Ida's New World

by Lise Muusmann

  “There is probably still a long way to go,” said Katrina and sighed deeply. Anna had already fallen asleep. Suddenly Bill stopped the coach and prepared to shoot. He aimed out into the landscape. A shot rang out waking everyone out of their slumber. The coachman jumped down from the drivers seat and hurried out into the grass to retrieve his kill. It turned out to be a large prairie rabbit. He held it up proudly for them all to see.

  As the sun lowered in the west and the skies glowed with fantastic red and orange colours, the stagecoach rolled to a halt. Bill and Alex jumped down and releasing the horses, tethered them on a land line so they could wander a little and relax. Then they immediately started to prepare a small fire. Coffee was prepared and the skinned rabbit, which was more the size of a Danish hare, was turned on a spit over the fire. Ida ate the meat and buns with great delight, before she lay herself and her doll down on a blanket in front of the fire. She was nervous of all the new sounds that surrounded them, but tiredness overcame her fears and she slept soundly till the bright of dawn.

  Chapter 12

  “Now it won´t be long before we are driving in to Dakota!” Shouted Bill.

  It was midday on a balmy spring day. They were sweating inside the wagon and so everyone leaned their heads out of the open windows.

  “It is still prairie,” Katrina said. “The grasses wave so prettily in the wind. Imagine that grass can grow to such a height!”

  “Will we be there in five minutes?” Ida asked impatiently. We have been travelling so far, that we have got to be there any minute, now.”

  “It is not like back home in Lolland,” Frederik explained. “America is much, much bigger than Denmark.”

  “I find it is too big,” Ida said. “Couldn’t you have selected something a bit smaller?”

  Her parents shrugged their shoulders and laughed. Even Anna started to laugh at that. She was normally very quiet. The elderly lady was not coping well with everything that happened during the journey. They even had to help her when they were eating. She merely sat passively, not interested in anything.

  “Anna, you are eating like a sparrow,” Katrina said. “Now, eat!”

  “Are there really no people living here?” Ida asked and kept a keen eye out for a house or a town on the horizon. But the prairie stretched emptily for miles around them. Suddenly Ida froze and stared wildly towards some points in the tall grass, moving very quickly.

  “Look father, what is that moving out there. I can see feathers flying over the grass!” She turned towards him momentarily. “Could it be birds?”

  “I do not know,” Frederik said and put his hand in his bag to find the revolver, his gaze following the flying feathers.

  “What is happening?” Asked Katrina turning pale. She stared at the weapon in Frederik’s hand.

  “Indians!” Bellowed the coachman. Bill pointed out to the landscape. “Indians are following us.”

  “I think he is saying that Indians are following the stagecoach,” Frederik said breathlessly after he had looked out the window.

  “Is it Indians?” Ida asked in a low voice. He nodded and pulled her away from the window.

  “What do they want?” Frederik pulled her onto his lap.

  “I have not told you this about America. We are not the first people here in this land.

  “No, we really are not!” Said Ida, looking imperiously at her father who stood holding the gun in his hand. “The Indians were here first, is it their land, that we now want a piece of?” Ida frowned up at Frederik. “Are you saying, we are coming here to steal their land?”

  Frederik sat at first saying nothing. Then he nodded.

  “The Lord of the Manor took my family’s house and land,” he said in a low voice.

  He looked out to the prairie and the flying feathers. Now they could see human forms on horses following the stagecoach.

  They sat tensely for a quarter of an hour, keeping a wary eye on the Indians. They rode along keeping their distance, but on and off they came closer so that they could see their faces, which were painted in bright colours. Their clothes were brown like the prairie. The proudly gleaming feathers swept briskly above the prairie grass.

  “Where do they live?” Ida whispered. “Have they got houses like those we lived in, at Nakskov?” Frederik shrugged, still with the weapon in his hand.

  “You might as well put that gun away,” Katrina said. “You would not even know how to use it.” Frederik looked at he gun, grimaced and put it back in the bag.

