 Ranger Bill, warrior of the woodland, struggling against extreme odds, traveling dangerous trails, showing rare courage in the face of disaster, in the air, on horseback, or in the screaming squad car. Ranger Bill, his mind alert, a ready smile, unswerving, loyal to his mission. And all this in exchange for the satisfaction and pride of a job well done. I say burr, I mean nothing else but burr with a capital B. I get the idea it's a little chilly outside. You get that impression, Bill? Yes, Bill, that's exactly what I was thinking. You suppose that anything to do with stumpies coming in here? Might have. How do you find the weather, old timer? I just go outside and there it is. And it's cold outside, that's what it is. It's so cold I can't even make my fingers work on these buttons. Help me out of this cold, will you, somebody? Here we go. Let's get the baby out of his wraps. I appreciate the help, even if I have to put up with the remarks. You have no pity on a man at all. There. Now you should be able to slide out of it. Sir, here. Slide right over to the stove to soak up a little heat. I can feel the life in my cold old bones trying to start up again. I'm not surprised that you're being cold, Stumpy. The thermometer reads 18 below out there. I'll have to admit it. I almost froze stiff on my way here this morning. Could have picked a better day to be this cold after the fall I had last night. Fall? That's right, sonny. I had a fall that put me right out for a couple hours. Did you slip on the ice or something? Nope. I fell asleep. Boy, it sure doesn't take you long to warm up, does it? I was thinking the same thing, Henry. Well, I'm sure glad we don't have to go out anywhere on a day like this. This is the first time as long as I can remember that I'm happy to sit in here in the nice warm station and do reports. I'll say. I don't even mind staying in here and cleaning the place up. Just so that stove doesn't give out. I think it's safe to assume that we'll be in here all day, fellas. You can be pretty sure that no one else wants to go out on a day like this. When people stay in, our job is made very simple. We might even have time after my hands warm up a little for a concert. You know, me and my harmonica. Oh, I think we'll be too busy for that, old timer. Oh, yeah. Way too busy. I'll probably be making all kinds of noise while I'm cleaning things up. See, you wouldn't want all that to be disturbing you. The way you, fellas, act you think you didn't appreciate the finer things in life like good music. This is probably the only chance you get to hear anything of a real artistic nature and you pass it right by. Oh, it's not the only chance I get. Oh? Sure. I have a friend at school who plays piano by ear. That ain't much. If I wanted to, I could fiddle with my whiskers. Sounds to me like you're about ready to get to work, Stumpy. I will be soon, Bill. I'm just starting to make out a little feeling down there in my toes. Well, it sounds like your mind is warmed up. It's probably that big furry cap you wear. I have to keep my head as warm as toast. You see, I got a little water on the brain. If it would freeze, everything would slip your mind. Oh, well, I still ain't doing too badly, two out of three. Henry, you there? Right over here. Hi, Freddie. I couldn't see you. My glasses steamed up as soon as I opened the door. Hi, Ranger Bill, Stumpy. Hello, Freddie. Howdy, Freddie. Stomp the snow off your boots and come on over, closer to the stove. Ah, that field, that fire feels real good. What are you doing out on a cold day like today, Freddie? That's what I was wondering. You sure you feel all right? I just wondered if you wanted to go fishing today. Fishing? No, I know we're sick. No, I'm not Stumpy. I mean ice fishing. Over on the Shady River. It's been frozen solid for a week now. And I saw a couple of men going down there this morning. It's lots of fun. Lots of cold fun. It's supposed to get warmer later on this morning. So we won't really freeze. Besides, we can make a little fire right there on the river. That's what everybody else does. It does sound like it'd be fun. I have to do a few things here in the Ranger Station for a little while, but... You want to go ahead, pal? It's all right. You can clean this place up tomorrow. As long as you can be sure to do it then. Oh, sure, Bill. I'll do it. Okay, Freddie, wait till I get my things on. And we'll go down to the Shady River and see if we can find any fish. What's so funny, Stumpy? I was just remembering a couple of fellas who went fishing on the Shady last summer. Well, what about them? Well, I overheard them talking on their way up from the boathouse. And one of them was saying, did you mark that place real well where the fish were biting? I have a feeling this is one from Stumpy's endless pile of jokes. What did the other fellas say? He said, oh, sure, I put a big X right on the side of the boat. That sure was stupid. That's what his friend told him. He says, how do you even know you're going to get the same boat next time? I'm all set to go. Thanks for letting me just take off like this, Bill. Well, that's all right, pal. Don't freeze yourself. Oh, we'll try not to. Maybe later this afternoon we'll drive over and see how you're doing. Have a good time. I figure, Frankie, they're going to chase us right up the river. They know we came this way. That's okay, Billy. We got a good head start on them, and some of them don't know we have sleds. Boy, it sure is fun playing chase when the river's all frozen this way. Sure is. Hey, I got an idea how we can really stop them for a while. How? Well, after we get up the river a little way, let's chop up the ice a little bit. They'll be coming this way anyhow, and then when they see the ice all chopped up, they'll be afraid to go on it. Hey, that's good. They'll have to go up the bank there, and the snow's so deep it'll take them a lot longer to come after us. Yeah. Or let's get moving upstream. Maybe we can start chopping ice up around the next bend. Hey, hey, look. Here comes somebody. Oh, it's a couple of the high school kids. Hey, it's Henry and Freddie. Hi, Henry and Freddie. How are you two up to? We're playing chase with some other kids. Chase? