“I’ll try to have letters waiting for you at those forts,” her mother responded.
With a last embrace, Hannah and Jed were gone, walking through the quiet town to return to the campsite. “Are we really ready for this journey?” Hannah asked, looking back over her shoulder only once. It was a good thing her husband wasn’t Lot, and she wasn’t turned into a pillar of salt, but she couldn’t leave without that last glance backward. She now understood what had happened with the other woman, not wanting to leave everything behind.
“We are ready. Tomorrow is the day I’ve been working toward for months. It’s the day we strike out for land of our own, and a congregation that I can teach. We’re going to Oregon.”
Hannah smiled a little, not missing his enthusiasm. “It’s going to be hard, but the rewards will be worth it.”
“That’s my wife. You know you can do it. We’ll do it all together.” He took her hand and brought it to his lips, and all at once, she wished they’d had a normal wedding night. She knew neither of them would want to wait much longer before they engaged in the marital act, and she didn’t really want to have to try to find a private place on the Trail.
Six
March 29, 1852—Jed
We left for Oregon today, and it was a hard day to say the least. My dear bride is sore and tired, but she kept her spirits up and cooked supper for me just as agreed upon. We had to cross the Missouri River this morning, and it was much simpler than expected. We were ferried across the river, and we stayed close, walking along the banks of the river and setting up camp here after a ten-mile drive. All of the wagons are in a circle, and we are all encamped within the circle.
Hannah spent the first day on the trail walking with Mary and her siblings, whom she was watching over, and watching over Mrs. Bolling’s daughters. The girls were excited to start the journey but once they’d had lunch, which was only about a mile after everyone was ferried across the Missouri River, they became cantankerous.
They didn’t like to use a hole in the ground to do their business. They didn’t like it any better when all the women stood in a circle around them with their skirts spread to keep anyone from seeing them when they went. They really didn’t like having to use a leaf to get the feces off their bodies when they were finished. All in all, they were not happy with their first day on the trail.
Hannah suggested to Mrs. Bolling that both of her daughters would do well with a nap in the wagon, and with the other woman’s agreement, she lifted both girls in. Once they were settled, Hannah moved back and walked with Mary, whose mother was now there. It was Hannah’s first opportunity to meet Mrs. Mitchell.
“It’s so good to meet you, Mrs. Mitchell. I truly enjoy Mary’s companionship.”
Mrs. Mitchell shook her head. “Just make sure she learns your good habits, and you don’t learn her bad ones.”
Hannah couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her. “I’m not learning anything from Mary that my husband doesn’t approve of.” It was true, but she knew Mrs. Mitchell probably wouldn’t be as lenient with her as Jed was.
As they walked, Hannah had the kittens in her pockets some, and sometimes let them down to walk. Without fail, they would start rolling around and biting one another within minutes of being put on the ground, and Hannah would grumble and carry them again. She honestly wasn’t sure which would hurt her arms more, carrying the kittens or driving the wagon.
The day, she was told, would be like most days on the trail. They’d been woken up by a shot into the sky, and they’d had a short while to have breakfast, make coffee, take care of their bodily needs, and get their wagons reloaded for the day’s drive. Then they’d crossed the river and started walking.
By the end of that first day, Hannah was certain she would never be able to move again, but she was careful not to complain. What was the use? Everyone else would have been hurting as well. Maybe not everyone else had been raised without much exercise, but they would still be sore.
She thought longingly of her bed back in Independence and her bath that would be filled twice a week with warm water and would magically be taken away when she was finished, the water dumped out, and the tub cleaned for when she was next ready for a bath.
Mary didn’t seem at all bothered as she walked with her rifle thrown over one shoulder, and she shot three rabbits. She quickly gave one to Mrs. Bolling, and the other two she claimed as supper for her family.
“Mary, I never know if I should be pleased that you provide meat or scold you because you do it in the manliest way possible!” her mother said.
Mary grinned. “Just be happy I provide meat, of course.”
Just before they stopped for the day, Mary hit one more rabbit, and she gave it to Hannah. “I’ll show you how to skin it when we stop. My brother can do the ones for my family.”
Hannah nodded, feeling tired and a bit overwhelmed. What had she been thinking that she could do this? She’d walked all day, and now she was expected to cook supper. It was going to be a very long six months. She already felt ready to drop to the ground and get someone—anyone—to return her to the home where she belonged.
When they finally camped for the evening, Hannah followed Mary, and she learned how to skin a rabbit. Mary was a good teacher, telling her what to do but making Hannah do it.
Hannah followed every step her friend told her to make, even though the thought of cooking something that had been hopping through the fields just moments before turned her stomach.
When the animal had been skinned, Hannah stared at it. “How do I cook a rabbit?” She wasn’t sure she even knew people ate rabbit until that moment. Rabbits were sweet little creatures you fed and watched as they played happily.
“You’ve never had rabbit?” Mary asked.
Hannah shook her head. “No, never.”
“Make a stew out of it. Now I wouldn’t remove the meat from the bones. Just let the preacher know that’s how you cooked it, so he knows to watch out for bones. You should have enough for a good noonday meal tomorrow as well. Make some biscuits with it, and you have breakfast, a noonday meal, and tonight’s supper all at once.”
