For the next few days life in the Spruce home was peaceful. Daddy fussed very little. Jenny hoped her father would stay this way. Mama was praising God for her daughter's recovery and enjoying life as a christian.

Mr. Spruce did not warm up to the idea of Jesus but he didn't stop Jenny from talking about her King.

Jenny did not remember the accident. She only remembered her spiritual body slipping out of her earthly body and how she arrived in the homeland.

The girl told her mother about seeing Aunt Adelia, Buford and great grandpa Vincent, and how they had loved her so much.

Mrs. Spruce cried softly and smiled through her tears.

"Heaven is so real!" Mama said.

The telephone rang. It was Mrs. Mostly wanting to know if Jenny could play with Kelli.

"Sure," answered Mrs. Spruce. "Send her right over. Jenny has so much to tell everyone, especially her best friend."

In a few minutes the friends were together. It was like old times and even better.

"I really prayed for you, just about all the time that you were in the hospital," said Kelli. "I didn't want you to die and never see you again."

"I'm very glad to be with you, Kelli," returned Jenny. "But dying isn't all that bad when you know Jesus. You can go to the homeland; it is called Heaven."

"Oh, Kelli," exclaimed the Spruce girl. "It is the most beautiful place ever and everyone there is well and happy. There is no sickness. No one gets lonely. The saints all love each other. I saw great grandparents who are young again - no wrinkles. I saw aunts, cousins and many children. Best of all I saw King Jesus. He is even more special than when I saw Him in the clouds."

"Great! Great!" Kelli was excited. "Tell me, Jenny, can you play there?"

"Oh, sure!" answered Jenny. "Children and even grown-ups were skipping on the wide golden streets and Grandpa Vincent even did a cart-wheel. He walked on his hands, too. I wish life on earth was that nice - everything good I mean."

"Did you see dogs and cats?" asked Kelli.

"No, I didn't," replied Jenny. "Heaven is a big, big place. I did not see much of it. There are probably animals there someplace, maybe in the Great Meadow."

"Mrs. Spruce," said Kelli, " do you think Jenny can ride a bicycle again?"

At first the woman turned her lips inward and pressed them together. She thought of the agony they all had been through while Jenny lay in a coma.

Mr. Spruce looked towards his wife, shaking his head. "No! No! No!"

"Jenny's father and I must talk in private," said Mrs. Spruce.

When in the living room Mr. Spruce said to his wife, "How can you ever imagine her on that infernal bicycle again."

"She has a life ahead of her," remarked Jenny's mother. "And God gave her a real miracle. She is fine now and I believe she will be careful. Let's trust her with God. He was good to give our child back to us."

"O.K., woman," said the man. "But it's against my better judgment."

Mama and Daddy came into the room where the girls were waiting.

"You may ride your bike if you promise to be extra careful," said her mother.

"The Spruce girl gave her parents big hugs. Then she and Kelli went for a bicycle ride.

Mama waved to the girls. "Don't be gone too long," she said.

The two friends were as happy as could be riding with their blond and auburn hair blowing in the wind and four feet pedaling very fast. Soon they were on the outskirts of Fernville.

At the edge of a wooded area, they saw an old house. It was a two-story white house with gables over the upper windows. Red and white roses almost covered the fence that surrounded the white house. Above the front gate was an arch covered with roses.

"Hey!" said Kelli. "This looks like a nice place. Maybe we can swing in that big swing on the porch."

"Sure," agreed Jenny. "I think it might be fun!"

The girls opened the gate and sat down on wooden benches under the arched entrance way.

"I like this place and I want to swing!" exclaimed Kelli.

"Let's knock on the door and ask if we can swing," suggested Jenny.

The girls walked quietly up the steps onto the wide porch. Near the big swing on the porch were two rocking chairs.

"Jenny, you knock," whispered Kelli.

The Spruce girl knocked on the door. No one came to answer it. She knocked a second time more loudly.

The door opened and there stood lady with silver-white hair that lay in ringlets over her head.

"What do you want, my dear?" asked the lady.

"We just wanted to know if we could swing on your big swing," replied Jenny.

"Do come in, children," she invited. "Let us get to know each other before you swing. My name is Mrs. Rosella. I have lived here for many years."

When Mrs. Rosella opened the door, Jenny and Kelli walked into a room that was as pleasant to look upon as the outside of the house and the flowers and the arched entrance-way.

"I told you my name, little girls," said Mrs. Rosella. "Now, who are you?"

"I'm Jenny Spruce," said the girl with the auburn hair.

"I'm her friend," said the blonde. "My name is Kelli Lyn Mostly."

The living room fascinated the girls. There were several antique pieces of furniture, including an old sofa that the woman called a davenport. It was covered with dark brown leather, having diamond patterns on it. At the points of each diamond shape on the leather were leather covered buttons pushed into the stuffing. On each end of the sofa were black wooden arms.

Across the top back of the sofa were an assortment of stuffed creatures with their legs dangling from the top. A boy in overalls sat next to an Indian princess who wore lots of beads. There were a grandpa and grandma, dressed in gingham and denim, wearing black-rimmed glasses. A red-yarn octopus was next to grandpa. On his other side were three small clowns.

A basket filled with gingerbread people and a tall blue ceramic vase adorned the table nearby.

An open fireplace took up half of one wall. A black iron kettle with a lid on it hung just inside on the right of the old fashioned fireplace. Above the fireplace opening was a mantel protruding out of the old bricks. On the lace scarf that covered the shelf was a tambourine clock and two white candles.

"I never thought about having visitors today when I awakened this morning," said the lady of the house. "It is a lovely day; you two must have fun riding your bikes."

"Yes, it is fun," returned Jenny. "It is the first time I have been on my bicycle since the accident."

