The Tender Years by Janette Oke

boy, who in actuality by now was a man well in his forties, to be in town. He’d heard of a new boardinghouse. He was going to sell the farm, set up a trust fund for his son, and move into town to get Rett settled and used to the new dwelling before his heart gave out.
    When the plans were carried out, Rett had chafed at first. Restless and anxious, he paced the one small room that was now their home, and finally his father had realized that he needed to be free. Needed to be able to roam the hills and the woods. He asked the woman who ran the boardinghouse to fix up a lunch for his son, and with that in hand, no matter what the weather, Rett set off each day. “Go ahead,” the father told the boy-man. “Just be sure to come back home at night.” And he always did, returning at the end of the day satisfied and well. Uncle Luke had said that Rett Marshall had the constitution of an ox. Virginia had no idea what that meant, but Uncle Luke always made the comment as though it was a good thing and something to be admired.
    The father and son had lived together at the boardinghouse for almost a year before Mr. Marshall’s heart finally failed him. He was gone even before Uncle Luke got there. The loss of his father only increased Rett’s wanderings. But he still came home each night. Hungry and often cold and damp—but content.
    His only problem was what to do with his pet crow. It was the only bird or beast that Rett attempted to bring in from the wild. All other creatures he insisted on leaving, healing them and returning them to their natural habitat. But the crow went with Rett wherever he went. It perched on his shoulder or flew on ahead of him. His landlady would not allow the bird to be kept in his room. Rett had to build a cage in the backyard, but he fretted some about the bird being left out there alone each night. Folks said that often when a bad storm came their way, Rett stayed right out there with the bird.
    Folks said that the crow was better at communicating than Rett himself. Mostly folks’ remarks were made without meaning to disparage the strange man. But the schoolboys were an entirely different matter. They teased and tested the man sorely. He had become the butt of many of their cruel jokes. Virginia hated it. When she had been younger, she had quickly come to Rett’s defense. At one point she was even known as the loony lover . But as she had grown older and understood just how important the approval of her peers was to her, she had stopped publicly defending Rett. She felt cowardly. But she was not brave enough to defy the crowd in order to take a stand against their constant ridicule.
    Danny, however, had no such reservations. If anyone said anything cruel concerning Rett when he was within earshot, he was quick to defend the strange man. Virginia felt both pride and chagrin. She hoped that the school crowd would not link her with her younger brother. Yet she did admire his courage. However, she reminded herself that one day Danny would realize that standing up for society’s outcasts came at a big price. She was sure that when that time arrived, Danny, too, would be silent.

CHAPTER 5
    H ave you heard what that long-nose Mrs. Parker is saying now?”
    Her green eyes flashing, red hair tossed back with an angry flip, Jenny almost flung the words at Virginia. Virginia had no idea. She didn’t believe that the folks in their small town paid much attention to anything that came from the lips of Mrs. Parker. Leastwise, her own folks chose to ignore it. “Facts are facts,” her papa always said, “and until one has proof, it is merely hearsay.”
    But then her papa was an attorney. He didn’t care much about any information that couldn’t be proven solidly enough to hold up in a court of law.
    And her mama didn’t pay much mind to Mrs. Parker’s stories, either, but for a totally different reason. She quoted from the Bible about gossiping tongues. Gossip and Christian charity didn’t fit