March 23, 1967

          I overheard our calf "chorus" the other day. With the barn door open, I got full benefit of their concert. I didn't realize they could harmonize. They were "bawling" in 3 or 4 parts. 

          CHICKS, bunnies and eggs. 

          The store-bought variety are plastic, candy and cardboard, but on the farm you will find the real thing.

          A mother hen and her chicks are something you just don't see nowadays. It was a cozy sight to see one settled down in the straw with her little ones peeking out from under her wings. 

          Now chicks come in quantities from the hatchery and the mother hen has gone out of date. 

          I SUPPOSE every farmer's wife has tried her hand at raising chicks. At this time of the year we reminisce over those days of excitement, work and worry. 

          Bringing the baby chicks home from the hatchery was a big event. The chicks came into their new home in big cardboard boxes. It was an enjoyable task to take each little warm ball of fluff out of the box and set it on its two wirey legs. Soon the brooder-house was full of "cheeping chicks", busy using their little beaks to investigate. 

          They needed very warm quarters. We would have to shed our wraps as we came in the door. 

          They were delicate creatures in those early days of their life. A drop in temperature would cause them to pile up and smother. Lots of attention and care was required to get them off to a good start, and there always were some losses. 

          When chicks are brand new to the world they are cuddly and sweet, but as they grow into the feather-stage, taking care of them soon becomes a chore. At least, that's one woman's opinion.

      Little chick,  

Tell me quick,  

What is Easter? 

"Yesterday my home  

Was an eggshell tomb, 

          dark  

confining  

still  

     Where joy was nil. 

"Then my tomb broke  

And I awoke 

To a bright day,  

to run  

to fly  

to play 

To New Life! 

That is Easter." 

          "HE LOVED me and gave Himself for me" are precious words to meditate on during this Holy Week. When they have taken root in the heart there will blossom forth a most glorious Easter morn. 

April 11, 1968

          The willows are Spring's fashion pacesetters. They have already donned their dainty gowns of clinging sheer yellow-green gauze. Soon the other trees will come forth with their darker green creations. 

          APRIL SHOWERS wetting the drab earth remind me of the magic paint books the children had when they were small. When the pages of the book were dabbed with water, bright colors emerged. So these spring showers moistening our brown earth just as magically changes it to bright green almost overnight. 

          They tell me if it rains on Easter we will have showers for seven consecutive Sundays. If it does, you won't hear the farmer's wife com-plaining even if her Easter bonnet gets soaked. 

          BABY CHICKS... 

          Soft little yellow balls of fluff, filled to the brim and overflowing with noisy "cheeps". 

          Two small black beads for eyes and little legs, like short slender stems holding up yellow blossoms. 

          These little creatures look so perfect we wonder if they are but man-made toys until a noise scares them...and the resulting commotion proves there is life there. Almost from the moment they are hatched they begin ambitiously pecking whatever is underfoot. 

          Soon they will go through that awkward stage where fluff turns to feathers and the little roosters practice their cockadoodledoos with cracking voices. 

          They develop from cuddly little things into slick sophisticated pullets and conceited chanticleers...and sooner or later end up in the chicken soup. 

          These little chicks are symbols of Easter and are one of Spring's miracles of new life. 

          PERIODICALLY the mail box dispenses those itemized accounts of indebtedness known as "bills". There is the fertilizer one, the tax one, the land payment one, etc. And there are the notes about notes from the bank. 

          When these bills show up we become concerned as to how we are going to make arrangements to pay them. And there can be unpleasant consequences if we don't! 

But the message of Good Friday is the wonderful news - "PAID IN FULL"! 

     "But He was wounded for our transgressions,

     He was bruised for our iniquities; 

...and with His stripes we are healed." Isa. 53:5