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by Jim Taylor
Well sir, it’s a long story and it starts with us getting run off our farm. It’s not something I am proud of, but I am too old to be bound by pride and it’s a fact that this is how our story came to be. We had started on the trip with nothing. Well, almost nothing. Ma had her cooking stuff and Pap had his rifle, his plow, the wagon and the mules. We also had a cow and one old sway-backed mare that I was riding. The wagon had pitiful little in it by way of household goods. My little brother and sister had basically the clothes on their back and I didn’t have much more. The two things I did have that I prized was my saddle and my Model 1866 Winchester. Pap he used nothing but his old Trapdoor Springfield. He said that it worked right well for him and he didn’t need no newfangled repeating rifle. Besides, all he needed was one shot! Our farm had gone belly up during the drought and the bank had foreclosed. Pap cussed ‘em something fierce but they brought the Sheriff with ‘em when they came with the eviction notice. Pap had something of a reputation as a scrapper and they wasn’t taken no chances. Now let me say this is Pap’s defense: If they would have given him a chance and waited for weather to get crops in, Pap would’ve paid every cent he owed them. He was a hard worker and didn’t like to be beholden to any man. The fact that he kept us going longer than most any of the other farms in the area spoke of his persistence. But they was bound and determined to take the farm and take the farm they did, giving us 2 hours to clear out. And so we started the trip with almost nothing. I knowed Pap was mad and probably embarrassed. He didn’t say nothing, just set up there and drove the wagon. But his face was red and his jaw was set the whole time. My little brother and sister were wide-eyed, wondering what was going on, but they kept quiet in the back of the wagon. I seen Ma had tears in her eyes when we pulled out of the farm. Twelve years we had lived there. Both my brother and sister were borned there. It was a powerful lot of memories to leave behind. She never said nothing, just set her face forward and never looked back. Ma was a tough lady. She was by herself when my brother came to birth. She had hoed the corn and got in firewood and water even when the pains was on her. After he was born she cleaned him up, suckled him and then got up and milked the cow. It had to be done and she done it and never complained one bit. When my sister was born Pap called in a mid-wife and Ma chided him for wasting the money. Pap just smiled, knowing that deep down she really enjoyed the attention. It was just her way. She would never let on that it was comforting to have the help. And so we rode away from the farm we had called home. Ma sat straight-backed on the wagon seat besides Pap and never looked back, even though I saw that she shed some tears. It was her and Pap’s way. They had told us kids more than once, “When life hands you a tough job, face it head-on and don’t back up.” I knowed Ma had her Bible in the wagon with her. She had read us the story of old Job more times than not. She liked to tell us how Job never cussed God no matter how hard things got. Job went through some hard times, that was for sure. He had been given a hard trail to walk, but he walked it! I wasn’t positive that I could do as well as he did under those circumstances, but it kinda looked like we may have a chance to find out. I must confess I wasn’t especially excited about it. Me? I was 16 at the time and a growed man, though not as filled out as I would be in a few more years. But I had been doing a man’s work and holding a man’s responsibilities since I was 12. What schoolin’ we got Ma taught us since there wasn’t no school within a day’s travel. She taught us to cipher numbers, to read and write, and she and Pap taught us manners. Our reading book was mostly the Bible. We had a couple McGuffy’s Readers but they was for beginning readers. We had read them till we knowed them by heart. Books was hard to come by in those days. By the time I was 15 schooling was behind me and most my days was spent working. Now it wasn’t that I didn’t think of other things. I had come by an old dime novel about Buffalo Bill Cody and that little book sure set me to dreamin’! I laid awake at night working my way through that book, just plumb amazed by all his adventures. And it made me want to go out West and have some adventures myself. I mentioned to Pap that it sounded to me like there was good living to made out West without scratching in the ground but Pap looked at me like I was some kind of bug and said, “Working the ground is honest work, boy!” and that was the end of that. It didn’t stop me from thinking though. And now here we were, heading West! Those dreams that was just under the surface of my mind were beginning to boil. The thought of adventure began to over-ride the anger and shame of being forced out of our home. Who knew what lay ahead? That first day though it felt long was short one, we getting a late start and all. We camped that night by someone’s field where there was a pond to water our stock. I gathered wood and built a fire. Ma made up bedrolls for the kids and Pap saw to the stock that they had feed and water. The stars was bright overhead and the sky was clear when we bedded down, our first night on the trail. I must have been tired because it seemed like I had just gotten to sleep when Pap was stirring me saying “Get up sleepyhead.” I rolled out of my blankets and sat up rubbing my eyes. Pap had coffee going on the fire and it sure smelled good. We got an early start and rolled off West. The next couple weeks went by pretty much the same each day. We met a few folk along the way and once we stopped at a ranch for several days. They were getting hay in and said they needed some hands. Pap