Ida's New World

by Lise Muusmann

  Chapter 38

  “Go down to the wagon and get Stephen,” Henry said to Ida and Lisa. “Don’t take no for an answer, it’s high time he came out and joined us in the house.”

  The girls nodded and ran off downhill glad to be running outside with the feeling of having once again escaped something life threatening. They ran laughing into the trees where the horses were hidden. They quickly found them peacefully grazing on the sweet grass. Ida and Lisa patted the horses, then climbed up into the wagon. The blanket lay at up in the front, just behind the driving box.

  “Stephen!” They shouted in unison, laughing. “Time to come out at last!” Lisa said and tugged at the blanket, that suddenly looked empty and shockingly flat. Lisa shook the blanket. There was no Stephen. Ida looked around the wagon in bewilderment. A breeze flapped the canvas cover, making a hollow, abandoned sound.

  “He is gone!” Ida shrieked. She stared at Lisa. “Where can he be?” The girls jumped down and searched the grass around the wagon. But there was no trace of him to be found.

  “What are we going to do?” Ida said.

  “We had better run back to the house and tell them,” said Lisa.

  A big commotion blew up when the girls announced that Stephen was gone. Rose screamed and broke out in sobs, running down to the wagon to see for herself, while Henry stood up on the logs, looking out towards the horizon with eyes narrowed to slits.

  “Where can we search?” Ida asked. She felt as if her heart was about to jump right out of her chest, it beat so hard. Henry got down from the log and simply looked dazed. Rose came wearily back up the hill and sat down heavily on the log and sobbed bitterly.

  “We must spread out and look for him,” Frederik said and started to walk downhill towards the wagon. “He can’t have gone far.”

  “Come back, Frederik,” Henry said sadly. “It’s like last time. My guess is that he was abducted while the three crooks were keeping us occupied.”

  “Who? How?” Cried Frederik, bewildered.

  “I believe the Indians must have been nearby all the time.”

  “Why would they abduct Stephen?” Katrina shouted. “I cannot understand that. He doesn’t speak their language, or any language most of the time. He just hides under a blanket - how would they even know he was there?”

  “It has happened to us before, in Nebraska,” Henry said bitterly. “They took our oldest son, Tom.”

  “What kind of Indians are they, here in this region?” Frederik asked.

  “There are different tribes. Manda, which we met in the town of Mandan, and then there are Arikara, Assiniboin and Hidatsa. There are also Ojibwe Indians. They fight each other sometimes.”

  “That many! Are they hostile?”

  “They love their country, and they will fight for it.”

  “Yes, that is understandable,” Frederik answered. “But it’s strange that we have not heard a thing, nor seen a thing since arriving? How did they even know the boy was in the wagon?”

  Henry found it difficult to continue talking. He just shook his head and sat down next to Rose and put his arms around her to comfort her.

  “Can’t you ride out and look for him, Frederik?” Anna suggested. She appeared just as shocked as Rose. Ida quickly translated the conversation for her. The elderly lady turned white as a sheet, as if she had seen a ghost.

  “It is so awful. Imagine this happening.” She wrung her hands and was on the brink of bursting into tears. “I thought he was safe under his blanket?”

  “We must ride out to look for him. Now.” Frederik said.

  Henry pulled himself together and got up. He slapped Frederik on the shoulder. “Are you game?”

  Frederik nodded and they walked down hill together to saddle the horses. Rose stood to watch them go, still crying.

  “I shall make some fresh coffee,” Anna whispered to Katrina. “They have got a couple of hours to scout for him, before it gets dark. What a day.”

  Anna limped weakly into the house. She returned a little while later with a small tray filled with cups and the coffee pot.

  “Coffee,” she announced and went first to Rose, whom she gave a cup.

  “Do dry your eyes, dear,” she said, and Ida translated again.

  Rose took the cup shakily and sipped at the warm coffee. This brought her back to them on the hill with the peat house. She quietened slowly and soon she stopped crying. When she finished the coffee, she rocked slowly back and forth on the log, hugging herself tightly.

