"In the early spring of 1937 we moved back to Taos Junction, New Mexico...Our new home was a 4-room house surrounded with pinon and cedar trees and also plenty of sagebrush in our frontier country. Our house was about a half-mile from the little town of Taos Junction, which had two small stores, a post office, the railroad station, and a Conoco service station.
Each school day our four children, June, Christine, Dale and Dean walked one-fourth of a mile to the highway and rode the school bus 12 miles each way to school at Ojo Caliente, New Mexico.... (there were also two younger children at home).
We had two milk cows and each had a bell around her neck. We also had 37 head of range cows and calves that pastured around anywhere they could find something to eat, but never went away too far.
The four children got off the school bus at the Post Office. Two of them would go for the cows, and two came home, taking turns. It had been snowing all day and the snow was about two feet deep. (Their dad) had been working in Phoenix all winter.
I had worried all day about my children and this cold evening it was Christine and Dale's turn to bring in the cows. June and Dean were to get in wood, feed the chickens and do other chores.
I waited anxiously for the jingle of the cowbells until the sun was going down, and I was worried and could stay home no longer. The snow in the pinon and cedar trees was above the kids' knees and out in the timber everything looked alike, so I was afraid they were lost. I bundled up and started out but could hear or see nothing but snow and trees. I walked into town very concerned.
It was getting quite dark as I hurried up the path to the house with a prayer in my heart that Christine and Dale would be there, but if they weren't, what would I do? Entering the door I could see only June and the three little ones so I couldn't hold the tears back any longer. It took only one sob until my two "lost babes in the woods" came out of hiding from behind the couch where they had hid just for fun, not realizing how anxious and worried I was.
Tears turned to laughter, as I took them in my arms. They were very cold and the cowbells were filled with ice and made not a sound. I had prayed for the safety of Christine and Dale and they had prayed to find the cows and to get home safely. Their prayers were heard by Heavenly Father and they were guided to find the cows and the cows knew the way home or they could have been lost and would have frozen that night."
My mother Christine wrote this about her painting:
"You can count all the cows walking in the snow to the barn. Dale and I followed them as it was getting dark and we were in the forest unable to tell directions. The cows get the credit for saving our lives that very cold night. Heavenly Father answered Mother's prayers and ours, to help us find the cows and help us to return home safely. Do you see Dale and my footprints in the snow by the porch? The icicles are hanging off the roof, but June had a nice warm fire built and she lit the kerosene lamp so we could see the light in the windows."
"America the Beautiful: Joy in the Journey with Mother and Me", written by Christine Clarkson Kelly, p. 66.
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