by F. M. Parker
The crowd had stood transfixed as the boy danced. Now a great flash of smiles showed and someone clapped. The clap was instantly taken up by the other people and the gymnasium filled and echoed with the clamor of many hands.
Even before the clapping stopped, Alice saw two different couples of a man and a woman break from the gathering and hastened in Teddy’s direction. Teddy, you have won a home, thought Alice. And good for you.
Alice felt Della’s hand tighten on hers as the entire group of people came alive and moved in a wave toward the children. Their faces held a look of expectation and an urgency to have first choice from among the children. As the people drew closer, Alice saw a young man and woman had their eyes on Della.
The two drew close and stopped in front of Alice and Della. “Is this your sister?” the woman asked Alice in a soft voice.
“No. She’s my good friend.”
“I want to stay with Alice,” Della said hastily for she understood the purpose of the question.
“We have a very little house and room for just one little girl,” said the woman as she knelt in front of Della. The man knelt beside his wife. The woman spoke, “We’d like to talk with you about being our little girl. Would you talk with us?”
Della looked up at Alice. “Do you think it’d be all right for me to talk with them?”
“I think you should for they look like very kind people and you would be their only little girl. And I don’t believe there will be many people willing to take both of us.”
Della thought about that for a moment. Then she turned to the kneeling woman and studied her eye to eye for a few seconds. “Would you take me to see Alice?”
“If she stays close by Bemiji, I certainly would.”
Della looked up at Alice. “I’ll talk with them.” She turned to the woman and put out her hand. The woman clasped it tenderly.
“We’ll go over there just a little ways where we can talk in private,” said the woman.
The young man and woman led Della away.
As Alice looked back along the line of girls, a man and woman were approaching with quick steps, the woman on the man’s side and a step behind him. The man’s sight was fixed on Alice. He spoke over his shoulder to the woman and she began to smile. Alice thought the smile forced.
The woman was nearly as tall as the man and thin. Brown hair framed a narrow face with small eyes, a nose too large, the lips thin. She possessed none of the rounded curves of breast and hips of a woman. A very homely woman, some might even call her ugly. Alice had made the appraisal, but the woman’s body was not her fault, only the uncaring hand of fate.
The man was strongly built with a broad chest and a broad face that reminded her a little of her father, but lacking her father’s outstanding tallness. As the couple drew closer, Alice saw the similarities of the man with her father diminish to but minor sameness. This man had a hard face. His eyes were of a peculiar light brown color.
The man stopped in front of Alice and the woman halted by his side. “I‘m Cole Taggert,” the man said and his eyes running over Alice from the crown of her head to her feet. His eyes came to rest on Alice’s face. “This is my wife Matilda. We call her Matty. What’s your name?”
“Alice Childs.
“Well, Alice, we’re interested in a girl about your size to help Matty around the farm. Could we talk a little?”
She recalled her mother’s words that a woman could tell by the expression in a man’s eyes what he was thinking about her. She had had much practice with strange males during the past few months, as with the Pannonia’s chief steward, her friend Andrew, the generous old cobbler, and the rough boys on the city streets. However she could read nothing in this man’s eyes for it was like trying to glean information from puddles of mud. What thoughts lurked in their hidden depths? She was receiving conflicting emotions about the pair. Her intuition told her to be wary, and yet the man’s soft words together with the smiling woman were sending a different message.
“Cole, this girl will be stronger and can do heavier work,” said the woman and pointing at the sturdy Opal.
Cole gave Opal a brief head to toe inspection. Then without looking at the woman, he spoke in a voice that brooked no argument, “No, Matty, we should choose this other one if she is willing to come home with us.”
Cole faced back to Alice. “We have cows and horses, and a large pond for skating in the winter and good for fishing and swimming in the summer,” said the man. “Best of all, you would have your own room.”
The man’s outburst of information about his farm surprised Alice for it seem that he was trying to persuade her to accept them instead of the other way around.
“She could start school at once, isn’t that so, Matty?” The man’s voice demanded an affirmative answer.
“Oh, yes, at once,” the woman said hastily. “I was born and raised on the farm and went to school from there. The school bus comes past the lane to our house.”
The thought of being able to go to school and living on the farm where the woman had grown up, decided Alice. To have a home was worth taking a chance on them. And further, if the people and their home didn’t turn out to be the correct one for her, she would leave and go to Father Brannan.
“I must go to school,” Alice said.
“You have our promise,” said the man and he smile broadly. “You’ll find we have a nice farm. Now let’s go pass Sister Marie’s inspection and then we can all go home”
Taggert led the way toward the table where Sister Marie sat with Sister Evangeline, Mayor Sherrod, and Father Brannan. As Alice and the man and woman drew close, Sister Marie gave Alice a look that asked if she was satisfied with the man and woman who had selected her. Alice read the expression for what it was and gave Sister Marie a slight nod.
Sister Marie entered the information into her ledger that Matilda and Cole Taggert had taken the fourteen year old female Alice Childs into their home under the conditions as described. Matilda and Cole signed their names at the proper location on the page.
