Ida's New World
Page 6
“I can walk
I can talk
I can dance
What lucky chance.”
Ida sang one night and spread her arms out. Her family stared at her and Frederik nodded.
“Yes, that is English. And it also sounds like English,” he said smiling.
“Didn’t I say that from the very beginning, this girl will go places,” Anna shouted and clapped her hands.
Another thing happened in the little household on the hill during those 14 days. The father, lying in the corner on some old blankets had become weaker and weaker. His breathing became heavier and more wheezing. One morning, when Ida went up the hill to the family, the children just stood staring with empty eyes.
“Father is dead,” Adam said quietly. “Do you want to come and help us put him in the coffin?” Ida nodded and they all moved slowly towards the little house.
Their mother sat beside her deceased husband, still lying in the corner. She held his hand. They all gathered around and watched him for a long time.
“What was your father’s name?” Ida asked. Matilda just closed her eyes.
“William,” Adam answered. ”He was a good father.”
Ida nodded and touched William, who felt still warm. Adam got up and his brothers and sisters stood up as well. Matilda hesitated a bit, before she realised that it was time now. Together they lifted William, wrapped in his blankets and took him to the coffin, which stood ready with the lid off. They carefully laid his body into the coffin and stood looking at him for a long time.
“Shouldn’t we pick some flowers and put them next to him?” Ida said and looked at her friends. The children nodded, glad to do something and they all ran out of the house and into the fields, where they picked many wild flowers and carried them back to the little peat house. The children arranged the wild flowers like a beautiful cloth, covering their dead father.
Later, in the evening Walter, Richard and Frederik put the coffin on a small horse-drawn cart and it trundled slowly down the hill. Matilda and her children followed the coffin for quite a distance, but had to turn back because it was too far to walk all the way to Sioux Falls. Matilda became inconsolable. She cried and cried. When she and the children returned to the hut, Anna and Katrina had prepared food for all of them. Anna also had a quick glance at the children to check them for lice. Luckily, it seemed all their hard work had succeeded.
“Katrina, what is going to happen to all these children?” Anna asked and looked on with concern at the five children.
“I shall have to talk to Frederik about it. I think we could take one of them to live with us.” She looked down at a little girl that sat next to her. Now that the coffin was gone from the room, the new table was a tank from outside, turned upside down.
“This is Lisa,” Ida said. “I believe she is five years old.”
Lisa was a fine little girl with pitch black hair, and usually she chattered incessantly.
“She is very sweet and bright,” Anna said. “Do you think Matilda could think of letting her go?”
“We shall have to find out,” Katrina answered. “Then she has only got four left to feed until the little new one arrives.”
“Oh, yes,” Anna said. “It is not easy to find a new husband.”
“Maybe Gina and Nicole will help her with the children?” Katrina asked.
“I will have to see that, before I believe it,” Anna said. ”Life is not easy out here.” She shook her head.
“It certainly was not easy back home either,” Katrina answered. “I still remember the Lord of the Manor’s harshness and the miserable life we had there.”
“Yes, so can I,” Anna said. “That is why we left, even though we were not spring chickens any longer.”
“I am so happy, that we met and came to travel together,” Katrina said and hugged the older woman.
“Now we shall have to wait and see where we all end up.” Anna said and smiled.
“Maybe it will be in ‘Dakotte’ as Ida calls it?” She looked over at Ida and winked at her.
Chapter 20
The funeral for William was to take place the next day. In the town, there was a small wooden church and the funeral should take place in the graveyard, where he would be put to rest.
“I would like to ask you something, Frederik?”
“Yes, Katrina, what is it?”
“Matilda has quite a lot of children to take care of, don’t you think?”
“Yes. And do you want all of them in tow?” He said a little sarcastically.
“The little girl, Lisa, we could take care of her, right?”
“How old is she?”
“She is five years old. Then Ida could have a little sister?”
“Why not? As we can’t do that for her ourselves, it might be a good idea.”
Frederik looked over at Ida, who was playing with her doll. “What would you say to having a little sister, would that be nice?”
Ida nodded. She jumped up, ran over to her father and kissed him. Three times.
“Who is going to the funeral tomorrow?” Anna asked. “The women from the farmhouse, are they coming as well?”
Frederik shook his head and shrugged.
“I have no idea.”
“It was a good thing that Walter and Richard helped to bring William down to the church,” Katrina said. “I did not expect that.”
“He had after all been working for them for a number of years before things went sour.” Frederik explained.
“William claimed, they had cheated him of some money. So he took some of their cattle as payment.”
“That does not sound good. Suppose they are cheating you as well?”
“That will not happen,” Frederik said sternly.
Ida climbed onto his lap and asked him to tell her a story.
The next day after the funeral they all met at the big farmhouse for a quiet reception. Walter and Richard were there with their wives, Gina and Nicole. Matilda and her children were there. Everyone sat around the table with coffee, beer and sandwiches. Frederik said quietly to Walter to ask Matilda, if they could adopt little Lisa.