  Chapter 39

  “Please, do help me

  because you see

  this is all enough

  I’ve run out of luck.”

  Ida sang one of her rhymes in a tremulous voice. Whenever Rose stopped crying, the girls started howling. They all sat in the yard on the logs and cried their hearts out. Anna bent down and lifted Lisa up in her skinny old arms. She swayed about with her and sang a soft lullaby.

  “But we are not going to sleep now,” Ida cried to Anna. “We are going out to look for Stephen.”

  “What are you talking about?” Rose asked on the brink of crying again. “I do not understand what you are saying!”

  Ida translated.

  Despite all the trauma, dinner had to be prepared again. The stew had all been eaten, unexpectedly, and they had to start over. Katrina dragged a couple of boxes outside to sit on whilst preparing vegetables and to be able to keep a watch out over the countryside for any movement.

  “We have not seen any flying feathers?” Ida said a little mystified.

  “No, but I do not think they are far away, the flying feathers,” Rose said, and the tears were running soundlessly down her cheeks. “If only I’d made him come inside with us instead of letting him stay in the wagon,” she moaned over and over. “It’s all my fault.”

  Later in the evening they heard the horses returning with Henry and Frederik. The girls were asleep, but the women had kept vigil. They rushed out to the men, who looked exhausted and sad.

  “What happened?” Katrina asked them, holding Rose’s hand. The men merely shook their heads and led the horses away to drink and to take off the saddles. Rose started to cry violently again. She dropped to the ground. Henry knelt beside her and murmured soothingly. But she was inconsolable. They all had to help get Rose inside and put her to bed. It was quite a task, she didn’t seem to know what she was doing, she was simply mad with grief. The girls woke up and watched with big anxious eyes. Rose finally lay quite still but stared wildly up into the ceiling.

  “Happiness is not coming today,” Ida whispered to Lisa and held her hand. Lisa got scared and ran to Frederik. He sat for a long time with the little girl held close.

  “Well, it is time now for the two of you to get back into bed and try to sleep,” he said and carried Lisa over to the makeshift bed the two girls shared.

  “You need not be afraid. We are all here and we will take good care of you.”

  After some time, the girls managed to fall asleep. The men sat silently at the upturned box trunk that was functioning as a table. Katrina and Anna sat still for a long time and stared at the men.

  “Did you see anything at all?” Katrina asked. She felt cold with shock. The men kept quiet and glanced at each other. “You did see something!” She hissed. “Tell me!”

  They looked at each other again, and nodded. Henry glanced across at Rose, then spoke quietly.

  “We had not ridden far down into the valley, before we spotted an old oak tree, where a tomahawk had been planted into the bark,” he said sadly.

  “Toma-what?” Asked Katrina.

  “It is an Indian war axe, and very mean in a fight,” Henry explained and showed how. He threw a knife somersaulting through the air across the room to thud into the peat wall.

  “Why was it sitting there in the tree?” Katrina asked and felt sick. She could hardly breathe.

  “It is a warning to show us that they are here close by. And mean business.”

  “You
are forgetting, there were also two eagle feathers attached to the axe.”

  “Yes, the type of feathers could mean its from one tribe to another, declaring territory. Or, like I said, it could be a warning for us. I don’t know which.”

  “Have you brought it with you?” Katrina looked intently at Henry, who shook his head.

  “You did not go looking for Stephen at all?” Rose asked querulously from the corner. “Couldn’t you find him?”

  “We have been all over the place, dearest. We rode into the surrounding valleys that lie quite close by,” Henry answered and getting up he walked over to her and grabbed her hands. “We have done everything we could to find him.”

  “You have not done enough!” Rose cried out suddenly and sobbed. The girls woke up and looked anxiously at Rose, then started to cry again.

  “Go back to sleep girls, there’s no news,” Katrina said. Anna got up and went over to comfort them.