and I helped in the haying and they paid us in fresh eggs, fresh milk and some beef. We didn’t stay long and eventually we were moving West again. Pap had not said anything about where we were going and I didn’t ask. The country had changed from fairly flat lands to steep hills. When I commented on it Pap said it was the Flint Hill country and that we were somewhere’s in Kansas. It sure enough looked pretty but Pap never slowed down. It was evident he had somewheres else in mind. After the Flint Hill country the land flattened out again and it seemed you could look forever. Your eyes kinda got tired seeing so far. We made a swing toward the Southwest and pushed into some pretty dry country. Pap said it wouldn’t get any better and that we had to save water as much as possible for the stock. I had lost track of exactly how long we had been traveling but it was getting on a month and I began to wonder how long it would take us to get where ever it was we was going. The smell of coffee on the campfire woke me up early one morning. The sun was not up yet but Pap had coffee going. While I went about getting a cup Pap said, “I sure wish we had a dog.” It sounded kind of strange for Pap was never one for pets. When I looked at him sudden-like he said, “Last night I woke up and someone was nosing around. A good dog would have warned us before they got close.” I guess my mouth hung open for a second and then I said, “Why didn’t you wake me up?” “Well, cuz they lit out as soon as I got up.” Pap said. “No use to disturbing the whole camp if the problem was dealt with.” Then he looked at me serious-like and said, “Don’t you say nothing to your Ma.” and I said, “I won’t Pa.” That day went by slowly. We were on the trail shortly after sunrise and kept after it all day. Several times Pap told me to drive the wagon and took the horse and rode off on our back trail. He never said nothing when he came back but each time he looked serious. We stopped and made camp just about dark in a small valley that had a stream running through it. There was grass and trees and brush in the valley bottom and it looked right nice after weeks on the dusty flatlands. After supper Pap told me to get some sleep, that we were gonna take turns standing guard that night. When he woke me up it was about midnight. Pap showed me where to set so’s I could watch the camp but not be seen. He said that if anyone came skulking into camp, poking around, I was to shoot them right off. When I looked at him with wide eyes he said, “Listen boy, no person of good intentions comes sneaking into someone’s camp in the middle of night.” and let it go at that. I understood and taken my rifle I got set down in the brush while Pap went off to get some sleep. Watching the Big Dipper I figured an hour or so had gone by when faintly I heard a noise behind me. I sat really still, holding my breath and heard it again. Brush scraping on clothing! My heart was beating so loud in my ears I figured it musta sounded like a drum. Time passed and nothing. Then off to my left a shadow moved and there, about 10 yards away was someone in dark clothing, moving slowly around the camp. I could not get a good look at them because of the trees and brush. Mostly it looked like a shadow moving in between the trees. Whoever it was moved slowly away from me, sorta circling the camp until I couldn’t see them anymore. I waited and waited but nothing moved. I sat there, all wound up until the morning light showed a hint over on the eastern horizon. About that time I heard Pap stirring and I got up and went to meet him. When I told him about the visitor he never said yes, no or howdy. He just grabbed his old Springfield and went off into the brush. He looked around for a few minutes and then came back and began to build up the morning fire. As he was putting the coffee grounds on to boil he said, “I been watching our back trail. Noticed someone was following us. Ever time I went back to try and meet up with them, they stopped or cut off to the side to avoid me. I figure they are up to no good.” He went on to explain that in this desolate part of the country folks do not travel alone if they can help it. Someone traveling alone who does not want to meet up with other travelers has something serious on his mind. “What worries me”, he said, “is that this guy has been following us for several days now. I am afraid he is waiting to join up with someone he knows is up ahead of us. That could be serious for us.” I thought about it for a minute and then asked, “Pa, what would they want from us? We don’t have much.” Pa looked at me a minute and then said, “Well boy, first off, they don’t know that. For all they know we are some rich Yankee bankers. Second, when you don’t have nothing what we do have is a lot. And third, white women are scarce in this part of the world and are worth more than money sometimes.” Well that sorta hit me in the stomach. I had not thought about the women. I mean, thinking back on it now, my Ma was barely in her 30’s and my little sister was 10. Sis took after Ma with naturally curly blonde hair. And though I did not think of her as “pretty”, Ma was a nice looking woman. I just had never imagined there would be folks who would want to steal women. When I said as much, Pa looked me in the eye and said, “Son, you have been sheltered from the rougher things of life ‘til now. But we are heading into areas where there are lots of things you ain’t never heard of or thought about. You just remember that family comes before anything or anybody else.” and I said, “Yessir”. About that time Ma was getting out of the wagon and we changed the subject right quick. I know now that Ma was more aware of what was happening but she did not let on. It just wasn’t her way to join in on “men’s affairs”. Pap looked around told Ma that we were gonna camp here in this little grove for a couple days. There was plenty