“Do you really want to do that?” Walter asked and stared at both him and Katrina. Frederik nodded and looked towards Ida, who was beaming with joy. “Matilda, the Danes would like to adopt your daughter, Lisa.”
Matilda thought for a while, before she just nodded, looking across the table to Frederik and Katrina.
“Lisa, come here,” Walter said and looked seriously at her. “Frederik and Katrina would like to adopt you. That means you will be living with them and Ida, how about that?”
Lisa walked over to Walter and looked back at Katrina shyly.
“It will be hard for your mother to take care of all of you. You are playing well with Ida, aren’t you?” Lisa nodded and the chatterbox was completely silent for once. Katrina rose and walked around the table. She lifted Lisa up on her arm. Lisa looked hard at her mother, but Matilda sat with her head down low.
“We will do all we can to learn to speak proper English,” Frederik said in his funny accent. “Ida is already becoming quite good at it.”
Walter nodded and smiled at the small Danish family. Anna, who did not understand much of what was going on, concentrated on drinking her coffee and eating a sandwich. Katrina sat down again with Lisa on her lap.
“Such a little fairy,” she said and hugged her.
Finally Matilda looked up and gazed first at Walter and then at Frederik and Katrina.
“We will come and visit you. We promise you that.” Ida did the translation. They smiled and nodded, because Ida was very good at speaking in English.
“Matilda, how will you manage in future?” Walter asked. Matilda merely shrugged her shoulders. “We can find work for you here at the farm,” he said. But Matilda sat hunched with her mouth clamped shut and a grim face. “Do you not want to work here?” He asked and watched her for a long time. “You do have a lot of mouths to feed.”
The women laughed and made faces at her.
“I will take care of myself and my children, my own way.”
“Well, you can give that a try and see how it works out,” Walter answered and looked a bit bewildered.
“Maybe you can find work down at the saloon?” Gina and Nicole laughed so hard they almost fell off the chairs.
“What is happening?” Anna asked and glared at the two women. “I think we should go soon. Those young ladies are not God-fearing women. That much I know.”
“I am glad they can’t understand what you are saying, but I agree with you completely. They are really bitches that do more harm than good,” muttered Katrina.
Ida went over to her mother and patted Lisa’s cheek and her hair.
“She is so sweet,” Ida said. “She and I are talking all of the time. She can teach us all English.”
“Yes, she can,” Katrina said. Anna continued glaring at the women, so that they became embarrassed.
“It is a good thing they are not coming with us to Dakota,” Anna said heatedly. “One tires so quickly of such women.”
After another month, Frederik had finally repaid his debt and saved a little to go on with. They started to prepare for the next section of the journey.
Chapter 21
Frederik had made contact with a Swedish family named Anderson, who were also travelling north. They all were travelling together in a big prairie wagon pulled by four horses. The wagon consisted of a huge horse-drawn dray with four gigantic wheels. The dray was converted into a huge caravan with six arches of walnut, over which was spread a tough, weather-proof canvas, making a covered wagon big enough to carry both families and their belongings. The Andersen family numbered six. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson and their four sons, then there was the Jensen family of five. Together, there were eleven travellers in the wagon.
Frederik sat up on the driving box together with Mr. Anderson. Ida sat together with Lisa and looked out the back of the wagon. Lisa had spent the last weeks at South Falls farm with Ida and her parents. She chattered away like a little waterfall, all of the time.
“It is because she is born near a waterfall,” Frederik said and laughed. He often took her up on his arm, and then they were talking ‘Danglish’ together. It sounded almost intelligible.
“Father, it is you who is supposed to be learning to speak English and not Lisa who is to learn Danish, right?” Ida reproached him.
On the day they left, they had waited a long time for Matilda to come and say goodbye. But as time wore on and Matilda did not show up, they decided to make a start, because Mr. Anderson became more and more impatient.
“We ought to cover some prairie today,” he said. “There are wide expanses waiting ahead.”
He was a giant of a man with a large belly, that was often an obstruction. The giant man was fast and restless in his movements. Lisa cried a little as they drove off and snuggled up to Frederik, who could speak with her in English.
The Anderson lads were very naughty. They tumbled roughly around inside the wagon, so the girls were afraid of being pushed off the back. Mrs Anderson was a very pale and skinny woman, who could not keep up with her five males. When she told them off in Swedish, it sounded like the chirping of a tiny bird and had no effect whatsoever. She also had realised that a long time ago. She didn’t put much effort into it any more. When it became too much, Mr Anderson halted the horses and shouted into the wagon. And that sounded like a bull being chased by a butcher. Ida and Lisa held their hands over their ears. But the boys didn’t care. They behaved like real ruffians.
They covered the prairie by roughly 25 miles a day. The rolling landscape continued on and on in uniform tall prairie grass for miles after miles.
The girls played with their dolls. Ida taught Lisa some Danish words and they enjoyed each other’s company very much. Ida had given Lisa a doll, so that the both of them could play. Anna sat in a corner dozing, yet somehow she still kept a watchful eye open. When the boys started to climb the arches of the wagon-roof, Anna quickly came up with a pair of clogs in her hands. She beat them down like flies, and scolded them soundly, in Danish.