  “Sorry,” Rose said and sniffled. “It is my second child that has been taken by the Indians.”

  “We are going out to look for Stephen again tomorrow,” Frederik said in a comforting tone.

  The grown ups prepared themselves to go to bed. It was difficult for everyone to calm down enough to fall sleep. Henry sat for a long time keeping watch at the open door way with his revolver at the ready. He finally fell asleep outside the house, leaning against a log, lying on the cold, damp ground.

   Chapter 40

  Henry and Rose built their peat house a short distance away from the Jensen’s peat house. It was in a small grove half way up a nearby hill, where there was also beautiful view over the plains and valleys. At night, the Jensens and the Kennedys would be able to see each others cheerful lights, winking through the darkness. But there was not much cheer presently. Everybody worked tirelessly to build the second house. Rose often went for a walk on her own. When she came back, she had teary eyes and a red nose. Henry said she also got up at night to look for Stephen. He did not like it at all.

  “I am sure he is not far away,” Rose often said. “He is here nearby, I know it,” she said with conviction.

  Everyone nodded and smiled at her.

  When the second peat house was finished, Henry and Frederik harnessed the horses and took the wagon to Kenmare, which was a very small town as Henry had said. They came back after two days with a plough and three big work oxen, walking behind the wagon.

  “We have bought all sorts of equipment, so that we can farm with the oxen.” Henry said.

  “Couldn’t we use the horses?” Anna asked.

  “No, it’s not quite the same. Horses can’t pull the plough it’s too heavy. They like to work together with human beings, while oxen can pull anything, but they can be more independent and are somewhat stubborn,” Henry explained. “Stubborn as an ox, they say! There are rings attached in their noses, so you can control them better, with the long reins. Similar to the same way you guide horses with a bridle and bit in the mouth. Our horses are fine creatures that can pull along a rolling wagon, but they cannot drag a plough through unbroken ground. Or any ground. It takes an ox to do the really hard work.”

  “Doesn’t it hurt them?” Ida stared horrified at the nose rings.

  “No, they protest a bit when they get them in for the first time, like horses protest over the bridle the first time.”

  “What about the whip, doesn’t that hurt them?” Ida asked and pointed at the whip in the prairie wagon.

  “We have to practice using the whip, so that it gives a loud bang above them. That encourages them to pull harder,” Henry said.

  “Look at our field tools,” Frederik shouted and jumped down from the box. He pointed to the back of the wagon and showed off the plough under the canvas. "It is a big, tough, meadow-plough, and it should be able to break up the prairie so that we can plant potatoes.”

  The men worked like oxen to get the heavy-duty plough down on to the ground. Ida rushed to see the new wonder. The plough was a monster built of wood and iron.

  “It certainly is very solid,” Anna said and touched it.

  “Yes, now we can get started on the potatoes!” Katrina shouted happily and clapped her hands.

  “We are going down to the valley to clear ground and plough the soil,” Frederik said convincingly. “We are turning the turf. Look, what a good ploughshare! And it has a roll-blade share and a front wheel, so that you can regulate how deep you want to cut.”

  “It certainly looks good,” Anna said and nodded.

  “You just wait and see, it is very hard work,” Henry said with a hand on the plough. Ida touched the wood and the iron.

  “My word, it is very good,” she said admiringly. “How did you get hold of it?”

  “We actually bought it from an Indian dressed in cowboy gear,” Henry said.

  “An Indian?” Asked Katrina. “What was he doing with a plough?”

  “Why, the Indians are farming the land as well. They are growing corn, vegetables, potatoes and a little bit of wheat.”

  “They do?” Ida asked and grabbed the two handles and tried to push the plough. It did not move at all.

  “Well, we have to get the oxen in harness in front first,” Henry said and patted one of them on its back. They were very sturdy animals and patient. They simply had started to eat grass as soon as they had been tethered.