of water and we would do a little hunting to add to our stores. He said the next part of the trip would be a 2 or 3 day stretch with no water or game and that it would be best to rest the livestock before we pushed on. Ma said she could use the rest and besides, she needed to wash some things. There was grass and shade and it was comfortable here. My little brother and sister were told not to go out of sight and were soon running and playing in the trees. After breakfast Pap took me up on a nearby hill and we set up a place where we could watch the camp as well as the countryside. He said that while we were camped there one of us needed to be on the hilltop, watching, all day long. He was carrying a leather case with him that I had never seen before. Setting there he opened it up and took out a long thin brass telescope! I had never seen such a thing. When I asked him where he got it, he said that he had taken it off a Yankee officer during the war. The way he said it gave me the impression I should not ask any more questions about it. He stacked up 4 or 5 good-sized rocks and made a place to rest the telescope on them, using the leather case as a cradle for it. Setting down cross-legged he scanned the country. At one point I saw his back stiffen and said, “What is it Pa?” He motioned me to come and look, so I got down and squinted through the telescope. It took me some doing to figure out how to hold my eye to it and look through it, but I got the hang of it after a bit. Pap said, “Look to the left of them twin buttes. To the left about the width of your thumb.” I moved the telescope over and got lined up, wondering what I was looking for. After a bit I said, “It looks like smoke, Pa.” and he said, “It’s a campfire. About 2 miles away.” I looked again and then asked, “Is that the person who is following us?” and Pap nodded his head yes. “Keep an eye on all the country around us,” he said as he got up to head back down to camp. “I will come and relieve you in a couple hours.” Time drifted by slowly. I scanned the countryside with Pap’s telescope, marveling at how close it made things appear. Time to time I looked at the camp off by the twin buttes but could see nothing, not even smoke. About noon Pap came up and said he would watch for awhile. I told him about a herd of deer I had seen while scanning the countryside and he said, “Well go get us a deer. We can sure use the meat.” The country was rolling hills broken up with steep washed-out gullies and large ravines that could almost be called canyons. I worked my way toward the draw where I had last seen the herd of deer. There appeared to be 10 or 12 in the herd as far as I could tell when I saw them through the telescope. As I got nearer to the spot where I had seen the deer I slowed down and moved slowly, trying not to make noise. My footsteps seemed especially loud in my ears and every time I scraped a rock it sounded to me like I was making more noise than a herd of goats. I figured I had probably scared off every critter with a quarter mile. After 45 minutes or an hour of slipping around through the gullies and the brush I spotted some movement as I came up over a small rise. I stopped and stood completely still for several minutes, then eased forward, one slow step at a time. I had my rifle in both my hands ready for action. After moving maybe 20 or 30 feet I could make out the deer in front of me about 80 or 90 yards away. Ever so slowly I worked my way until I could clearly see the herd in front me. Directly in front of me was a nice large buck. Slightly to my left and a bit further away was a big doe. I slowly knelt down and lined the sights up on the doe, resting my left arm on my left knee. As the slights came into line on her chest I squeezed the trigger and at the shot the doe jumped slightly, looked around, then put her head down and walked towards a tree. The other deer had run off at the sudden noise and somehow I had missed seeing them go! The doe walked over to a large tree and lay down. As I watched her head wobbled, then fell over to the right and lay still. I stayed where I was for a few more minutes and watched a couple does sneak up to her, sniff around and then, scared-like, put their tails up and run off. We had fresh meat! I worked skinning the deer and then packed the head, hide and the meat back to camp in several trips. Ma was tickled to get the deer hide and set out to tan it using the brains from the deer. On my last trip packing the meat in I suddenly was aware that I was being watched. About that time I figured out it was Pap. He come down off’n a small hill and joined me. After a bit he offered to carry my rifle for me. It did make packing the meat in a mite easier. ”What was you doing Pa, watching me?” I asked. He looked at me a minute and said, “I figured if your shot was heard someone might come and see what was goin on. I wanted to make sure they wasn’t up to no good.” I thought about that some and later that night it hit me that Pap had sorta used me for bait! I felt strange about it at first but then it hit me funny-like and started me laughing. Pap was a cagey one for sure. No one was gonna put anything over on him very easy. We camped in the grove of trees for 4 days. It was peaceful, shady with plenty of water and both us and the livestock got a much-needed rest. Pap and I took turns guarding the camp at night, never staying guard in the same place. Going downstream I found where someone had brought a couple horses to water about a half mile below where we were camped. When I told Pap he said that whoever was on our back trail was still there and that he was snooping around, never coming in too close. Standing guard at night your eyes and ears tended to play tricks on you. Sometimes you saw things move that turned out to be trees. Once I saw a tree move. Rubbing my eyes I looked off to the side to get it in my side vision and it