  Just as suddenly as they had appeared, the Indians vanished. The coachman hauled the horses to halt and Ida fell to the floor and started to cry loudly.

  “I want to go home!” She wailed. “The Indians were first in America.”

  Anna woke up and turned towards Ida.

  “What is it? Why are you crying child?”

  “The Indians!” She shouted. “We just saw them.”

  “Yes, well. Now take it easy, there are many new things in the new world.” She smiled kindly at Ida and stroked her hair. Bill opened the coach door and ushered them out. He took Ida in his arm, and pointed out towards the prairie in a wide movement.

  “Big,” he said

  “What about the dictionary you bought in Copenhagen?” Katrina said impatiently. “Frederik, please get hold of that instead of that ugly gun.” Frederik rummaged in his bag and pulled out the dictionary. He glared at the book for while. “Big means ‘stor’,” he said quietly, and looked out at the vast prairie.

  “Bill is certainly right,” he said dryly. “It is really big.”

  He nodded at Bill and took Ida from him and carried her on his own arm.

  Once again they lit a fire and roasted some game, which they later sat and enjoyed in front of the fire. The elderly couple stayed inside the Stagecoach to sleep. Darkness fell and the howl of coyotes reached them. Ida sat for a long time and stared into the fire, listening intently. In her mind’s eye she saw the feathers flying above the prairie grass. She had landed in a country belonging to Indians. Everything was different from back home in Nakskov.

  Chapter 13

  They drove for a long time through the vast prairie. At the next stop the elderly couple left the stagecoach. The woman’s hat was now sitting very low on her forehead. The couple merely nodded goodbye and went off down a dusty road between two rows of wooden houses. Bill went to the saloon in the town and he wanted Frederik to join him, but he declined. He had searched the dictionary and found the words for ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Bill kept on pulling at him and Frederik kept on saying “No.” Eventually Bill went alone and a long time passed while they were waiting for him to return.

  Meanwhile, two men came along wanting to join the stagecoach. They wore wide leather trousers and chequered shirts. Their jackets had fringes at the back and along the sleeve. Their hats were broad brimmed and they wore revolvers visibly in holsters on their belts. Ida sat in the wagon and gaped at the two men.

  “What kind of fellows are these?” She glanced at Katrina, who shook her head. Frederik had also noticed them. He took out his revolver and put it in his pocket.

  “It appears they are very fond of firearms in this country,” Anna said dryly. Alex took money from the men, who got on board the stagecoach. They sat down next to Frederik and nodded in a friendly manner.

  All of a sudden, there came a ruckus and shots from inside the saloon. Clearly a fight had started. Bill tumbled out of the swing doors rolled once and quickly got to his feet. He rushed to the coach and jumped up onto the driving box in one fluid movement.

  “Go, go, go!” He shouted. Alex whipped up horses and they raced full speed out of town.

  “God only know what happened?” Anna said, and stared at the two men sitting opposite her.

  “Bill!” They cried and laughed loudly heavenward, slapping their thighs. “He is a fighter!”

  Ida hurriedly hid behind her mother. Once they were a good distance from the town, the stagecoach began to slow down. One of the
men leaned forward and tugged at Ida to out of her mother’s skirts.

  “Hello Baby.” He said, and touched her red plaits and smiled at her. “Nice.” He had a long scar on his chin, and one of his eyes was completely closed. Ida looked at Frederik, who was busily reading the dictionary. He flipped through the pages and the men laughed at him.

  “Very nice,” said the other man who had a big black beard which almost covered his entire face. His eyes were just a pair of brown spots in the middle of all the black beard.

  “They are saying you are very nice,” said Frederik. He winked at her.

  “Father, please tell them they are most welcome to leave the coach. They smell so badly of cow dung.” Her parents smiled. The men pointed out at the prairie.

  “Dakota!” They shouted in unison.