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they give us a good head start, and then they try to catch us way, way ahead of them, because we have sleds, and that's lots faster. Where are you going to run to? Well, we're running up the river a little ways. There's some good woods to hide in up there. I don't know if that's too good an idea. The shady river's pretty tricky up in that direction. It's all frozen over. What do you mean? Well, when a river has some tricky places like that, sometimes they don't freeze over as well as more quiet places. It might not be so safe. It's okay, Spars, we're going. I see people walking around on it up there all the time. Well, you kids better watch your step. Sure would be awful to fall through that ice. What are you guys doing out here on the river? We're going to do a little ice fishing. Hey, that sounds neat. Want to stay up here and help us? No, we got to get going. Those other kids might be even closer than we thought. We'll see you later though, and see if you caught anything. Okay. Come on, Freddie, let's get going. And come on, Freddie, let's us get going. If there are any fish down under here, they won't just wait around. I'll start chipping out the hole while you get the equipment ready and start a fire. Here comes a car out on the river. It's the rangers' car. I guess Bill and Stumpy are going to pay us a visit like they said. It sure is funny. Any other time of the year, if a car came out into the water, it'd take weeks to pull it out. But now the ice is thick enough to handle all that weight. It's amazing, all right. Well, they sure are driving slow. Did you ever try to slam on the brakes on solid ice? I guess you can't stop, huh? A lot of folks have enough trouble with just a coating of ice on the regular streets. Bill's a careful driver. He better be. He's a pretty important man. Well, how are you two fishermen doing today? Catch anything? Hi, Bill, Stumpy. We haven't caught a lot, but it looks like it might be picking up a bit. Yeah, we should have stayed home this morning and just come out this afternoon. Oh, I should have told you about that. What do you mean? In cold days, the fish usually stay as near to the bottom and as inactive as possible. In the afternoon, when the sun has had a chance to warm the water a bit, they start becoming more interested in bait. That's sure the way it worked today. Looks like you caught a couple of good ones, though. You should have seen the size of the one that got away. You young whipper snapper. You're too young to start fiddling about the size of fishes that got away. I was just joking with you, Stumpy. I know you were. It reminds me of a fella around those parts who was notorious for how big he said the fishes he caught were. And nobody ever believed him, so one day he decided to get a set of scales and weigh every fish he caught in front of witnesses. What happened? Well, he caught some pretty heavy fish those days, until one day a neighbor of his had a new baby and the doctor wanted to borrow his scales to weigh the little fella. Uh-oh. You guessed it. A brand new one to this fisherman's scales weighed 47 pounds. Whoa. I haven't seen too many others out here on the river today. Too cold for everyone, but the heartiest, I suppose. Oh, that's us. We haven't seen too many people either, except those kids this morning. Uh, kids? Yeah, there were a couple of kids out here playing what they called chase. They were running ahead of some others who were supposed to be following them. We never did see the others. I guess with the river frozen like this, every boy in Naughty Pine will be out here sooner or later. I was a little worried about them, Bill. They were heading up the river a ways. Said they wanted to hide in the woods up in that direction. They could have saved themselves the trouble. Nobody even came by looking for them. Did they say how far up the river they were planning to go? No, but I warned them about the danger of thin ice up beyond the bend. Well, that was a good thing to do, pal. The ice never gets too thick, now that's part... The current is still swift through there. The current's pretty strong right under here, if you ask me. Really tugs at our lines, almost like a bite all the time. It's not nearly as tricky as up a ways, Freddie. There are a number of cross currents that work against each other and make ice formation a hard job. Those boys haven't come back yet, huh? No, at least not this way. How long ago did they go in that direction? I don't know. It was some time this morning. They were here when we first got here. Remember, Henry? That's right. It don't sound good, sonny. That's exactly what I was thinking. Now, you all wait here. I think I'll drive up the ice a little ways and see if I can see any traces of him. Be careful that you don't go through the ice, Bill. I know this river pretty