turned out to be a bear. It was going away from us and I did not abuse it of the idea. Late one night when the wind was laying soft I heard the sounds of a woman crying … far off. So far off and so faint I thought maybe I was just hearing noises. But that night I heard it several times .. or thought I did. The night played tricks on your senses and I was never sure. It coulda been a panther far off in the distance. The fourth night in camp Pap says, “Everyone up early in morning. We are heading for Californy!” Well that surprised me. It was the first time Pap said anything about where we was going. Now I had heard about California. It was the Land of Milk and Honey. A place where the soil was rich, land was easy to find and a person could make a fortune. I had no trouble staying awake on guard that night. In fact, I was so excited I could hardly get to sleep when Pap came and relieved me. California! The Land of Promise. We packed up camp and were moving before daylight. Pap said this next stretch of country was gonna be a hard one. We had desert to cross and many miles without water. We had our water barrels full and every pot and pan that could hold water in the jostling wagon. By the time the sun was up good we had climbed out of the hill country and dropped over onto what seemed an endless plain. It was brown, dusty and covered with scrub growth. Off in front of us you could not see more than 2 or three little stunted trees as far the horizon. It looked … scary. Desolate. Pap said it was the shortest route to the mountains and that once we crossed it we would be in country that had water and game. He said he had talked with people who had made the trip as guides and while they said it was a tough trip, it was one that could be done and that was enough for him. We did not stop for a noon meal and just kept moving. Several times we stopped and watered the stock. Ma gave each of us a cold potato to eat. She had baked them in the coals of campfire the day before. It was little enough but welcome. And we kept on. At dark we stopped, unhitched the mules and tied the cow, the horse and the mules to some scrub brush around the camp. Everyone was exhausted from the heat and the day’s travels. We turned in and I was immediately asleep. I dreamed that someone was calling me and woke up to find Pap shaking me. I sat up quickly asking him what was wrong. He said, “The cow’s missing!” He had heard a noise off to the opposite side of the camp. When he went to look someone has sneaked in and taken the cow! We brought the mules and the horse in close and tied them to the wagon and then sat awake the rest of the night. In the morning we found moccasin tracks around the camp and the place where we had tied the cow. I asked Pap if we were gonna go get the cow back but he just shook his head. “No use son. We run the risk of being killed. There’s more of them than of us. Besides, she’s probably butchered and on the campfire by now.” I could tell he felt bad about losing her. Even though she had dried up long back, she held the promise of starting over. Calves, fresh milk, butter. And now she was gone. It was just another blow. The next day was a repeat of the first. The endless horizon. The sun beating down. Dry and dusty. That night I saw the campfire. It was on the trail we had just come, maybe a mile or more away. When I pointed it out to Pap he said he had seen it the night before also. Whoever was doggin’ us was still at it. I could tell by the set of his jaw it was working on him. The third day crossing that desert was no better than the first two. Our water was starting to run low and we were thirsty all the time. The stock came first though, for without them we would surely not make it. When we made camp that night however, the tops of mountains could be seen on the far horizon! “One more day”, Pap said, “We will be to water and grass!” Somehow seeing those mountaintops and hearing Pap’s confidence made us all feel better. But when I saw that campfire in the distance behind us later that night the good feeling evaporated and a sense of dread that had been hiding someplace in my mind started working on me. And standing guard late that night I thought I could hear that woman crying again. It came to me that it might be a spirit, crying for what was gonna happen to us! And my stomach was in knots the rest of the night. We traveled toward them mountains all the next day. Ever so slowly they began to rise up out of the desert horizon. It sure was a welcome sight. About two hours before sundown Pap climbed down off the wagon and told Ma to drive on. We could see green in the distance and Pap said there was water there. He told Ma to make camp and we would catch up with her. We watched them move off and then Pap said, “Let’s walk over to that little hill there.” pointing to a small rise a hundred yards off. As we walked he said, “We had a visitor again last night.” That really surprised me and I said as much. “He’s a bold one,” Pap said. “He don’t mind coming right up to someone’s camp in the middle of night and nosing around. He’s up to no good and if we don’t take care of it he’s liable to have his way.” I sorta had that idea that Pap’s way of “taking care” of the situation wasn’t gonna be too good for this fella. We found us a comfortable spot among the boulders and scrub brush on the hillside and made us a nest. Pap lay down with his Springfield rifle, overlooking the trail we had just come down. I lay sorta behind him but off to the right where I could see the trail also. The sun was hot and my eyes kept slipping shut. I am not sure how long we laid there but sometime later I heard Pap suck in his breath and his boot nudged me. My eyes popped open and there, maybe a half mile away was a rider coming. He moved slowly, warily, looking at the country around him like he expected something to jump out. Ever so slowly he drew closer. When