  Frederik took out his sign and showed it to them. He nodded and pointed “DAKOTA.”

  “Four days,” said one of the men and held up four fingers.

  “Four days,” said Frederik to the others, after finding it in the dictionary.

  “Four days!” Ida almost began to cry. That was far too long to travel in this rumbling and bumpy coach. She kept a close eye on the prairie grass, to spot any more flying feathers. The only thing she saw was two black eagles that dived and flew up again. Their wingspan was very wide and they looked magnificent.

  “I wish they could fly me back to Denmark,” thought Ida.

  “Eagles,” one of the men said, and pointed at the large birds.

  “What is he saying?” Ida asked impatiently. It annoyed her that she could not understand. Frederik flipped through the pages again.

  “They mean ‘oerne’ - Eagles,” he said and nodded to the men.

  As the sun began to sink towards the horizon, Bill and Alex halted the wagon. They took their rifles and walked out into the countryside to come within shooting range of wild game. One of the two men now sat up on the driving box. It was the one with the scar. He introduced himself as Walter and the other man with the beard, as Richard. They were both tall and strong and were quick of movement.

  Frederik and Katrina whispered together and Ida could hear it had something to do with money. Anna had also guessed what they were talking about.

  “Do you need money?” She asked and looked down into her purse.

  “No, you keep your money, Anna,” said Katrina.

  “I shall probably have to find some work in the next town,” Frederik said. “So that I can pay for the rest of the trip.”

  “Maybe Walter and Richard can help you find work?” Katrina said hopefully.

  “Yes, maybe.” Frederik nodded and appeared to be in a better mood.

  A little while later they ate in front of the fire. They had a white tailed rabbit and two grouse on the menu.

  Chapter 14

  Ida thought the trip would never end. Several days later the stagecoach came to a small town.

  “Sioux Falls,” Bill shouted from up on the box. He halted the horses. Walter and Richard climbed out from the wagon and were preparing to leave, when Frederik gripped Walters sleeve by the fringes. Frederik had been studying the dictionary and he said carefully in English, that he wanted to find work. Walter nodded to Frederik.

  “Are we there?” Ida asked as she crawled out of the coach and looked around the little town, which did not look anything like Nakskov at all. To begin with, there was a huge waterfall, that completely took her breath away.

  “Why, look at all that beautiful water,” she exclaimed and raced ahead for a closer look. Anna limped along with her as fast as she could. She walked with aid of a stick.

  “Oh yes, it really is very beautiful,” she said and held Ida’s hand. “We have nothing like this back in Denmark.”

  “What will happen, if we can’t pay for the trip?” Ida asked, looking back at Frederik, who was talking to the coachman, Bill. Walter took out a bag which he had in his inner pocket.

  “Look, Walter is paying Bill,” Ida said.

  “Then your father is probably going to work for Walter,” Anna answered. “Come, we have to find out what we are going to do now.”

  They all got back into the coach again and drove off through the town. It had a grocer, a post office and a small church. After another hour’s drive and the Stagecoach stopped in front of a farm, where a number of houses had been built out of peat. The biggest house, a big white two-story villa, was built of wood with a gigantic veranda around the front.

  “Yes, here we are,” Frederick said with relief. “I can work here at the farm. They have got cattle and I am familiar with such work.”

  Ida hurried out of the coach and looked around. Two young women came out and greeted them. They seemed happy to see Walter and Richard.

  “It is probably their wives,” Katrina said and smiled at them.

  “Where are we going to live?” Ida asked and looked towards the farmhouse. But they were led to one of the small houses made of peat. It was very dark inside, as there were only two small holes in the peat walls for windows and another one with a wooden door fitted.

  “This can not be! We have travelled this far, just to wind up living in a mud hut?” Anna could not help laughing but Katrina looked horrified.

  “What are we going to do here at the farm?” She asked and looked askance at Frederik.