well by now, pal. Oh, I didn't mean to speak out of turn, Bill, but... All this talk about thin ice has got me a little edgy. I'll be right back, fellas. Boy, I sure hope nothing has happened to those kids. Well, there's no sense getting upset yet. Bill will be able to tell them more after he gets up around the bend. There's a good clear view of a good stretch of the river, including that thin part from there. There he goes around the bend. Well, the way the current is, if anyone did fall through the ice, he'd be carried downstream right away. How'd anybody ever know where to look for... What was that? He came from around the bend. Come on! Let's get up there and fast! I can't believe it. Here are the tracks leading right up to... to this big hole in the ice. Billy, you must have gone under. I don't see any tracks in the snow leading away from the hole. Oh, no. But how? The river was solid. Here comes somebody. Those two kids. I'm going back to town for help. You stay here and keep an eye out for Bill. We saw it. We saw their car go through the ice. Yeah. Yeah, we didn't mean to catch a car in our trap. Did you see if Bill got out? Nobody got... Did you say Bill? Was Ranger Bill in there? Yeah. He was coming to look for you. We thought something might have happened to you. Ranger Bill was coming to find us. And he fell through the ice. Oh, Billy, I'm scared. You guys are sure acting like you know something about this that we don't. That's what I was thinking. What is it? Nothing. We don't know nothing. What's that? Maybe it's... I don't know. It's just some big bubbles from the car. Bill must have sat in it as long as he could. It's pretty airtight, you know. Those bubbles mean that he's gotten out into that icy water. Maybe he'll come to the surface. Unless? Unless what? Unless that strong current drags him downstream. If that happens... He won't be able to come up. This ice all along the top. I don't see any signs of him. I hate to say it, Henry. But I think Bill is probably dead. We killed him, Frankie. What? We killed him, Frankie, and me. We chopped up that ice so the other guys wouldn't be able to follow us. He didn't see it and drove right on to it. We killed Ranger Bill. Ranger Station, Stumped Jenkins speaking. Oh, hello, Cal. Any news? He did. Empty, huh? No. Well, he's a poor fellow, all right. Hey, is that about Bill? Huh? No, Cal. Henry just came in. He thought we were talking about Bill. Well, thanks, Cal. I know. I know. You all did the best you could. Uh-huh. That's the way we figured it to. Thanks, Cal. Bye. What did he say? He sent down a diver to see what he could find. And? He found the car all right, but the door was open and there was no one in it. Bill must have tried to swim to the top. Well, who was that you were talking about when you asked if he was all right? The diver. It appears that the cold water was too hard on him. Even through that rubber suit they were. He took the poor fellow to the hospital to see if he's all right. Bill didn't even have a rubber suit on when he went down there. Just his regular clothes, except his coat. He didn't even have that, Henry. The diver found his coat still in the car. Now, Cal figures Bill must have taken it off while he was in there so as he could swim easier. Right? Didn't seem too much good. He must have swam to the top, but come up where there was ice on the river. It'd be impossible to push away through it without anything to brace yourself against. Stumpy? Stumpy? Oh, easy, Henry, easy. Things like this happen all the time to folks. We gotta remember that Bill was a Christian. What happens to him is all according to what God has in mind. I know it ain't easy at a time like this, but you gotta expect it to happen to all of us sooner or later. But how? Look how it happened. Bill's been in lots more dangerous places. How about all the forest fires he's battled, or the wild animals? Why, this way, a couple of kids chop up ice to trap their friends and it catches and kills the greatest guy around. Those stupid kids. What did they have to go and do a thing like that for? How don't go using them boys' escape, goats, Henry? Sure, they did the wrong thing. They may even have to face some sort of charges for it. But if you really believe that God orders a Christian's life, you can be hostile toward them. What I think we ought to do is to pray for them. For those kids? That's right. Imagine how they must feel, knowing that a little bit of bad thinking in their part took Bill's life. I... I can't pray for them. Stumpy, I can't. Not after what they did. Hello, Ranger Station, Stumpy Jenkins speaking. Oh, hello, Mrs. Yates. I know, ma'am, nothing has turned up at all. Hope? Well, I'm afraid it's too late for that. It's been two days since accident. Well, I don't know, ma'am. Well, I'm sure he is. Well, thank you for calling. Bye. Who was that? That was Frankie Yates' mother. She was just wondering if anything had turned up. Hmm. I just don't know how to begin it. I've been sitting here staring at this thing for almost a day and I just don't know where to start. What is it, Stumpy? This report blank. I know I have to report Bill's death in the usual way, but I just don't know how to say what happened. Just say a couple of stupid kids went out where they shouldn't have been and chopped the ice up, and say that when Bill went out after them to see if they were all right, he went through the ice, they chopped, and that's that. You know, Henry, Bill's death is hard enough to take, but what makes it even harder is the way you are