Danny Orlis Goes to School (9 page)

"Aw, now, Peg," Eric said awkwardly. "Don't cry like that."

She tried to speak, but could not. Finally she got to her feet and fled.

"Here," Eric snapped to Danny as he threw fifty cents on the table, "pay the check!"

Danny hurried home as fast as he could, his heart still pounding with excitement. To think a tract he had given out had brought Peggy to the place where she saw that she needed a Saviour! If only he could have talked with her for another ten minutes!

Larry too had been challenged by the message of Christ. Conviction had been written on his face as he hurried out of the church after youth group. Danny started to walk a little faster. If he could just get to talk to his cousin before he got to sleep!

The young woodsman intended to talk to Larry. When he walked up on the porch, Uncle Claude and Aunt Lydia were sitting in the living room talking with Larry.

The next morning Danny planned on walking to school with Larry, but Uncle Claude took Larry downtown with him to some lawyer's office. When he reached the schoolhouse a few minutes before the final bell, he found Eric Tanner waiting for him.

"I want to talk to you, Orlis," the lanky basketball star began.

"Sure thing."

Eric took Danny's arm and guided him off to one side. "Listen." he said harshly, "If you tell anyone what happened in the drugstore last night, I'll slug you."

"You don't need to worry," Danny said quickly. "I won't say a thing."

Larry came back to school after lunch, but the superintendent called him out of class about half-past one, and Danny didn't see him the rest of the afternoon. When the young woodsman finally got home after school, Larry was there alone, but he was in no mood to talk about spiritual things.

"Dad and I went down to the lawyer's office this morning," his cousin said uncertainly. "He said that I don't have a chance unless we can get you to testify for us. He said that I'm as good as in the reformatory right now." Tears flooded Larry's eyes. "It won't make any difference whether I go to church or become a Christian, I'm going to the reformatory anyway."

For two or three minutes Danny sat there staring at his cousin. He couldn't let that happen! He just couldn't!

"You don't need to worry, Larry," he said softly, every word burning his lips. "I'll testify the way you want me to!"

“
That's the price we have to pay for sin.”

BUFF'S REBUKE

"
D
O
you mean that you'll do it?" Larry asked as though he could scarcely believe what he had just heard Danny say.

The young woodsman nodded numbly. "I know I shouldn't, Larry," he managed, "but I will. I'll tell them you weren't using the sending set."

Now he had done it. He had promised Larry that he'd lie for him. He felt sick and weak inside. He had promised to lie!

"Oh, boy!" Larry exclaimed, the words tumbling out excitedly. "I don't know how I can ever thank you, Danny. I'll do anything. I'll go to church and Sunday school with you. I'll read my Bible and pray and everything. You just don't know what this means to me!"

The young woodsman grinned at him feebly. His throat was tight and dry, and that dull ache had come back to his heart again as he realized a little more what he had promised to do. But at least Larry would go to church with him now, where he'd hear about the Lord Jesus who died to save him from sin. He'd be getting acquainted with more Christian kids and associating with them and seeing that Christ really made a change in a guy's life.

And yet Danny didn't get to sleep until after four the next morning. Every time he closed his eyes he saw a judge in a long black robe standing and pointing at him. "You told a lie!" he was saying. "You were under oath, and you lied!"

The trial had been set for the fifteenth of the following month to give Joe a chance to recover enough to get out of the hospital so he could testify.

"At first I was glad they had set the trial so far ahead," Larry confided, "but now I wish we could have it over with, now that I know what you're going to say on the stand."

Danny winced a little at that.

Larry kept his word about going to church regularly. He was the first one ready for Sunday school and even suggested staying for church on Sunday night.

"I didn't have any idea it would be so much fun to go to church, Danny," he said. "It's really great."

"The important thing is to take Christ as your personal Saviour, Larry," Danny said. "That's what church is all about. Just going on Sunday without becoming a real, born-again Christian isn't enough."

"I know," Larry said. "But I'm not ready to become a Christian yet."

"When will you be ready?" Danny asked seriously.

"Don't worry," Larry replied, smirking. "I'll let you know."

At the youth group the following week the young woodsman was happy to see that Peggy was there. She had been out to Sunday school and church with Eric, but now she was back for the Thursday night youth meeting alone. She stood at the back of the room and looked over the group, then came and sat down beside Danny.

Once again it seemed as though the program was meant just for her. She sat on the edge of her seat, her eyes glued to the faces of those who testified.

Mary Carpenter, who was a junior too, gave her testimony, telling how happy she had been since she had given her heart to Jesus. Dick Brand was next. He told how being a Christian had helped him to solve his personal problems.

"God doesn't promise any of us an easy life just because we take Him as our Saviour," Dick concluded. "But He does promise to help us work things out for ourselves and give us strength and courage. I've found that out from experience."

The speaker spoke on the privileges of Christians, and Peggy's eyes were glistening through the tears by the time he finished. When the meeting was over, she touched Danny on the arm.

"Danny," she almost whispered, "I can't stand it any longer. I...I've got to take Christ as my Saviour. Can you help me?"

"Just a minute," he whispered back. In a moment or two he returned with Mary Carpenter, a pretty, round-faced girl with a happy smile.

"You know Mary, don't you?" he asked.

Peggy nodded. "I guess I should," she said hesitantly. "I've made fun of you for your Christian stand often enough, Mary."

"A lot of people have made fun of me," Mary said simply as the three of them went into a little room in one corner of the church basement where they could be alone.