"Oh, dear!" said Mrs. Rosella. "It is too bad that you had an accident."

"Yes, and I was in a coma over forty hours," said Jenny.

"You know what?" informed Kelli. "Jenny went to Heaven and saw Jesus."

"Really! Really!" The woman was surprised and wanted to know more.

"Yes, I saw Jesus," said Jenny. "I saw aunts, uncles, cousins and I even saw Great Grandpa Norman Vincent."

"Tell Mrs. Rosella how beautiful the homeland is," said Kelli to her friend.

The silver-white haired lady listened carefully to Jenny. She did not want to miss a word that the child had to say.

Jenny told about the grand homes on streets of gold and the Praise Palaces where the saints gathered to worship. She told of the love that everyone had to share and that no one was even sick or sad there.

"Best of all," added Jenny, "was seeing our King Jesus. You know he is the same king that I saw one night in a dream before I had the accident."

"Did Jesus look like he does in the picture hanging over the davenport?" asked Mrs. Rosella pointing toward a painting of Christ with out-stretched arms amid the clouds.

"Very much, well almost," answered Jenny. "But a picture can't show how beautiful and kind His eyes are and the way He looks when he says, I love you."

"My!" exclaimed the woman. "It is too bad you got hurt but you did have a wonderful, unique experience. Thank you for sharing it with me."

"Could we see more of your nice house?" Kelli asked the new friend.

"Why, certainly, honey," said Mrs. Rosella.

Then she led them into the sun room which had lots of windows where the sunlight filtered in through the branches and leaves on the trees just outside. There were shelves of potted plants. Some were in bloom. In this room was an old loom used long ago to weave rugs and coverlets for beds.

"Can you use this loom now?" asked Jenny.

"Yes, it could be used," offered the elderly woman. "But I have all the rugs and quilts I need."

"Looks like fun," remarked Kelli. "Maybe someday you will let me try it."

"Maybe," said Mrs. Rosella, smiling.

In the room was an old chair shaped like a bear. One could sit on the lap of the bear seat between the bear paw arms. An old-fashioned floppy rag doll occupied that seat. The other furniture in the sun room was a chair and a glider-swing that matched.

The dining room next to the sun room was not crowded. It was a large room, having a table and six chairs. In the center of the table was a large green bowl filled with the morning-fresh flowers. Silver candle holders and a silver tea set topped an old buffet.

On the wall were two winter scenes of children playing in the snow.

"It is fun to play in the snow," remarked Jenny.

"Sure," agreed Mrs. Rosella, "when a person is as young as you two."

After the tour of downstairs, the woman led the way up the stairs to rooms on the second floor.

In the first bedroom at the top of the stairs, she showed the girls her special bed - a cannonball bed. The bed was black. Each bed post had four black balls evenly spaced on the post with a cannonball on top. Of course, the cannonballs were made of wood. A red and white quilt covered the bed. There was a black and white rocking horse in this room, which had been ridden by her children when they were small. The wall was decorated with tin soldier plaques.

The three peeped in at the door of a room about empty except for children's books and games. "This," said the woman, "is where my grandchildren play when they visit me."

At the end of the hall a door opened and out came a boy of nine years. He was rubbing his eyes trying to get fully awake.

"Where did the girls come from?" he asked, not real happy that they were there.

"Jamie," said his grandmother, "I want you to meet Kelli and Jenny. They like our house and stopped in to see more of it."

"Hi," he managed to say.

"Hello, Jamie," each girl returned greetings.

"We had better go now," remarked Jenny. "Mama said not to be gone long."

As the three children and Mrs. Rosella descended the stairs, a commotion was heard in the backyard. Jamie quickly looked out the kitchen door and began to laugh.

There was an old hound dog chasing something covered with a large beach towel. The creature could not see and ran crazily here and there bumping into whatever was in the way. The dog was barking fiercely.

Looking closely at the covered animal, Mrs. Rosella could see that it was a dog.

"How did they get in the yard?" asked the woman. "Oh, I see, part of the back fence is down."

"What can we do?" asked Jamie.

"Get the broom!" ordered the grandmother. "Get that towel off of the sow. I'll chase the dog away."

The hog ran by Jamie three times before he was able to lift the towel from her.

Mrs. Rosella chased the hound with a mop. Jenny grabbed the rake and Kelli got the hoe. The four ran here and there blocking the sow. Finally the hog crossed over the broken down fence. The woman then pulled up the piece of fence and tied it in place with hay wire.

The girls swung only a few times. They had been gone a long while.

Jenny and Kelli left quickly, waving to their new found friends.

The Spruce girl was thinking that she should not have stayed so long. Fear of what her parents would say seemed to envelope her.

"Kelli, I better hurry home," she said. "Daddy didn't want me to ride anyway and he will be mad. He probably is angry already."

"I hope he takes it easy," Kelli returned.

"Kelli, I wish I had stayed in Heaven," said Jenny. "It is so hard to be happy here on earth. Do you think Daddy will ever become a christian?"

"I think so," replied Kelli, "if we keep praying for him. He sure does need to know Jesus."

When Jenny arrived home, there was Daddy on the stoop holding a can of beer in his hand. He did not look very kind.

"Girl, you didn't listen to your mother!" he growled. "She told you not to be gone long and look at you coming late. Now go to your room and don't you come down until I tell you that you can. Going to Heaven don't give you any extra priviledges in Fernville!

Then Mr. Spruce slapped his daughter.

Jenny ran upstairs to her room and began to cry.

Jenny lay across her bed thinking - I never meant to stay so long but everything was so interesting out there at Mrs. Rosella's house. Jesus, I wish I could have stayed with you in the homeland. Daddy seems to get meaner all the time. I just don't understand!