Lieutenant John Holbrook, Sergeant John Wheeler

by Laszlo Endrody

  We went back out to the field and started loading all over again. The same cutter that came to help us before came to help load. He was a younger man.

  He told us, “The war is finished and we’re all coming home now.”

  “That’s great,” I said.

  We knocked off for lunch. The girls had stew and coffee ready for us.

  I asked the young man that was helping us what his name was.

  He said, “Dave or David, I answer to either.”

  “I am John,” I told him.

  The girls continued to feed us and he enjoyed the service he was getting.

  I noticed that he kept looking at one of the girls that was serving him and I asked him, “Do you like the girls that’s waiting on you?”

  “She’s real nice,” he said.

  “Her name is Tilda,” I told him.

  When she came back by to refill his coffee cup he said, “Thanks, Tilda.”

  “You’re welcome,” she replied.

  “The priest got all these girls to work for me,” I told him.

  “The priest told me to come out here and work too. He told me to see the boss because he would give me a job, so who’s the boss?” Dave asked.

  “You’re looking at him,” I replied, “and you’re hired. So, what outfit did you fight with?”

  “First Calvary,” he stated.

  “Good outfit,” I assured him.

  “Where can I stay tonight?” he asked.

  “Do you have any blankets with you?” I asked.

  “Yes, I have a few of them.”

  “All right, then you can stay in the barn. We are going to build a bunkhouse pretty soon.”

  Teresa then asked me, “What is this young man’s name?”

  “David,” I told her. “I just hired him to work for us and he will be staying in the barn for now.”

  The girls overheard what I was telling Teresa and they all started to clamor around Dave. They kept asking him if he wanted more stew or more milk in his coffee. It was quite comical to watch.

  Sergeant Bexter came in but all the seats were taken, so I got up and told him to sit in my seat.

  I told him, “This is David, First Calvary.”

  They shook hands and I told David, “Sergeant Bexter here is my partner. We were Calvary too.”

  “How many acres do you farm here, Sergeant?” David asked.

  “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Teresa,” replied Sergeant Bexter.

  Teresa overheard us and said, “I haven’t added it up, but it must be around 3,000 acres.”

  “Wow!” David exclaimed.

  “We added three sections at the tax sale and the priest also has a section that we will farm as well. It means a lot of plowing,” Teresa told him.

  “I stayed in the priest’s barn last night. I drove my horses into his corral and he said I could keep them there if I wanted. He told me that his boys will feed them for me,” David stated.

  “Are they broke to harness?” I asked.

  “I think two of them are,” he replied.

  “How did you get your horses?” I asked.

  “I was attacked by bandits three times coming home from Texas and I adopted their horses.”

  “That’s great. There will be room in the barn at the Dexter farm. You can move in and make it your home,” I told David. “There are six girls who live in the house now. It would be good to have a man around there just in case they need help or if someone tried to bother them. They were homeless girls the priest put in there. They all lost their husbands in the war. The girls keep up the house real nice. If you want the room in that barn, we can get you a bed, chairs, a table, a stove, and a couch to sit on. You can put your horses in the corrals and we can fill the barn with hay. When we cut Burney’s 60 acres for hay, we can fill your barn full too, the Pilsner’s as well. Mrs. Pilsner has a buckboard that needs four new wheels, but we can get that fixed up for you to use. You would have to get the harnesses but we would supply the wheels. If you want to work a couple of teams, you can make another 40 dollars per month by being charge of the plowing. We have to plow for wheat, oats, corn, and potatoes. We have to put in the priest’s 640 acres worth of crops in as well. Wheat or corn, or both,” I told him.

  We went back out to the wheat and began hauling it to the trash machine. We really needed two more wagons. I went to the wagon builder with money in my pocket and asked him for a big wagon.

  I asked the builder if he had any wagons available. He told me, “We’ll have one ready in two days.” Two days later, we went with a team to pick it up. We now had a nice new three-ton wagon. I paid him in full with a 100 dollar gold certificate and 20 dollars gold. The builder was happy.

  “We can have another one in two weeks,” the builder stated.

  “I will take it,” I replied.

  The next morning, a man named Brandy came to work for us, so I had him work with Sergeant Bexter. Sergeant Bexter had a peg leg but he was still able to work like a fit man. Bexter was happy to get the help. I had David helping me.

  When the new wagon arrived, I let David take it and I started to load it. I got one of the cutters to help me and as soon as we were loaded, we went to the machine. As soon as we were empty, we had to load sacks onto it and take it to the dealer. He said he was too busy and told us to bring it back the next day. I went from there to the mill and he took the wheat. He told me he would have flour for me any time I needed it. I went and hauled another load to the machine and then packed up another load of sacks and took them home. We unloaded it into the barn.

  We loaded all three wagons and had them ready to take to the mill the next morning. After we ate breakfast, we went to the machine. I was first in line. After I was empty, I loaded the wagon with sacks and took them to the dealer. He unloaded me and I went and loaded wheat from the field. I had two helpers loading. They were moving slowly but we were catching up. I would have about one more wagon next time.