he was about 400 yards away I could make out a rifle over his knees. As I was looking at the rider I heard the “clack” of Pap cocking his Springfield. He had the sight raised up, the hammer was back and he was resting the rifle on his coat which was laying on a rock in front of him. The rider came on, maybe 350 yards now and Pap lay there looking at him through the sights. It seemed the longest time! He just lay there and looked through the sights and the rider kept coming and Pap kept looking through the sites and then suddenly the gun went off! I saw the rider topple backwards off his horse and then I heard a “WHOP” and I knew Pap had hit him solid. The rider’s horse spooked and run off back toward the way they had come, but the man just lay there. Pap and I also laid there, just watching. After what seemed like forever Pap said, “Let’s go boy.” and got up. Getting to my feet I asked, “Ain’t ya gonna go down there Pa?” and he said “Nope”. And that was that. We come down off the rocks and cut the trail that Ma had followed and started on our way to find her. Pap never said nothing, never looked back. I looked back once, seeing just a speck laying there in the desert. It was past dark when we found the camp. Ma was really happy to see us I could tell. I know she was worried but she never asked what happened. Pap just went about his chores as normal. Me, I was pretty worked up but tried not to show it. My little brother and sister were curious but they seemed to know something was up and kept quiet. I thought I would probably not be able to go to sleep, the vision of Pap making that shot and the guy falling off the horse kept playing around in my mind. But I suddenly found Pap shaking me awake, telling me it was midnight and I should stand watch. I almost asked him why there was a need but then thought better of it and kept my mouth shut. I had been guarding the camp about an hour when it began to bother me … that guy laying out there. I had to go take look! And so without thought to the possible consequences I lit out. I knew it was a mile or more but I also knew I could cover the ground pretty fast. The moon was bright enough I could easily recognize the hill where we had laid up. When I saw it I slowed down some but kept going. Soon I could see the dark shape on the ground. I approached him cautiously, circling to one side, but there was no need. He lay where he fell. I come up on him then and looked into the face of the man who had dogged us many days. He looked to be about 40, unshaven, scruffy-looking. Pap’s shot had taken him square in the brisket. I knelt down and started going through his pockets to see if he had anything on him. Inside his coat I found a wallet that was heavy. Opening it I could see it was full of gold coins! I slipped it into my pocket and kept on searching him. He had a Colt’s Army pistol on his belt and small two-edged dagger in his boot, but other than that there wasn’t nothing else on him. I sure was thankful the coyotes wasn’t at him yet. I taken the knife and the Colt’s pistol and then looked around for his rifle. It was laying some distance away and the stock was broken, probably by his horse when it bolted. The gun was an old Springfield Trapdoor much like the one that did him in. I left it lay ‘cuz about that time I saw the campfire. Off in the distance, where the dead man had come from, a small fire burned. Now I wasn’t such a tenderfoot that I would think a fire would burn that long with no help. No sir. Standing there near a dead man the sight of that fire made shivers run up and down my back. He wasn’t alone! Hard telling how many was with him. The question running back and forth in my mind was, would they come after us when they found him? I thought on it a bit. At first I was gonna go back and get Pap. But then I would have to explain what I was doing out here and I knew I would be in trouble for returning to this place. Beside that, Pap would never take the dead man’s money. He would consider it robbery. I knew he felt killing the man was in defense of our family. He would never stoop to taking the money though. Then I thought, “Heck, I got my ’66 Winchester. I can handle a couple of them.” And thus emboldened by my thoughts I set about to sneak up on this camp. I figured it would be quicker and easier this way. Besides, it would take a couple hours to go back, get Pap and come back. And by that time it would be daylight and who knew what kind of trouble would be waiting for us? I trotted a half mile or so until I was a few hundred yards from the camp, then eased up and caught my breath. Sneaking in until I could see the details of camp clearly I began to ease around the edge of it, looking things over. Besides the fire I saw a horse, a small pile of gear – saddlebags and such. And someone sleeping near the fire. I thought about shooting them where they lay but just could not bring myself to do that. It’s a heck of thing, pulling a trigger on another human. And it ain’t something to be taken lightly. So began a slow cautious stalk on the camp, moving slow and quiet, wondering all the time was I gonna regret doing this? With my rifle at the ready I eased up to the camp, watching the best I could for any movement. When I was within 20 feet I tossed a rock at the person wrapped in blankets by the fire and yelled, “UP WITH YOUR HANDS!” They jerked, rolled over and suddenly I was looking into the most beautiful and at the same time, the saddest pair of blue eyes I ever saw. I looked at her, dumbfounded and unable to think of anything to say. She just looked back at me. Finally I stammered, “Who are you? What are you doing here?” And as my brain started working again, looking around I asked, “Are you here alone?” The girl just stared at
me, fear showing on her face. I pointed rifle away from her, let the hammer
down carefully and looking around all the time I said, “I am not going to hurt