  “We have also bought some hens,” exclaimed Frederik and jumped into the wagon. Behind the box, there were cages with lids on. He brought the cages down to the ground and opened one of the lids.

  “They have probably been sleeping most of the way,” Katrina said. “Such fine hens. What about a cock, so that we can have both eggs and chickens?”

  “Yes, wait a second,” Frederik said and jumped into the wagon. He brought out another cage with a magnificent cockerel. It poked its head out and looked with curiosity at the new surroundings.

  “What are we to do with them tonight?” Anna asked, “We do not yet have a hen-house."

  “They will have to sleep in the cages, I’m afraid,” Frederik said and put the lids back on. “Ida, do you want to feed them?”

  “Yes please. And we will give them all names.” Ida and Lisa were immediately in love with the new additions to the family.

  “But how could you afford all this?” Katrina wondered.

  “Ah,” Frederik winked at her smugly. “I had a bit of money well hidden in the wagon,” he said happily. “Luckily, the bank robbers did not find it. They did not even look for our wagon.”

  “But the Indians did,” Rose said bitterly with trembling lips.

  “We will look for Stephen tomorrow.” They all nodded and hoped silently for a miracle to happen.

  The plough was dragged up beside the house and was the centre point of that evenings festivities. Anna had prepared a good stew from two prairie hares, which they had caught in traps. Then they all slept under the same roof in the Jensen’s peat house on the hill.

  Chapter 41

  “Now we have a plough

  and this is how

  we get a lot of potatoes

  perhaps soon, also tomatoes.”

  Ida sang her new poem out loudly into the air, which she liked very much. She was all alone, exploring over the back of the hill. That side had not yet been explored enough, she thought. There were a lot of small trees and brush growing thickly, so that she had to wind her way through.

  It was a warm spring day and she was sweating in the grey woollen dress she wore every day. She wore a fine white apron over the dress. She held her doll, Per, in her hand.

  “The white freshens things up,” Ida said. Anna agreed wholeheartedly. Katrina had found the apron at the bottom of one of the boxes. Anna scrubbed it and hung it up to dry in the sun to bleach it white and soaking wet, so that the wrinkles straightened out. Ida’s red plaits fell down her back. They were almost half a meter long now.

  It was a wonderful walk. Ida soon discovered a beautiful valley opening out over the hill a
t the back of their house. There was prairie grass as usual, but there were also cool groves of trees. The best discovery was a brook that with tremendous speed wound its way through the bottom of the valley. She plucked flowers and found a delightful, cool place to lie down next to an oak tree. The tree threw a deep shadow and from her position at its roots, she had a view of the brook and the valley. She spread the flowers around her on the grass. She closed her eyes and dreamt for a moment, that she was back in Nakskov on a summers day. The scent of the warm outdoors was almost the same, but the heat felt different, it was more humid. She remembered that Henry and her father had said, they had found evidence of buffalo hunting. They were sure it was the Indians that hunted the buffaloes.

  Ida dozed briefly, then woke as she heard a sound. She opened her eyes and stared into the face of a boy. An Indian boy. He had big brown eyes and a big hooked nose. His hair was pitch black, but the paint on his face was white. His torso was bare and he wore a pair of fine yellow leather trousers with embroidery. Then she heard a grunt. Next to the Indian boy stood a bear cub which stared at her with a stiff brown gaze. She squealed and got up quickly. The boy bent forward and held his hand her over the mouth.

  “Sh,” he whispered. She stopped screaming and looked into the brown eyes, that were staring at her red hair. He still held one hand over her mouth, and with the other hand he stroked her plaits wonderingly. He said a few words, that she did not understand.

  “Do you speak English?” She asked as he removed his hand when he saw she had calmed. He shook his head and started to communicate using his hands. He was speaking to her in sign language. Ida at first shook her head, but he carried on, and she realised that he was talking about himself and the bear which she now saw, he had on a leash.

  “Are you called Bearboy?” Ida guessed. He nodded and smiled. His teeth sparkled like white pearls.