Early

Harvest
by Bienvenido Santos

Characters
Japanese
soldiers
Selmo
Cario
Selmo's father
Selmo's
mother
maid

Nena
Nonoy
Marta
Bundio
Tiong Matias
Father Julian
Celo

Plot
The story took place in a time where
Japanese invaded the country,
Philippines. Albay is a province in
Philippines and the life there was not
what it really was when the Japanese
came. Cario is a man from a family who
was featured in this story. He was never
home because he went out to fight the
Japanese. That made their Mother,
Father and his wife, Nena sad. Nena's
grief had made her grown pale.

Plot
Life was so different for Selmo (Cario's
brother) when the Japanese came.
Market was full of people selling all kinds
of stuffs, people walking around and
buying something and when Christmas
season came, how they prepare for the
decorations and practice Christmas
songs. There's not much fun any more.
All they experience then was shooting in
the town and cruelties of the Japanese.
The Japanese is quite a bad news to the
people, they kill people and took away
their harvest and left them with nothing.

Plot
Selmo hated Japanese for it was
because of them that he could not be
in school anymore, read books and
sing sweet songs. It was always a bad
dream to him as he wake up crying
and running to his mother.

Plot
Their little barrio became quite different
when Father Julian who was an American
priest came. Days rose in hopes as he said
mass to the people, lots were baptized,
there were confessions going on, he gave
words of wisdom when the people don't
know what to do anymore... He was like a
saint in the barrio. The people was always
good to him, they gave him food which
was not even enough from them and
protected him from the enemy. Father
Julian felt great love from the people.
From those deeds, he knew God will
reward these people.

Plot
Cario left home and never came back
and stayed there like he lived there but
he comes home every now and then. He
would sneak into the house at night and
would leave that night too. Cario is a
leader of men, fighting the Japanese
bringing on killing & bloodshed made
them worried about Cario. His mother
didn't want this for him but that's the
only way. They had to fight for their
fellowmen.

Plot
Their little barrio became quite different
when Father Julian who was an American
priest came. Days rose in hopes as he said
mass to the people, lots were baptized,
there were confessions going on, he gave
words of wisdom when the people don't
know what to do anymore... He was like a
saint in the barrio. The people was always
good to him, they gave him food which
was not even enough from them and
protected him from the enemy. Father
Julian felt great love from the people.
From those deeds, he knew God will
reward these people.

Plot
Cario left home and never came back
and stayed there like he lived there but
he comes home every now and then. He
would sneak into the house at night and
would leave that night too. Cario is a
leader of men, fighting the Japanese
bringing on killing & bloodshed made
them worried about Cario. His mother
didn't want this for him but that's the
only way. They had to fight for their
fellowmen.

Plot
There was that time when the people
lost hope and had not planting
anything on the fields but Father
Julian encouraged them. So they
planted. The Japanese would come
every now and then to check on the
crops. People knew they would come
back and get their harvest. So they
mentioned that the Wednesday was
the harvest day.

Plot
The people had a plan. They harvested before
the said date and rain came after. They knew
that the Japanese would come to get their
harvest so they were so worried of what might
the Japanese do to them when they see the
harvest was gone. Father Julian was there to
help the people spiritually, prayers are always a
great help. Indeed. people prayed. The Japanese
didn't came back. That's good news to them.
Good thing it kept on raining after the harvest
day, they could say that flood just swept it
away. That made everyone so happy. They feel
like they won over the Japanese.

Moral Lesson
In times of despair and situations
when you couldn't handle the
problems, never lose hope because
God will never leave us, he is always
there to help us. Sometimes faith
would be a great weapon when
theres nothing left to do, prayer is
powerful. The faith within you gives
you hope and courage to face any
problem that comes along.