you. I need to know, are you here alone?” Tears were in her eyes as she shook
her head ‘yes’. In a low voice she said, “He left in the afternoon and has not
returned.” “Your husband?” I asked. The anger that flashed was startling. She
almost spat “NO! He’s not my husband!” and with that she started to cry. I
looked at her for a minute and I bet my mouth was hanging open. “You’re the
one! I said. “The one, what?” she asked, wiping her eyes. Looking up at me she said, “You seem to be a nice person. You had better leave. He will kill you if he finds you here.” I stood there for a minute wondering what to say and she said more urgently, “I’m telling you, he will kill you! You better just get on out of here.” I said real easy like, “I ain’t scared of being killed. And I ain’t leaving you here. You get your stuff together and come on back to camp with me. My Ma would love to have another lady around.” She looked at me like I was stupid and said, “Haven’t you heard what I said?” Looking in her big blue eyes I knelt down and gently as possible I said, “Miss, he ain’t comin’ back. Ever.” She looked wide-eyed at me for a minute and said, “How do you know? How can you be sure?” And it came to me then. What to say. How to say it. “I found a man laying on the trail dead, miss. Looked to be about 40, unshaven, big scruffy guy.” and I pulled out his pistol and knife. “He had these on him.” Well I was fit to be tied ‘cuz she up and busted out crying again! I stood there silent for minute and then said, “Well miss, I am sorry for your loss.” I will be durned if she didn’t wipe her eyes and then she looked at me like I was a bug. “It ain’t no loss to me.” she says, “I am just happy to be free.” And getting up she wiped her nose and started to gather her gear. I was surprised to see she was just a girl, about my age and said so. She glanced my way and went on back to packing her stuff. I helped her tie it on the horse and we started off. She was quiet but asked me several times about my Ma and I could tell she was scared. I told her about Ma and about my brother and sister and after a bit she started to relax some. We had been walking about 10 minutes when I said, “Miss you will have to forgive me but I ain’t introduced myself proper. I am Ethan Daniels, formerly of Missouri.” She kinda laughed and it sure was pretty. “I am Miss Kathryn Williamson, formerly of Iowa.” We both laughed at the formality of it and I remarked how if I had known she was alone out there I would have never snuck in and pointed a rifle at her and she just smiled. Heading back to our camp I skirted around where we had left the body. I figured she didn’t need to be seeing it. I hadn’t worked out exactly what he was to her, but it didn’t look to be too good and there wasn’t no sense in making her more uncomfortable than she already was. It was coming on daylight now and just as I figured I seen Pap coming down the trail. Miss Kathryn stiffened visibly when she saw him but I said, “It’s OK. It’s just my Pa.” When Pap got to us I could tell he was some agitated but he never said nothing about it. Not then. I introduced him to Miss Kathryn and explained that I had seen a campfire where there should not have been one. So I went over to scout it out and found her, all alone. He looked at her a minute and I could see he understood a little of what was going on. He said, “Come on to camp. Ma is up and fixing breakfast. I bet you are hungry!” and takin’ her arm he walked with her back to camp. By the time we got there they was jabberin’ like old friends. Pap had a way of making folks feel at home if’n he wanted to. Well, Ma got all flustered when Pap walked into camp with a young girl and she started fluttering around making a place for her. I could see she really warmed up to Ma. As she was sitting there my little sister came up and stood near her and she just reached down natural-like and picked her up and hugged her. I could see tears in her eyes. I heard her tell Ma that she had a little sister and that she missed her very much. After breakfast we broke camp and headed out. After we was on the trail an hour Pap come back to me where I was following along behind. I knowed it was gonna come sooner or later. He just looked at me for a bit and then said, “OK boy. Tell me the story.” So I told it to him plain. Well, except for the part about the gold. And I didn’t exactly tell him how I come to be at her camp. I mean, I told him I seen a campfire where there shouldn’t be one and went to investigate and found the girl. I didn’t tell him I had started out to look at the body. Pap weren’t no dummy though. He asked me did I look at the body and I looked him straight in the eye and said, “Yessir I did.” Then I showed him the pistol and the knife and he was none to happy about that! He told me that he considered it stealing and to rob a dead man was pretty low. I said, “Yessir, it probably is, but it was them things that convinced her that the man was dead and that she should come with me so I figure it ain’t all bad.” He pondered on that some and then said, “Well, maybe all’s well that ends well. That poor girl has been through some rough times. It’s a good thing you found her and brought her back with you.” With that Pap went back to the wagon and got back up in the seat and taken the reins from Ma. He never mentioned it again. The next couple days went by pretty fast and the events of the past week sorta faded, though not completely. There was always Miss Kathryn to look at. And she was mighty easy to look at, let me tell you. She seemed kinda sad at times, but not so’s you’d notice, you know? Like, when she was sort of off by herself you could see her shoulders slump. And sometimes when she thought no one was looking. But she did her best to fit in and Ma sure loved her. She was a big help with my brother and sister and they just took to her like a bear to honey. She also helped