  “You are going to help with the kitchen chores for the big house, and I am going to be a cowboy,” he said in a low voice. “We are traveling on to North Dakota, once I have earned enough to pay for the trip.”

  “All this happened because you had to buy that stupid revolver,” Ida said and started to cry. “Who are you going to shoot?”

  “Take it easy now. I think these are kind people and they can teach us important things to know about how it is, to live in America, alright?”

  “If you are to be a cowboy, are you going to wear same kind of clothes as them? They stink of cow dung.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Where are we going to sleep?” Katrina asked. “Are we to lie down on the bare soil? There’s no furniture in that dark little peat hut.”

  “I am sure they will bring us some furniture.”

  The only thing inside the hut was a big stove. Outside a big woodpile of split logs was stacked against the wall.

  “Well, I had better get the stove started then,” Katrina said. “Ida and Anna, will you please help me to bring the wood into the hut so I can get the fire started?”

  They quickly set to work and it helped their mood a lot, when the fire was started. The two young women came along with cooking pots and food for them. Frederik disappeared for a while, then came back dressed like Walter and Richard with thick leather trousers and a chequered shirt. On his head, he wore the same kind of wide brimmed hat.

  “You look like an American!” Cried Ida when she met her father in front of the cabin. “Can you manage to talk with them?”

  “It is a bit so, so. We use sign language wherever possible. Otherwise I use the dictionary,” Frederik explained and looked quite happy.

  The women brought them some boxes to sit on and some others to sleep on. Suitcases and sacks were also used as furniture. Katrina placed cloth over the boxes and the suitcases.

  “There, it looks almost like home now,” she said.

  “What about a table?” Anna asked. When the women came back to the hut, she drew a table in the air.

  “Yes!” They shouted, and ran back towards the farmhouse.

  They quickly returned with a small white table, which they positioned in the middle of the floor, between the boxes. Ida quickly arranged them, so they matched nicely with the table. Katrina and Anna were busy over the enormous stove and as the sun began set behind a small group of trees at the back of the hut, they could sit down properly at a table, to dine. The plates were brought out and they had a fine meal. The women washed up when they were finished and Frederik had the dictionary in his hands all the time, practicing his English. He read from the book and mumbled the ne
w words softly to himself.

  Afterwards the four of them sat behind the hut on a long wooden bench and watched the sun go down. The sky was lit red like fire.

  “Now we are in America!” Declared Frederik proudly. Everyone sighed.

   Chapter 15

  Ida awoke in unusual silence. She sat up and looked around. Then she remembered where she was, in America, in a mud hut. Even though she had been tired the day before, she had found it difficult to fall asleep. She could hear insects crawling around on the walls and mice scurrying about between the boxes. She crept up from the makeshift bed and hurried outside. Anna and Katrina were already busy peeling potatoes. They were peeled and dumped into a big tank filled with water.

  “What a lot of potatoes,” exclaimed Ida.

  “Yes, we are working for Walter and Richard. We have to prepare two sackfuls of potatoes,” said Katrina pointing at two large sacks. She smiled at Ida.

  “Do you want some breakfast?”

  There was coffee on the stove. Ida fetched a cup. “Just look at their bread,” Katrina said. “It is white as snow. We have also been given some jam to spread on it.”

  Katrina prepared two big helpings of bread and jam. Ida played with the jam on the bread with a spoon.

  “Look mother. It’s the Danish flag. Don’t you miss Denmark?” Ida asked looking solemnly at Katrina.

  “I have barely had time for that,” she said quickly. “Well, now I have to tend to the potatoes.”

  Ida looked out through the small window-hole that was cut out of the mud wall. She could see green fields, and further away, the prairie grass waving in the wind. She took the second piece of bread in her hand and went out to the women.

  “Where is father?”

  “Why, he has gone with Walter and Richard. They are tending the cattle. He also has to help to build a corral out in the field."

  “Where are the cattle?” Ida asked, gazing out over the landscape.

  “They are quite some distance away from here, I believe.”