about it. They killed him, didn't they? They even said so themselves. Henry, do you remember those five missionaries that were killed by them Indians in South America a few years ago? Sure. Tell me what you remember about that. They went down there to work with them and they were killed. Did you get all angry at those Indians when you heard about it? Well, no, they didn't really know what they were doing. Besides, God used their death to do some people a lot of good. Those books that have come out about them and the Indians that have become Christians since. But that's a lot different than this. You can see some kind of purpose in all of that. I mean, sure, it was hard to take right away, but you can see all the good God used at four cents. How different is it from this? Don't you think that the folks who were close to those spellers were asking questions of God pretty hard at that time? Don't you think they thought it was a big waste? That it was stupid? I guess maybe they did. I don't know. Of course they did. What I'm trying to say, Henry, is that everything that happens to a Christian happens so that God can show something more about himself, about Christ. I don't see anything like that in this. You don't? Well, look at the way you are right now. Angry, unforgiving. You might just well not even know who Jesus Christ is. That's pretty strong talk, Stumpy. You're putting out a pretty strong attitude, Sonny. I guess Bill wouldn't feel the way I do, would he? And even more important, neither would Jesus. Oh, God. I admit to you that I really am angry at those fellows who chopped up that ice. I think they killed Bill, and I can't seem to forgive them. I guess maybe I'm wrong. In fact, I know I'm wrong in this, but it still isn't easy to feel differently about it. Anyhow, I pray that you will be with those two fellows. They must be feeling pretty bad about it all. If it's possible, show them yourself in it and help them to understand your love to us all. Help me to understand it, too. I pray in the name of Jesus who was killed for us all. Amen. Henry, if there's anything that the Lord encourages in all of us, it's honesty. When you tell him how you really feel, he can work with you in truth. Is this the Ranger headquarters? That's right. Good. Is this where a Ranger by the name of Jefferson belongs? That's right, but he's... You'd better let me finish that sentence, kid. I think I probably know more about it than you do. What's on your mind, Mr? Well, I'm out hunting, see? Downstreamed from town, little ways. You probably know where my shack is, right near the Shadia River. There's a couple of hunter shacks down that way. One of them's mine. Anyhow, a couple of days ago, I heard this kind of thump against my door. When I opened it, there's this Ranger just about froze to death. He was all covered with ice. A pretty blue one found him. He looked like he'd come right up out of the river. Well, as it turns out, that's what his name is. I know, because I looked at his identification. Well, I've been with him for about two days, trying to keep him alive. He ain't come too yet, but finally, a few hours ago, he started sleeping normal. I didn't think you ought to be moved, so I had one of the other hunters watch him while I come to tell you. He's in pretty bad shape, and I reckon he'll pull through. Bill's alive! Thank you, God. Thank you. And now that you're here in the hospital, it shouldn't be any time at all until you're up and around. Seems as though I feel better every hour, especially since you fellas came to see me. You sure had us down, Bill. I can do without an experience like that again for a long time. Yeah, so can I, old am I. So can I. What I can't figure out is, how could you stay alive under the ice from all the way upstream of Naughty Pine to downstream that far? How did you breathe? It was a very swift current, Henry. Didn't take very long to cover that distance, although it seemed a lifetime. Even at that, Bill, no one could hold his breath that long, not in that cold water and after such a scare. Right, Bill? I must confess I had help. Help! When the car went through the ice, I stayed in it for a few minutes. The water didn't come in very fast and gave me a chance to catch my breath and think. That's when you took your coat off, huh? Oh, you found that, huh? Yeah, that's when I did it. The first thing I thought of, of course, was to swim to the top, out through the hole the car made going through. I was sure you would heard the crash and would be on your way. Then I remembered the strong current, figured that I might not be able to make it to the hole. Boy, that's when I would have given up. I know what you mean, pal. I had the same feelings exactly, until I remembered. Remembered what? When water freezes, it expands. When water freezes over a river or lake, the ice pulls itself up just a little from the water, leaving a small layer of air between the water and the ice. All I did was to swim to the top. Wherever I came up, I gulped in quick breaths of air. I don't know how much water I swallowed along with the air, but the gasps kept me breathing until I came up under some very thin ice. I broke through, crawled to the shore, saw that hunter's cabin and started crawling toward it. And that's all I remember. But that's not all Henry remembers about this adventure, boys and girls. He remembers how God used my near death to teach him a lesson of honesty and forgiveness. I hope you'll remember that part of it, too. We'll see you next week for more adventure with... Ranger!