The lads found this incredibly funny, until Mr. Anderson halted the horses once more and jumped down from the driving box. His face was red from both anger and from the heat. The boys were caught one by one and were whacked on their behinds, several strokes for each of them. Afterwards, the Andersen boys were just like they were before: unruly and troublesome and never sitting still for a moment.
“It won’t be long before I get off and walk next to the wagon,” Anna threatened angrily. Those boys are insufferable.” She stared at their mother, who pretended to be asleep. “She must be stone deaf!”
Every evening, when the sun grew tired of the long day’s work shining and was only a narrow beam of light at the horizon, Mr Anderson hauled on the reins and brought the horses to a standstill. His kids, however, were not still at all. They flew around the wagon like giant grasshoppers without looking where they were going.
“I may end up killing them,” Anna scowled.
Frederik and Mr. Anderson got a good fire going and the women prepared some buns and fried some nice pieces of beef, that Walter and Richard had given to them in abundance, when they packed the wagon.
“What will happen to Matilda and her children?” Katrina had asked Frederik to tell Walter and Richard to take good care of Matilda. The two men had promised to do so.
From the rear of the prairie wagon, Ida was keeping a keen lookout for flying feathers. There were no flying feathers. Instead there were lots of birds, flying in formation over the prairie. Now it was springtime. On and off they saw big herds of bison passing out on the prairie.
“Buffaloes,” Ida and Lisa shouted in chorus and pointed towards the big animals. “They look like big boxes with little legs,” Ida shouted.
Whenever they reached a small town, which appeared on the prairie from time to time, the two men would go and buy food and supplies. The boys entertained themselves by leaping from the wagon and also bouncing around inside the wagon. They were agile like monkeys and it seemed nothing could stop them. The canvas was on the brink of tearing under their weight. The wagon would roll from side to side, like a ship in peril at sea.
“They will be lucky if they are still alive when we get there,” Anna said with a menacingly deep voice. “What a brood!”
Mrs Anderson just sat with an empty gaze, staring into the canvas. Katrina took pity on her and occasionally smiled at her. She took her hand and held it in hers.
After ten days of travelling in this manner, they reached the town of Fort Yates in North Dakota. The Anderson family were heading further due west, while Anna, Frederik, Katrina and the girls were heading north. They parted their ways. Anna was very pleased seeing the unruly Swedish family heading in another direction.
“Holy mother of god, what a family! That poor woman had no say whatsoever,” she said, shaking her head. “What horrible kids!”
There were several Indians in the town. They wore big woven blankets wrapped around them, both the men and women. A tall beautiful Indian man approached them, and he could not take his eyes off Ida and her bright red hair. He bent down and tugged at one of her plaits. She became quite scared. Frederik moved closer, protectively, but the Indian just smiled and gave her a small bowl made of pearl.
Chapter 22
“How much further are we going?” Ida asked as the family were standing in the main street hoping for a wagon that could take them on further north. Lisa jumped around in the dust, flapping her arms like wings.
“Look, I can fly now,” she shouted and fell down in the road. A passing two-in-hand covered wagon moved to the side with great agility. Frederik quickly pulled Lisa
away from the busy road.
“Watch out for that child!” The driver on the box shouted, halting his horses. He was a handsome, slender man, with a tall black hat on his head and spoke English with a different sort of accent. A sweet-faced, chubby little lady, dressed in a black dress covered by a crisp, blue apron, sat next to him.
“It be dangerous to walk in the middle of the road, ye know,” said the driver.
“Oh, do quiet down, Henry,” exclaimed his wife and elbowed him in the side. “You are such a busy body.”
“Oh, do shut up, Rose my love,” he admonished mildly and Rose laughed and whacked him on top of his hat.
“But wait. Don’t you think this sweet family may be in need of a vehicle?” Rose said sending them a kind glance. Frederik nodded largely and pointed at himself and his family.
“Where are you headed?” He asked eagerly in English. Henry looked out from under his tall hat and pointed in the direction in which they were rolling.
“That way,” he said and raised his hat. “Henry Kennedy. We be coming from Ireland, now.” He introduced himself.
“Frederik Jensen.” Ida’s father presented himself, then his family. “This is my wife, Katrina and these are my daughters Ida and Lisa. And this is Anna, our good friend. We are from Denmark. Can we drive along with you? We are going north.”
“Jump aboard,” Rose cried with a smile. "We are going north as well.”
The luggage was quickly loaded aboard and the Jensens clambered up after. The wagon was quite filled up with sacks of flour, sugar, salt, tea and coffee. There were also several cans of meat stacked in boxes and butter in small drums. The girls sat at the back, so that they could look out at the passing landscape.
“Are you also going to get a piece of prairie-land?” Frederik asked Henry as they rode together on the driving box. Henry nodded and gazed around the prairie in all directions. They had now travelled quite a distance from the fort town.