My grandfather loved two things beyond all else: the sound of rain that comes in the night and sleeping in a feather bed. His greatest joy was when the two came together.

When I was a child in my grandfather's house, there were summer nights when I would wake to hear him shuffling blindly though the kitchen. I would rise to see him, clad in his white long johns, climbing the narrow attic steps. Sometimes, I would follow and find him deep in the old feather bed by the window.

"Hush, now. Don't talk, just listen," he would say. I would creep through the warm darkness where, what seemed like thousands of wasp, alarmed by our presence, droned about and bumbled on the old dusty windows.

"They wont bother you if you leave them alone. Now lay still."

I would climb in the bed and curl against his body, listening to the rain sifting through the branches of the big oak trees, pattering on the tin roof of the house, and dripping into buckets and cans. My grandfather actu

ally placed objects around the house to catch the drip from the eaves. I remember the soft "doc, doc," from an old bucket, the "ting," ting," of the rusty cans and the faint drumming of the shingled roof, all blended into a symphony of percussions.

A loud gurgling came form the branch. We could see muddy water lapping at the foot-log. Our little branch was turning into a creek! When the beam was directed toward Painter Knob, it didn't go far. The rain was so thick we couldn't see across the yard.

"Honeysuckle and Jimson Weed," I say. "Jerusalem oak seed."

"Jerusalem oak seed, he would whisper.

It's just amazing to think about that. I have been back several times since then to visit the old house since grandma and grandpa are gone now. The attic is still up there, still filled with what is probably millions of wasp and forgotten relics, but the one I dream about most is the featherbed (gone now) and the soft rain and the warmth of my grandfather's body - and the sense of security that he gave me in the warm darkness. Sometimes o

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 709
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)