"I think I secretly envied you even when I made so much fun of you," Peggy went on, "because you seemed so happy and everything. You had something that I didn't have; I knew that."

"But you can have it, Peggy," Mary said gently. "All you have to do is to open your heart and let Jesus come in."

They sat around one of the Sunday school tables, and Mary very slowly and carefully explained the plan of salvation. She used her Bible to show Peggy that the Word of God says no one can live a life that is good enough to get him to Heaven, that the only way we can be saved is to confess that we are sinners and need a Saviour and then put our trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation. When she finished, they knelt beside the table, and Peggy poured out her heart to Jesus.

Danny felt a warm glow inside. To think that this had come about because he had dared to take a few tracts to school and distribute them! The next morning he was going out of the house, his pockets filled with tracts, when Buff Gordon walked past.

"Hi, Danny, buddy," Buff said, his voice so warm and friendly that it surprised the young woodsman.

By this time they had walked a block or so from the house.

"Here," Buff said, "have a cigarette with me. Nobody'll see us way out here."

Danny shook his head. "I don't smoke."

"Come on now," Buff replied. "Don't give me that stuff. You aren't such a lily-white angel as all that."

"But I am a Christian," Danny answered, trying to keep his temper. "And I feel that it's best for a Christian not to smoke."

With that he reached in his pocket and handed Buff a tract.

"I'd like to have you read this some time," he said. "It explains what it means to be a Christian and tells you how to become one."

Buff Gordon stopped on the sidewalk and read part of the tract while the young woodsman stood there praying. Then a sarcastic little smile twisted the older boy's face.

"You think you're pretty holy, don't you, Danny boy?" he said slowly. "But I know what kind of a guy you are. I was talking to Larry last night, and he told me how you've promised to lie for him at the trial!"

A GOOD TURN FOR A FRIEND

S
OMEHOW
Danny Orlis got through the morning classes. Buff's bitter accusation kept ringing in his ears. "I know what kind of a guy you are," Buff had said. "I know what kind of a guy you are, Danny Orlis!"

The young woodsman was still quivering inside. To think that he had tried to tell Buff what a change becoming a Christian made in a guy. He tried to explain to him that being born again took away all the old, evil things and made him like new. He had even tried to testify about what Jesus had done for him. And all the time Buff had known how unclean he really was. Buff knew that he had promised to lie for Larry. It was no wonder he laughed when Danny tried to talk to him about the Lord.

What was the quotation his dad always used? "What you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say." Danny had never known how true that was until now.

He could still see big Buff Gordon standing there, his hands in his pockets, a superior, egotistical grin on his face. How could he make Buff see that taking Christ really changed a person? How could he make him know that becoming a Christian really meant something? He sat there miserably and waited for the period to end.

When Danny came home that night for supper, there was a telephone call waiting for him.

"It's some girl, Danny," Uncle Claude said, smiling.

The young woodsman's face flushed.

"She certainly did sound nice, though," Uncle Claude went on.

"Now you hush that, Claude," Aunt Lydia scolded. "Don't pay any attention to him, Danny. You were supposed to call her back as soon as you got home."

Blushing furiously Danny went into the other room and called the number. It was Peggy.

"I've just got to talk to you, Danny," she said. "Could you meet me at the drugstore about eight o' clock?"

The whole family demanded to know all about it and razzed him unmercifully at the supper table.

The young woodsman got to the drugstore a little early, but Peggy was already there waiting for him. He saw, even before she spoke, that she had been crying.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Danny," she said, her voice trembling, "but I just had to talk to someone."

"That's all right," he told her. The waitress came up, and they ordered malts. "If I can help you, I'd certainly be glad."

"It's about Eric," she said. "Ever since I became a Christian, he's been making fun of me."

"That's something we just have to learn to live with," he said.

"Oh, it isn't that I care about that," she said quickly. "It doesn't bother me at all to be laughed at because I've given my heart to Jesus. It's just that Eric is the one who does it."

"I see."

"I want him to be a Christian so badly," she said. She had picked up one of her straws and was pulling it to pieces nervously. "I've been talking to him and trying to get him to go to church with me, but it doesn't do any good. Everything I do seems to drive him farther away."

Danny nodded. He could still remember the scowl on Eric's face that other time when they had sat in the drugstore talking about the things of Christ, and the following day at school when the older guy had cornered him and threatened him to secrecy.

"Danny," Peggy said desperately, "I know it's asking an awful lot of you, but would you talk to him for me? Would you talk to him about Jesus?"

Danny started to agree quickly, then stopped. How long would Eric listen to him if he knew what Danny was planning to do at Larry's trial? How long would Eric listen if he knew that even while Danny was talking to him he was planning to lie under oath to help save his cousin from the reformatory?

"I'll see what I can do," Danny said lamely. "Eric doesn't seem to like me too well, but I'll try to talk to him."

"Oh, thank you, Danny," she replied. The tears were hanging now on the tips of her eyelashes. "I'll be praying for you all the time and for Eric too."

The next few days at school passed in a whirl of activity, so much that Danny scarcely had time to think about Eric or Larry either. They were taking exams again, and the young woodsman hadn't been doing too well in General Science.

"If you don't get a good grade on this test, Danny," the instructor told him, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to give you a mighty poor grade for the quarter."

Steve Hanson, the "science brain" of Danny's class, came up to him that evening after school.