Let Me Tell You A Story!

  
The day before my 10th Birthday, December, 1941, I was sitting at my desk in a old, one-roomed school. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. The teacher answered the door. It was the neighbour lady -Mrs. Moore.

 Quickly she talked to the teacher. Suddenly my brother, Stewart, jumped up from his desk, grabbing his coat  and called for me to come, and to HURRY! As we started running down the Highway toward our farm, I called to my brother "What's the matter?"  He said: Our barn is on fire!
 
Just then a neighbour, Tyson Langman, slammed on the brakes of his car, saying "I will give you a ride if you hurry!"  Soon we could see our farm.

Cars lined all along the Highway # 11. I looked up: THE BARN WAS ON FIRE!   Men were trying to save a small building beside the barn. They were pulling machinery out as fast as they could. I gazed at the barn..it was on fire all over burning the dried hay which was piled to the top, to feed the dairy cows through the winter. I could feel the heat on my face from the roaring flames. I looked for my father. He was standing gazing at his destroyed  earnings for the whole year.  Now I wanted to know how that fire got started. It was some time before I heard the story.
 
The story was that my father had his small tractor hitched to his manure spreader, parked in front of the main door the cattle used. Outside this door was a long driving shed the same as most barns had. Overhead was where the straw for bedding for the cows was stored.
 
My father was cleaning out the barn, using a item called a manure litter carrier had  his bucket full so he pushed the bucket on it's track to the place where the manure wagon sat. Dumping the bucket, father went to the tractor to take his load out to spread on the fields. As the first "bbbbbbrrrrr" of the tractor sounded, a gust of wind caused the gas fumes to turn into flame as it caught the straw overhead. Immediately it was all aflame. There was no way that father could ever stop that fire.
 
Running to the house, father yelled at mother to call the fire brigade, shouting that the barn was on fire. With that, he ran back to the barn. His milking Holstein cows were going to die if he couldn't get those cows out of the barn! Quickly he undid the stanchions, trying to make the cows go out a door they were not used to. Realizing that he had done all he could and he better get out himself, he watched in shock as the family dog, called Frankie, a Border Collie, took over. Barking, he turned the cows towards the regular door where the spreader sat, burning. Nipping the cow heels, Frankie made all 30 milk cows jump up and over the spreader, then out of the long shed. He continued his herding, driving all 30 cows to the field next the line fence. All day he kept weaving back and forth keeping the cows close to the fence.
 
Frankie was a hero! What an amazing thing! The dog KNEW the cows must go out, even if it was up and over the spreader. He also knew his master could do no more. Hurray for the Border Collie!
 
Christmas gifts were scar se that year, but nobody cared. We had the cows that could continue producing our living: selling milk. We ALL knew the special gift that year was a long haired, black and white Border Collie named Frankie!