Ma with the cooking and cleaning up camp, generally making herself useful. A couple times I caught her staring at me and she turned her eyes away quick-like when I did. Now, I have to confess, she caught me staring at her across the campfire at times also. Like I said, she was right easy to look at. I was pretty busy and never had no time to talk to her alone, not that I was exactly sure what I would say. When I thought about talking to her I got all hot-feeling in my face and my thoughts got kinda jumbled up. I wasn’t really sure why. But we were into the foothills of the Sierra’s now and we had plenty to do. Pap allowed as how we had to get over the pass before winter hit or we would be in big trouble so we pushed as hard as we could without grinding the animals down to nothing. We had our horse and Miss Kathryn’s hitched along with the mules, trying to make time up the grades. I spent a goodly part of the day trying to find the best route up the hills, trying to sort out the shortest way from the best way. Most times they were not the same. We worked from before sunup to after dark and by the time we camped we were plumb wore out. Pap and I still took turns guarding the camp. You just never knew what was gonna turn up. Late one night when I had just relieved Pap from standing guard I heard a slight rustling noise in the grass and here come Miss Kathryn! She walked up to me and asked if it would be alright to set with me for a spell. She said she wasn’t sleepy right now. I allowed as it would be fine with me and made a spot for her on the log I had been resting against. She sat down and looked up at the stars and then looked around and cleared her throat and said, “It sure is nice out tonight.” and I said, “Yes ma’am it is.” She sorta laughed at me and said, “Don’t call me ma’am. My name is Kathryn. You may call me by my name.” My voice sounded squeaky in my ears and I said, “Yes ma’am .. uh .. yes Miss Kathryn.” She just giggled at me. We set there quiet for a spell, my ears was burning for some reason and I just couldn’t get my thoughts together to say anything! Finally she took a deep breath and said, “Ethan, when you took that pistol and knife off that dead man, did you find anything else?” My breath come sharp and quick and I stammered, “Wha what do you mean?” She stared at me a minute and I felt like I was being examined. She said direct like, “What else did you find on the man?” Well! I couldn’t lie to her and I said, “I found a wallet full of gold coins.” She jumped like she was stuck with a pin and clapped her hand over her mouth. After a bit she said, “I was so afraid they were left with him.’ I said, “No ma’am. I searched his body and took ‘em.” Then I went on and explained that Pap did not know about it, that he would consider it stealing to take something from a dead body, and that I was holding them trying to consider what I should do. She took another deep breath and then began to tell me how this man had broken into her home in Iowa. Her Pa had caught him robbing their house and the man had killed both her Ma and Pa and then kidnapped her. She said that she had considered killing herself to get free of him, but she felt that would be a sin. She prayed to die at first, then later prayed for him to die. She prayed for help, and decided that she was gonna tough it out and she came to believe that in the end she would defeat him. For one thing, he had some gold that had belonged to her Pa. She had hopes that she could get a weapon or some help, maybe kill that man or at least get her Pa’s gold back. So she endured and kept praying. Sometimes at night she cried, but she never gave up. She told me there were 10 gold coins that were her Pa’s and she knew that the man had kept them in a leather wallet. I told her to wait a bit and I went off to my bedroll and dug out the wallet. When I brought it back to her I saw tears well up in her eyes. She opened the wallet and we counted the money together. There were 34 gold coins in it altogether. She pointed out the kind that had been robbed from her Pa and I asked her if she wanted them now. She said, “No. You just hold onto it all for both of us. I know they will be safe.” We talked a bit about how the money could help us get a good start in California and a new life in a new country and she seemed to perk up to the idea. Then she yawned, said, “Excuse me.” and went off to bed. Then next couple nights Miss Kathryn came to visit with me while I was standing guard. We never talked about the gold or the dead man. Mostly we talked about where we had come from, what our lives had been like and what we wanted to do in the future. She seemed real smart and had a lot of book-learning. And she could keep the talk going when I was getting tongue-tied. She never seemed to pay no mind to my shyness. I found myself looking forward to these nightly visits with a strange happiness that I had never felt before. One day as we were climbing into the steeper parts of the Sierra’s Pap got off the wagon and walked up to where I was walking alongside the horses, encouraging them up the grade. After a bit he began to talk to me and I could tell something was on his mind. Finally he said, “Boy, what are your intentions toward Miss Kathryn?” Well that taken me by surprise! “What do you mean?” I asked. He said, “Your mother and I can see you two are getting friendly. We ain’t blind. Now that girl has been through a whole lot of grief and your Ma is worried about you and her.” “I ain’t never touched her Pa!” I blurted out and he said, “That ain’t what I mean. She seems to be taken to you and your Ma and I are wondering are you serious about her? Marrying serious?” Oh my! I had not thought about it. I mean, I was old enough, near 17. But as I thought on it I realized that in the back of my mind there had been something along those lines just sorta stewing there. I guess I was quiet for a long