By Terry Cole, Raconteur in Residence



A Texas cowboy from up in the panhandle was trying his best to make it home for Christmas day....It had been some years since he had been home and wanted to surprise his Mama and Papa. He knew he was getting close but his cowpony was just about played out and he was running out of daylight.

To make things worse one of those Blue Northers blew in dropping the temperature to freezing and blowing snow so that he couldn't see beyond the nose of his horse.....Just when he thought all was lost and he was a goner, his horse stopped and something was stopping the howling wind. He stepped down from his horse and realized he was up against the side of a barn.....He felt his way until he found a door and led his horse inside.....He unsaddled and he and his horse laid down in fresh hay and slept the rest of the night.

Just before daylight the wind quit and he led his horse outside and was on his way....He wanted to thank those folks for the use of their barn but no use waking somebody up. He would thank them later....Ten minutes of riding thru the snow and he could see the smoke from the chimney of his house. Ten minutes after that he was stepping up on the front porch and hugging his Mama.....She asked him, ''How did you ever make it through that awful storm?

''Mama, I spent the night in your new neighbor's barn. It only took me twenty minutes to get here from there.''His Mama hugged him tighter and started to cry...His Papa laid his hand on his shoulder and said with tears in his eyes, ''Son, the nearest neighbor is still almost a hundred miles from here......Merry Christmas!''

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