Second Harvest

"Billy count backward from ten. What number comes before ten?"

Billy thought and then yelled, "Nine!"

"Great. That's one number short of ten, but you were three days short of ten. What number comes before nine?"

Billy's eyebrows furrowed as he pondered this question. Using his fingers to help him count, Billy suddenly giggled. "I've gone seven days with a dry bed."

Everyone applauded. Roy reached into his pocket and pulled out the roll of dimes. As he laid them on the table, he made Billy count them out. When Billy reached seven, he started hopping around the room like a bunny rabbit. Roy pushed the dimes in front of Billy.

"There you go my friend; seven dimes for your jar. Now, doesn't the number seven sound a whole lot better than three?"

Billy nodded vigorously. Slowly, he dropped the dimes into the jar with a twinkle in his eyes.

"From now on, only count the days your bed is dry."

Billy smiled and nodded his head.

In the following weeks, Billy continued to count only the days his bed was dry. He went from seven to eight, and from eight to nine. Each successive week, the number of days continued to climb until Billy was having only dry bed days and no wet ones. His jar was filling fast and Roy needed to obtain an additional roll of dimes to keep up with the boy's progress. Billy had a mishap now and then, but eventually he went the whole month without an accident. The jar was almost full.

One day, Roy picked up the jar and it felt heavy. "What are you planning on buying Billy, now that you're a rich man?"

Billy thought hard on Roy's question. "Buy me a horse, no wait, a fishing pole. No, a horse." Billy made a face. "Argh, a fishing pole. Oh, I don't know."

"Well, don't worry yourself. We're going into town on Saturday and you can spend it any way you want. It's your money and you earned it."

Roy and the Johansson family rode into town that following Saturday, and Billy wanted to hold his money jar during the trip. The ride was rough, and Roy worried the jar would get broken, so he talked Billy into storing it the canvas bag for safe keeping. Just as they entered the town, one of the old brothels that closed well before the war, was currently under construction. Having sat empty for a long time the building was in bad shape and often Roy thought it should be torn down. Today, workers were busy converting the brothel into a church.