As Alice and the Taggerts were about to leave the table and Sister Marie, Cole caught the eyes of Sheriff Taggert and spoke to him. “Oscar, come out to the farm on Sunday and have dinner with us.”
“I’d like that and I’ll be there unless a case comes up that Horton can’t handle.”
Sam ignored the Sheriff’s comment. He had seen Cole Taggert select the pretty blond girl from the line of girls. He had also been present when Cole had chosen a girl from the Orphan Train back in April. That girl had stayed with Cole and aunt Matty only a few days before she ran away. Sam had ridden with the sheriff searching for the girl, but had found no trace of her. He knew Cole treated Matty badly. Had he also treated the girl in the same manner and that had caused her to run away?
Sam saw a special look pass between Cole Taggert and the sheriff. There was something in the trade of looks that seemed almost conspiratorial, a secret between the two. Surely Sam must be wrong about that.
Sam watched Cole, his aunt Matty and the blond girl make their way toward the exit of the gymnasium. “Cole has chosen another pretty girl to take to the farm. He must work them hard for they soon run away.”
“What was that you said?” the sheriff questioned, his head snapping around.
Sam cursed himself for he had spoken his thoughts out loud. “I merely said that, Cole has taken another pretty girl home.”
“So what, Horton? What in the hell is that to you?”
“Absolutely nothing. I was just thinking.”
“Keep your damn thoughts to yourself.”
Sam remained silent and wishing mightily that he had indeed kept them to himself. By speaking, he had inadvertently crossed a line that only the sheriff knew about.
“I’ve told you before that you talk too goddamn much,” Taggert continued. “Some day that could get you into a hell of a lot of trouble.”
Sam flashed angry for he recognized the expression and the tone of the words from pre
vious outbursts by the sheriff. They had always led to somebody getting hurt, usually a prisoner in the jail getting a smashed face or a cracked head, and sometimes with a suspect of a crime who was reluctant to answer a question. Through Sam’s anger, he felt a prickle run along his spine. He wasn’t a prisoner; however he wasn’t sure how much protection that gave him from the quick fists of the sheriff. The thought came to him of the death of Deputy Johansson. Had Johansson said something that had enraged Taggert to the degree that he was killed? That seemed highly unlikely. Sam didn’t like being threatened. He would think on the question of why the sheriff had taken so much offense at Sam’s simple observation of facts about the new girl.
*
Alice turned back at the door of the gymnasium and looked at the lines of boys and girls. There were empty spaces in the lines where children had been drawn from them by folks for private conversation. Opal stood alone in the spot where she had been when the inspection of the children had begun. Her face held shame and disappointment. She had been examined and judged, a demeaning experience by itself, and then rejected. Poor Opal, thought Alice. She lifted a hand in farewell to Opal, who raised her hand in return.
There were other girls and boys still standing silently in the broken line. A few held expressions of hope that someone would yet come to talk with them and find them not too ugly and take them into their home. Alice blinked to keep from crying. She wished with all her heart that Opal and all the remaining children would be chosen at the next stop of the train. She tried to hold back her feelings, trying not to be hurt too much by the sadness so openly expressed, but she could not. The picture of the orphans standing so forlornly would remain with Alice the rest of her life. She left the gymnasium with the Taggerts.
*
Under the dark, low hanging clouds, the black Ford Model A farm truck droned on and on slewing and sliding and spinning it’s wheels on the snow packed road that twisted and turned and dipped into hollows and climbed the hills. The wind came up through a crack in the wooden floor boards to freeze Alice’s feet in their low cut shoes that were wet from wading snow. She wiggled her toes and could barely feel them. The Taggerts were dressed in winter clothing and boots and gave no sign they felt the cold.
Alice sat between Cole and Matty in the single seat of the truck. The bed of the truck was empty except for a spare tire. Cole drove, steering left and right to correct the skids of the truck, and shifting to low gear to plow through the snowdrifts that the wind had built across the narrow country road. Alice tried to keep track of the distance traveled. She gave up after a time simply knowing it was a very long distance from Bemiji.
Cole reached in his usual gesture to shift gears. Instead of grabbing the gearshift extending up from its mount on the floor boards, he caught Alice by the leg and gave it a quick squeeze, before releasing it and taking hold of the gearshift and shifting.
Alice hastily moved her legs away from the gearshift, and looked at the woman to see if she had seen what her husband had done. Matty looked steadily ahead, seeming not to have observed the man’s groping hand. She appeared totally turned inward to her private self. Alice moved away from Cole as far as she could on the short seat and close to Matty. She could still feel the man’s calloused fingers upon her leg and hated his touch.
*
Several additional long, cold miles had passed under the rolling wheels of the Ford when Cole spoke. “We’re almost home” He pointed ahead at a metal mail box mounted on top of a post on the right side of the road.
Alice made out the name Taggert on the side of the mail box. The paint of the name appeared new as compared to the rusty condition of the mailbox, and that caused Alice to wonder how long Cole Taggert had lived on the farm. Matty had said that she was born and grew up here. Were they newly married?