Hannah nodded. “Are you sore at all from the walking?” She needed to rub the knots out of her legs, but she didn’t want to do it in front of her friend.
Mary shook her head with a grin. “I walked five miles each way to school. Walking is easy.”
“I’ll be as strong as you in a few days, won’t I?” Hannah could hear the pleading tone of her own voice, and she knew she was being silly, but she was so sore, she wasn’t sure she could keep going.
“You will. I promise.”
They parted ways, and Hannah realized that Mrs. Bolling had her wagon parked right next to hers and Jed’s. She’d make sure to help the other woman all she could.
Jed was off somewhere with the livestock, and she collected some wood for supper. She knew there was a bit in the wagon, but Jed had said that was for further down the road when wood wouldn’t be readily available. Here it was easy to find, some big logs had even been left behind by other caravans, though Hannah was relatively certain their train was the first of the year.
She made the fire, and then she cut up the rabbit as best she could. The kittens played at her feet as she did, and she was happy they hadn’t wandered off. They seemed to know she was their protector, and they needed to stay with her.
The stew took a couple of hours to cook, and her mouth was watering most of that time. She could smell how good the stew would be. There were few spices to be had, but she made do, and when she served Jed his meal, he smiled. “This is really good.”
“I think so too. Are you wanting to play cards with other couples again tonight?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Not tonight. I think everyone’s too tired to think about cards or music or anything. Once we’re more used to the daily chores of being on the Trail, we’ll all do better with it.”
“I certainly hope you’re right.” Already, it felt as
if her enthusiasm was gone. She wanted to turn tail and go home, but that wasn’t the answer. No, she would have to be strong and just handle it all.
She wrapped the biscuits for breakfast the following day in a piece of cloth, and then she left the stew right in the pot and covered it. It was cold enough at night that there was no worry about the food spoiling.
She spooned out a portion of the stew and put it in a bowl for the kittens to share, and then she added a small bit of milk to another bowl. The kittens lapped it up happily. She’d decided to feed them a little of their supper and some milk every day until they started hunting for their own food.
She washed the few dishes they’d used right in the river, and carried them back up to the wagon. The sun was setting, but it was still early. “Would I seem like a sloth if I went to bed now?”
Jed laughed. “Look around you.”
It seemed that most people had been exhausted from the day’s work and decided to sleep early as well. With as cold as it was, it took more energy to do most things. The tents had all been erected with a few of the unmarried men sleeping outside in a bedroll.
She smiled. “I think I’m going to write in my journal very quickly and then follow suit. Today was long and hard, but tomorrow will be just like today.” She nodded toward the tent he’d set up while she was cooking supper. “Thanks for making sure we had shelter.”
“We’ll leave the river tomorrow and head for Mosquito Creek, which shouldn’t be covered in mosquitoes,” he said with a smile. “We always want to camp on water when we can, because we’ll need it. The barrel of water in the wagon is never to be used for anything but cooking. All right?”
“That makes sense to me.” She covered a yawn with her hand. Climbing into the wagon, she lit a small lantern and quickly wrote in her journal about her day. She talked about the time with Mary and her mother, and watching Mrs. Bolling’s girls, and skinning her first rabbit. She was sure there would be many more to come. As soon as she’d finished, she turned down the lantern and stowed her journal back in her trunk.
Gathering the bedding she and Jed would share, she took it outside and laid one blanket on the ground of the tent, and left the other three to cover them. When they snuggled closely together, it provided enough warmth that they made it through the night. She wondered what would have happened to him without her body heat.
Once they were bedded down for the night, she said a silent prayer, thanking God for getting them to their first destination safely. There would be many more destinations and many more days to travel, but they would take those one day at a time.
Hannah woke again to the sound of the gunshot, and for just a moment, she snuggled under the covers closer to her husband. “I want to stay in bed all day,” she said softly.
He wrapped an arm around her and held her close. “I would too, but it’s time for work.” He yawned right in her ear, and she sat up.
“I’ll get the fire started,” she said with another yawn, doing her best to force herself to wake up.
“I’ll go help make sure the livestock didn’t wander too far during the night.” He sat up, pulling his suspenders over his shoulders. He went to the wagon, and drew on his heavy coat and went to join the other men, while Hannah started the fire for their coffee.
By the time he got back to camp, she had the coffee made, and she had even melted butter on their biscuits and added jam. He sat down on the ground beside her, still yawning. “Two of the Jensen’s cows wandered off during the night. I got them, and they’re back where they belong.”
“Good. We’ll need all of our livestock when we get to Oregon.” Hannah handed him his cup of coffee and his plate of biscuits and jam. “How far do you think we’ll go today?”
“The goal is always twenty miles per day. Whether we can do that is a completely different story. We did ten yesterday, but it took almost half the day to get the wagons ferried across the water.”
“I will do everything I can to keep up.” She sighed. “I don’t think I told you I have new names for the kittens.”