  We would be able to harvest the oats in another two weeks. After the oats, I knew I would need to have the new corn planter to plant the corn. I would let Sergeant Bexter and Burney plant some as well. We had about 80 acres plowed at the priest’s place and I would plant corn there. The rest would be for winter wheat.

  I picked up a wagonload of flour and distributed it to all of my houses. Each of them got three or four sacks and then I took the rest to the priest for the orphans. He was really happy with me. He said that he was going to make pancakes for them.

  I had a free day so David and I took the smaller wagon and went furniture shopping. We picked up a stove and a nice couch and bed. We also picked up a table and two chairs. We took it out to the Dexter barn. The girls cleaned out a room for David so we could unload the stove, pipe, and couch. When we set up the bed, we also set up the mattress, table, and chairs. There were four girls wiping down everything after we finished.

  While we were in town, we also got the wheels for Mrs. Pilsner’s buckboard and David bought a set of harnesses. We put the new wheels on the buckboard and harnessed up his two horses. Then he started giving the girls rides in the buckboard. Those girls had all kinds of fun sharing rides with him. He fixed the corrals where they had been damaged and then put his horses in the corral. He told the priest that he would help plow the winter wheat.

  Harvesting the oats went really well. With the extra wagon, it went very well. We hauled of load of straw to all the barns from the trash machine. Most of the oats went into my barn for seed and for the horses. We gave the dealer one wagon-full and I told him that we might sell him some more later. We sold all of the flour we had at the mill to the grocer.

  After we delivered the flour, we picked up some potatoes for seed. The girls had to cut most of them in half. The halved potatoes went into baskets in the wagon. We made holes in the ground with the empty corn planter and planted the potatoes by hand. It took about a week to plant 80 acres. The girls were happy they had a
lot of work because they were making money.

  After we finished with the potatoes, the plowing really started. I had to buy two more plows and we had the boys from the orphanage come over to help. David was in charge of the plowing and he was breaking all of his horses to harness. He plowed with eight plows.

  The wheelwright had a used military wagon, which he fixed up, including the wheels that I bought for 50 dollars. We used it to go after wood. We used David’s buckboard team and went after firewood, posts, and poles. David came along to do some hunting and I loaned him my Henry. We got two deer and two wolves. I told him to be very careful with wolves because they could be diseased and could infect a person.

  “The minute you see one, shoot,” I told him. “Try to clean the deer out here and we can skin them when we get back.”

  When we got back, we distributed all the meat, as well as the wood. When he went home, the girls thanked Dave for the meat.

  “We can have stew!” they said. They started to cut up the meat.

  “Tell Eva to get over here and start peeling the potatoes,” one of them said.

  Dave went to his room and Eva was sleeping on his couch. His bed was made up, the windows were washed, and he had some underwear hanging on a rope to dry. He sat down next to her on the couch. She was so pretty. He kissed her on the cheek and she woke up.

  “I’m so sorry, I fell asleep, David,” she said.

  “That’s alright, dear. We are going for dinner at the bosses place,” David told her.

  “I can’t go there,” she replied.

  “You can with me,” he assured her.

  “But you are one of the bosses,” she said.

  “That isn’t true. I’m only in charge of the plowing boys and they are over at the priest’s farm plowing for winter wheat,” David explained to her.

  He hitched up the buckboard and brought Eva with him to my place for dinner. A young man named Charles was there and he and Dave talked about working with the horses that were at the priest’s house. When dinner was served, Charles left to take care of the animals and ate with the orphans and Father Williams.

  David introduced Eva to everyone and they were all nice to her. Sergeant Bexter asked if she would be helping rake in the oats. “I would love to help,” Eva replied. That’s what we liked to hear. Anyone that loved to work had come to the right place. We had a nice dinner with freshly baked bread and butter. It was delicious. Eva told David that she was glad that he had brought her.

  “Maybe I will earn enough to buy a new dress,” Eva stated.

  “How are your shoes?” David asked.

  “They are falling apart,” she told him.

  “We have to get you new shoes before you can work so you can rake in the oats. I will help you so you can work. You have to have good shoes,” he said.

  “I will pay you back, David,” she assured him.

  He then told her, “Not to worry.”

  They thanked us for a lovely meal and then they went back to their place. David told me later that he asked Eva if he could kiss her and she said yes.

  David walked Eva to her door and told her, “I will see you tomorrow and we’ll go get you some shoes. Good night, dear.”

  “Goodnight and thank you, David,” she said.

  That next morning, Eva had the coffee on in the kitchen and Betty had already milked the cow.

  Betty teased Eva and said, “You’d better take your husband a cup of coffee, Eva. He is up getting his horses taken care of.”

