward her and grimaced. “I’ve been
better.”
She
walked to him and put her shoulder under his arm. “I’m not that bad off,” he said, but he
allowed her to help. She took him to the
well sat him on its edge and hauled up water for him to drink.
“Thanks,
old lady.”
“I’d do
it for anyone. What’s your name, young
man?”
“Ernsto…last
name doesn’t matter.”
“Of
course,” she answered, offering him an understanding smile. Many of the new hunters had pasts they didn’t
want to talk about.
“Say, old
lady, you remind me of my grandma. Can
you help me with something?”
“I’ll do
whatever I can.”
He
reached inside his left front pants pocket and pulled free a dark sack. It clicked with movement and she could make
out shapes of round hard objects. As if
it were filled with coins. “Could you
take these for me? They’re gettin’
awful heavy. You wouldn’t believe what I
went through to bring them this far.”
“All of
them? Surely you don’t mean it!”
“Surely I
do.”
“May
I…look at them?”
“Why don’
you wait ‘till I leave, Grandma.”
Elsa
waited but she was overjoyed. It was a
huge cache of copper coins, maybe fifty or more. These by themselves might be enough to pay
for trip to the orphanage, especially if there were a silver or two hidden among
them. In her mind she praised God and
she hummed a happy hymn as she washed Ernsto’s wounds.
He rested
with her a half an hour or so, but then arose and started walking inland. “I’m goin’ huntin’, Elsa. You take care.”
“God
bless you, young man. And thank you,”
she added, rattling the coin bag.
She
didn’t open it right away. Some part of
her had begun to fear there must be something wrong—perhaps the metal pieces
were cheap tin slugs instead of money…though the bag seemed too heavy for
that.
In the
evening, after finishing the tavern floor, in the isolation of the privy, she
emptied out the coins. At first it
seemed her fears had come true, the coins were very light colored, like tin. But then she realized what they really
were. Platinum.
She
almost squealed but stopped herself in time.
It wouldn’t do to let everyone know what she had. People got killed for far less.
But this
would change everything. She could now
afford new hunting gear. She could
return home with her grandchildren and teach them what they needed to know to
survive—her family could live on. In
freedom. In peace. And most importantly, together.
Her heart
poured out into silent song, Praise God
from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below…
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