A Boy and His Horse
Of all my stories, this is the one closest to my heart, inspired by our daughter in a Christmas letter, 2009 reproduced on the back cover. Her gift was the painting on the front cover. No words by me beyond the foregoing could ever do justice to the enormous love I feel for our daughter, our three boys, our grandchildren and their families, each and every one a work of art in themselves.
Through the years, my wife has contributed modest financial support to Berea College, Berea, Kentucky. So it was that I chose the name “Mr. Fee” as the fictitious educational advisor of Kade Zachary. In real life, John Gregg Fee (September 9, 1816 - January 11, 1901) was an abolitionist, minister and educator, the founder of the town of Berea, Kentucky, and Berea College (1855), the first in the U.S. South with interracial and coeducational admissions
This story is a glimpse of life in America in the 19th century, stressing the importance of education. It concerns a motherless boy, reared by his backwoods, moonshine-swilling, pioneer father making his way across America, leaving home at the age of fourteen after his father dropped dead. On his deathbed, his father’s last words were, “Get an education. Your mother always said that’s the only way to get ahead.”
Kade Zachary’s invaluable legacy from his departed father was the knowledge of how to survive alone, his horse and his gun his only buddies. In seven years, he travels from the Appalachian hills of Virginia, attends school and learns a trade in Kentucky, moves south to San Antonio, works a cattle drive to California, spends three years in the Civil war, and returns to Kentucky at he age of twenty-one. A sojourn today's youth can only dream about. (Rated G)
This is a new book not previously published. As of this writing no reviews or comments have been received. Any and all readers are invited to favor our family with your comments.