  Eva got her cup and filled it with black coffee and ran it out to David. He thanked her and said, “I was just thinking how nice a cup of coffee would be and you just brought me one. I will have to buy some coffee so we can make some in my room when we get up in the morning. Let’s go shopping today at noon and get some.”

  “That would be fine,” Eva agreed.

  “I will come and pick you up,” he told her.

  “I will be ready,” she assured him.

  “We can have lunch in town too.”

  “I don’t have anything nice to wear, but I would love to go with you any place you wish,” she told him.

  “You look nice as you are. We can go shopping for you if you want,” he said.

  She promised she would repay him. He finished the coffee and gave her the cup. He hugged her to him and gave her a kiss.

  “Thank you, David,” she said.

  “What are you thanking me for?” he asked.

  “For being so kind to me.”

  He reminded her again, “I will come for you at lunchtime.”

  He hitched up his team and left. He went and had breakfast and then went to work at the priest’s farm. All of the horses had to be harnessed up while they were having some oats. The boys were very good and very helpful. They liked their job, but they especially liked a dollar every day they worked. David was their boss. They all got their teams and went plowing and they plowed all day. The priest said that he would have lunch ready for everyone.

  David told the priest, “I have to go shopping for Eva so she can work. She needs shoes and jeans to work in.”

  “She is a nice girl,” the priest said. “She worked here before I took her out to that farm. The house was empty and I put some homeless girls in it to keep everything up. They are supposed to keep everything clean. Mr. Holbrook took them some food to cook, along with a kitchen stove to cook it on. He is very nice to these girls.”

  “I know how he feels. He saw hundreds of their husbands lying dead on battlefields,” David said.

  He went to pick up Eva and she was ready to go. They went to the grocer first so she could get some socks for the shoes. When they went in, they got some candy and then David asked the grocer’s wife to help Eva find some clothes and shoes. She needed underwear, hose, socks, dresses, and jeans. The grocer and his wife said that they had come to the right place.

  “Let’s go to the other room,” the grocer’s wife told Eva. When they got to the other room, Eva told the woman that she had no underwear.

  “Slip out of your dress and I will get everything that you need,” the grocer’s wife assured her.

  Eva slipped out of her dress and stood there in the nude. The grocer’s wife got her a garter belt and helped her adjust it. Then she got some hose and helped her put them on, along with the bloomers. They were red, black, and pink. Then she got some nice lacy slips.

  “Take all of that off now so we can find some undershirts to wear under the blouse with the jeans. David looked in and the grocer’s wife told him “not yet.”

  “How many jeans does she need?” the grocer’s wife asked David.

  “Three,” he told her.

  She tried some on and they were a good fit. Next, the grocer’s wife brought out some blouses and Eva tried them on too. They looked nice on her. Then she took the jeans off and folded them up and handed them back to the grocer’s wife. The grocer’s wife handed Eva three more dresses to try on and they all fit. She kept the last one on but they were buying all three.

  They totaled everything up and it came to $32.50. David got his wallet out and paid for everything. They left the store and went to the shoemaker and asked if he had some readymade shoes for her.

  “What kind of shoes are you interested in?” he asked.

  “Work shoes,” she replied.

  He measured her foot and came out with several pairs. One pair fit her just right. They were a lace up pair. David paid for them and she wore them out of the store. They went to get some lunch at a restaurant and then they hurried back to the priest’s farm.

  Eva went in and helped clean up after the children’s lunch. David went and talked to the boys that were plowing. He then went inside to check on Eva and asked her if she would like to be his wife. Eva was overjoyed and told him that she would love to be is wife.

  She told him, “I promise I will be a good wife.” David asked the priest if he would marry them after the services that co
ming Sunday. The priest was excited to hear the news and was very happy for Eva. He thought very highly of her. The priest then told David that he would need to have two witnesses for the ceremony.

  When they went home, Eva said that she would have to keep her purchases in his room to keep everything away from the other girls.

  “Can I change back into my old dress?” she asked him.

  “Yes, you can,” he said.

  She slipped out of her new dress and hung it on the chair. She then pulled her slip off and put it on the chair too, and then her shirt. He felt her breasts.

  “Do you like them?” she asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “You will have to stay with me tonight.”

  “Anything you say,” she said. “You are the boss.”

  “Take the rest of your clothes off,” he said.

  “I have to unlace my boots first,” she told him.

  “While you do that, I will put the horses into the corral,” he said.

  When he came back, she had nothing on. She stood up and turned around a couple times for him.

  “Do I look alright?” she asked.

  “You look beautiful. Come to bed now honey so I can make love to you,” he told her.

  He took his clothes off too and they spent their first night together. In the morning, she made coffee. He had a lot of old newspapers to start a fire, so she put a coffee pot on to boil. When it was ready, she had a cup with David.

  “Will the girls fix you breakfast?” he asked.

  “If they don’t, I will fix it myself,” she assured him.

  He left and had a quick breakfast at my house and then started the kids plowing.