time and Pap said, “Son? Did you hear me?” I said, “Yes sir. I was just thinking on it and I believe I am serious about her.” Pap said, “Good enough. I trust you to be a man and act like you should. It’ll put your Ma’s mind at ease.” I turned and looked him in the eye and asked, “Pa, do you and Ma approve of her?” He stopped and I have never seen him more serious. “Yes son. Both your Ma and I have come to care for her. She has more character than a dozen men I know. She is a person who can be counted on. But son, you need to let her know how you feel. She has the idea that she’s not worthy of a normal life. You and I know she couldn’t help what happened to her and that it weren’t no way her fault.” It was the longest speech I had ever heard Pap give and it impressed me. I thought on it all day long. That night when Miss Kathryn came out for our nightly visit I was really nervous. She seemed to sense it and tried her best to put me at ease, which only made me worse. Our small talk had dwindled down to silence sorta like a dying fire. Finally I looked at her and said, “Miss Kathryn.” and she said, “Yes?” Mustering all the courage I had I said, “Have you decided what you are gonna do when we get to California?” She was quiet for a bit and then said, “I will try to find work, save up some money and then go back to Iowa and see if I can find any relatives.” My heart sank as I said it but it had to be said. “You have plenty of money Miss Kathryn. You know. The gold.” She looked at me really funny like and I know now she was thinking I was either stupid or else I didn’t care for her like she hoped (though at the time I was unaware of it). As she looked at me little tears started from her eyes. Those pretty blue eyes! And I said, “I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong?” She just shook her head, as I sat there fumbling with my fingers. Finally I said, “I would be sad to see you leave.” She looked up surprised-like and said, “Why?” My heart was in my throat and I didn’t know the right words to use. I just stammered, “Cuz I am in love with you and I would not like you to leave.” She looked at me wide-eyed for a minute, cried “Ethan!” and kissed me on the cheek! Whew. My ears really got hot! I felt like I was glowing in the dark. And I heard rustling in the wagon and got really flustered ‘cuz I knew Ma and Pap were listening! Miss Kathryn reached over and taken my hand and said, “Are you serious Ethan?” “Dead serious,” I replied. “I would be proud if you would be my wife when we get to California.” She started crying some and asked, “Are you sure?” “Yes ma’am!” I said. “I am.” Looking away from me she said, “You don’t know what happened before …” and I reached over put my finger on her lips. I said, “Shush. That’s all past. There’s nothing we can do it about it but go on. Let’s not look back. Never.” And at that she just come around and hugged me till I could barely breath. I was walking on clouds all the next day. She had set up with me nearly the whole night talking about a life together in a new country. I felt so light I thought maybe I could fly over the mountains. During the day she come up and walked with me, helping drive the horses up the grades. Ma and Pap grinned until I thought they was gonna grin all the rest of their days. The trip up the pass and over the mountains went by really fast. Looking back on it we worked hard. Really hard. But I had someone looking to me and I had a life in front of me that held a lot of promise. It just made the time fly by. We climbed up past where the Donner Party had suffered so, thanking God that we were early in the year and that the snows had not yet closed things in. When we crossed over the Pass and came down the mountain our spirits were certainly soaring. The hardest part was behind us. Oh, there would be tough days. Life is like that. But we had come through some hard country on a hard trail and had made it. And not just survived it. We came out of it better than when we went in. Well, you know the rest of the story, how that we eventually started a ranch and raised a family and all. I never told Pap about the gold. When we found the place where we wanted to settle .. here on this place … I got a job with a local rancher. I worked extra jobs as much as I could and I saved everything I could. When Pap found the ranch he wanted it was enough land for us all. Pap was worried about raising the money but I told him about my savings, never mentioning the extra I had, and to make a long story short, we got the ranch. And it was paid off quicker than Pap ever thought possible. Miss Kathryn’s gold helped pay it off. She never did get back to Iowa. We got married the year after we settled here and the 4 girls and 3 boys we raised filled her heart plenty. She lived to see her great-grandchildren. She has been gone near 5 years now, I miss her something awful. Until now I have never said a word about how it was that we got established here. Now that I am coming onto the end of my days I often wonder did I do wrong? I feel that I did not. Out of a terrible crime, good did come. I have prayed much about it and though the memory sometimes bothers me, I am come to think that perhaps it was … destiny? Something bigger than me seems to have directed our paths. Miss Kathryn was the best thing that ever happened to me. We were together near 60 years and they was good years. All because a young boy was curious to get a close look at a dead man? No sir. Something bigger was at work. Maybe I should say, “Someone” bigger was at work. I see now, looking back, that it weren’t no accident I heard a woman crying in the wind, or went back to see a dead man, or saw a camp fire. And I have to believe that the gold was part of the plan. That a curse became a blessing because of the faith of a young girl who would not give up no matter what.
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