Just past the mail box, Cole steered the truck into a lane that showed one set of tire tracks partially covered with snow drifts. Large oak trees, their limbs frozen and stripped bare of leaves by swift winds, bordered the lane. The widely spreading branches of each tree reached out over the lane and intertwined with those of the tree on the opposite side.
Alice stared out through the windshield at the tangle of limbs. She thought the opposing oaks seemed to be battling each other for space, and it came to her that they really were battling each other for space in the sun. Just as she was struggling to find a place to survive under the sun.
The farm house came into view ahead, a single story frame structure of moderate size painted white and with a steeply pitched roof, as all building seemed to have in this land of snow. As the truck plowed further along the lane through the snow, a fair size barn came into view to the right of the house. Its wooden sides were weathered to a dark gray from enduring many years of storms. Four cows and a team of horses were in a fenced area attached to the side of the barn. On the right of the barn was a broad field of snow with the blond stubble of wheat stalks showing above the whiteness. A dense wood lay beyond the wheat field. Alice wondered what size farm the Taggerts owned.
Cole brought the truck to a stop beside the house. “Your two go on inside and get the fire started,” he said. “It looks like it’s going to snow so I’m going to put the truck in the barn. I’ll feed the livestock and milk the cows while I’m out there.”
Matty made no response. She opened the door and climbed out. Alice, anxious to put distance between Cole’s calloused hands and herself, scrambled out after Matty. The deep snow, reaching far above her shoe tops, poured in around her frozen feet. She must not complain. She would not. She clamped her jaws together and waded through the snow behind Matty.
As they drew near the house, two black and tan hound dogs of medium size bounded off the porch and rushed out to meet them. The dogs centered on Matty, dancing about her with joy. One began barking a greeting to her. The second joined in and the two gave the woman a choral medley of welcome.
The dogs quieted and turned their attention to Alice and came close sniffing and nosing her. She felt no danger for she noted their wagging tails and the friendliness of their eyes. She reached out and petted and rubbed their long, floppy ears. The tails wagged more swiftly.
“Well now, how about that?” Matty said. “They usually don’t take to strangers.”
“Dogs just seem to like me,” Alice replied.
“I believe that from what I see.”
Matty continued on toward the house, to halt at a large stack of wood covered with a tarpaulin. She spoke to Alice. “Put your bag inside the door and then come back and help me carry wood inside to fill the wood boxes.”
“Yes, mam,” Alice replied.
“Call me Matty,” the woman said in a voice that for the first time held some warmth.
“Yes, Matty.”
“Just shove the door open for it‘s always unlocked.”
Alice stepped upon the porch and to the door that opened upon the turn of the doorknob. She leaned inside the house and placed her satchel on the floor beside the door. This was the kitchen with table and chairs and a large cast iron cooking stove. To her left was a wide room with furniture and a big, round heating stove in the center.
Alice hastened back to the wood pile and filled her arms and followed Matty into the house. After several trips by Matty and Alice to the wood pile and back inside, the wood boxes of both stoves were full.
Alice stood shivering and watched Matty kneel in front of the heating stove, and using an iron poker, move aside the ashes that had been used to bank the fire. Live coals glowed red as the air struck them. Matty carefully placed kindling of slender pieces of wood upon the coals.
Matty spoke over her shoulder. “Do you know how to start a fire?”
“Yes. At times I started the fire at home in Terryville. Except we used coal instead of wood.”
“I’d like to hear about your home. When we get settled, you must tell me about it.”
“I’d like to.”
Matty placed larger pieces of wood upon the blazing kin
dling and closed the iron door of the stove. As she rose to her feet, she noted Alice’s low cut shoes and her shivering body.
“Dear mother in heaven, you’re freezing. Drag up a chair and put your feet close to the stove. I’ll fix you a big mug of hot chocolate.”
Matty turned away toward the kitchen. She pulled off her coat and hat and draped them on the back of a chair as she left the front room.
Alice was pleased to comply with Matty’s direction. She carried a chair near the stove, sat down, pulled off her shoes and socks and placed them on the wood box to dry. She put her bare feet close to the metal side of the stove that was warming from the fire within. Ah, how wonderful to be able to feel her toes again. They began to tingle as the blood flowed more strongly. She looked into the kitchen where Matty was preparing food with swift and practiced movements. Alice should be helping Matty, but she was just too cold.
In but a few minutes, Matty came into the room and handed Alice a steaming mug of chocolate. “Supper will be ready in half an hour,” Matty said. “Until then just you stay warm.” Matty hastened back to the kitchen.
The outside door swung open and Cole came into the house carrying a pail of milk. Without a word, he handed the pail to Matty. He turned back to the door and picked up Alice’s satchel from beside the door and carried it into the front room.
“It going to be a bitch of a night for the temperature is falling fast,” he said to Alice and handed her the satchel. “Come and let me show you your bedroom.”
Alice followed Cole through one of the doors and into a room with a full size bed, a wooden wardrobe, and a straight backed wooden chair. Close beside the bed was a nightstand with an oil lamp and a small glass holding matches for lighting its wick.
“There’s a thick pile of quilts on the bed so you should keep warm,” Cole said.
