The Ballad of Johnny Bell

<pre spellcheck=false>It's 1966 Christmas Day the Missouri Ozarks. Johnny Bell not quite sixteen is found in a snowdrift by a poor farm family named Ogletree. It seems he's an orphan but like many a Dickens character Johnny does have a heritage part of which is an instinct for hard work. He learns the value of friendship from a dairy goat named La a shrewd old hillbilly named Virgil and a humble ex-con named Clyde. He learns about religion from a well-meaning preacher who knew his father an evangelist who became a war hero. Through his agonized often comic travails Johnny finds an entry into the great world of love adventure and mystery. An earlier version of The Ballad of Johnny Bell was self-published as Goat Boy of the Ozarks in 2011.</pre>