“Oh? What did you decide on?” He hoped it wasn’t one of her silly names for the animals.
“I named the girl Naughty.”
He laughed. “And the tom is Nice?” he asked, grinning.
“Oh, no. The tom is Naughtier.”
“Now those are good names for those two.” He poured a little cream from the milk bucket out into a saucer for the kittens, and they both gobbled it up greedily.
A short while later, they were ready to move on. Hannah walked with Amanda and Sally, holding their hands and talking to them. She pointed out any animals she saw and any other things she could think of that might be of interest to two little girls.
Mary walked beside her, musket at the ready. “I’m going to try for a deer today. That would be enough food for all three families and more.”
“You’ve taken it upon yourself to feed Mrs. Bolling’s family every night, haven’t you?” Hannah asked.
“Of course, I have. Just because I carry a musket doesn’t mean I don’t have a soft heart.” Mary looked past Hannah. “Jeremiah, get out of those weeds. We follow the trail for a reason!”
A small boy, who couldn’t have been more than five, hurried over to Mary. “Sorry, Mary. I thought I saw a snake.”
Mary closed her eyes for a moment. “If you see a snake, it could be poisonous. We don’t want to bury you in Iowa now, do we?” She pointed to a human skull on the ground not too far off the trail.
“No. I guess not. I’m going to run up ahead and see what the wagons are doing.”
Mary shook her head at Hannah. “He’s the most curious boy I’ve ever met. He constantly needs to be learning new things and seeing new things. He’s going to be dead by the time we reach Nebraska. Ma took half the children today, just so I could keep a better eye on Jeremiah.”
Hannah shook her head, glad the girls were being so cooperative. At the moment, at least. “It’s strange to see so much barren land after being on the banks of the Missouri so long. Jed said we’re looking to camp on Mosquito Creek tonight. It sounds itchy to me.”
“Me too. I guess that’s one of the benefits of traveling when it’s colder than a witch’s tit. Not as many bugs around to bite us.”
Hannah giggled at the crude expression. “Well, I’m glad we won’t be eaten alive by bugs at least. Not until it warms up some anyway.”
“Do you know if we’re stopping for the noon meal today?” Mary asked.
“Why wouldn’t we?” Hannah asked. “Won’t we stop for a noon meal every day?” If they were going to walk all day every day, then they needed to stop for food in her opinion. How else would they have the energy to keep going?
“Probably not. We’re trying to make really good time to beat the winter to Oregon. I’m not sure if it’s even possible, but I know the men have been talking about it since we all camped together in Independence.”
“Doesn’t Independence feel forever away now? I lived there my whole life until yesterday, and now it seems almost as if it’s just a distant memory.”
Mary nodded. “It does feel that way. It feels like the only real people in the whole world are the ones on this journey with us. Will we even remember how to talk to people when we get there?”
“I hope we will,” Hannah said. “I’m a preacher’s wife, after all, and I’m going to have to act all proper after the trail. Jed is fine with a split skirt for now, but I can tell you with a certainty that he is going to expect me to act like a lady after we arrive in Oregon.”
“He probably will expect it. And I’ll be off on my homestead wearing trousers and shooting at any critter I see.” Mary grinned. “We’ll have to enjoy being equals while we’re on the trail, because we certainly weren’t before, and we won’t be after.”
“We’ll always be equals, because we’ll always be women working as hard as we can toward a goal. Now if one of us lazed about and did nothing, then she would be inferior. There is absolutel
y nothing inferior about you, Mary Mitchell.”
Mary grinned. “I guess not.” She stopped walking and brought her musket to her shoulder and shot off into the distance. She raised a hand in victory as the buck she was shooting at fell. “I got him. We have supper! Keep going. I’ll catch up.”
Hannah didn’t see what other choice she had, so she and the girls continued walking alongside the wagons. They stopped a short while later for the noon meal, and after returning the girls to their mother, Hannah stretched out her legs as she put cold stew into two bowls, taking both to Jed on the wagon. She climbed up beside him and ate a few bites of stew. It certainly wasn’t as good cold as it was warm, but it was palatable.
“Mary just shot a deer. She plans to feed half the camp with it tonight,” Hannah said with a smile. “I’ve never seen anyone handle a gun the way she does.”
“She really is skilled,” Jed agreed.
“How are things going today?” she asked. “Are we making good time?”
“We are. We should be at Mosquito Creek after another couple of hours of travel, and we’ll spend the night there.”
“And what’s the next thing we’ll reach after that?” She knew Jed had a map that he was constantly referring to that told him where they were going and what landmarks they’d see first.
“Wolf River is where we’ll head tomorrow. We’ll need to use rafts to cross that river from what I understand.”
“We’ll have wood and water, then. That’s what we’re looking for every night, isn’t it?”
Jed nodded with a smile. “That’s exactly what we’re looking for every night. There’ll be a lot of nights we have to use buffalo chips to cook with or to warm ourselves by, but one of those nights will not be tonight.”
Hannah wrinkled her nose. “I suppose it’ll be my job to collect them?”
Hannah's Hanky (Clover Creek Caravan Book 1) Page 7
