A Home for the Heart

by Michael Phillips

  “What do you think, Braxton?” said Pa above the din. “You game for a little gold mining?”

  “You’re the boss!”

  Pa threw his head back and laughed. “I know that’s what you’re trying to tell me.”

  “You tell me what to do, and I’ll follow.”

  “Then I say we tear into that mountain and find us some more gold.”

  “You sure there’s more there?”

  “As sure as I am of anything. I can smell it. So can Alkali. But every new line we sent out from the old shaft came up dry. That’s why I figure the best way to go about it is to dig a whole new shaft.”

  “Remember how Mr. Royce was trying to get his hands on that land, Pa?” I said.

  “You bet, I do! That’s another reason I’m sure there’s gold there—Franklin Royce could smell money, even underground!”

  Again we all laughed.

  “Who’s Franklin Royce?” asked Christopher.

  “It’s a long story,” I answered him. “I’ll tell you all about it. Better yet, I’ll let you read about it in my journals—someday.”

  “I’m sure you’ll get a chance to meet him one of these days,” said Almeda. “He’s still around.”

  “Who owns the land now?” asked Christopher. “Did he buy it up?”

  Pa shook his head. “Nope. Me and Nick own most of it, up almost a mile into the forest. What money we made from the gold we put back into land.”

  “How much do you have?”

  “I don’t know. What we got now, Almeda?”

  “Something just over twelve hundred acres, Drummond.”

  Christopher whistled. “That’s a big chunk of land.”

  “God’s been good to us,” replied Pa. “’Course most of it’s woodland, and some is steep. Anyhow, we own the hill where the gold’s most likely to be. I’ve wanted to put in a new tunnel for years, but the time just never seemed right. I got busy in Sacramento, Zack was gone for a while and then has been involved with his horse business. Nick lost interest, and Tad couldn’t do it alone any more than I could. But I figure now, with all four of us working together, we could bore and dynamite and dig our way as far into that mountain as we need to.”

  “It’ll be just like the old days!” said Tad excitedly.

  “What do you say, son?” said Pa, turning toward Zack.

  “Yeah, Pa, I like it—a lot. I’ll have to talk to Little Wolf, though. I got commitments to him too, but I reckon we can work something out. And with the new barn and corral at our place, I’ll be able to keep training and breaking ponies here without going up to his place.”

  “What about you, Christopher?” said Pa.

  “Like I said before, you’re the boss. Just so long as I can manage enough odd time with other jobs to keep my tab paid with Mrs. Gianini.”

  “Well, that’s another thing I been thinking about,” said Pa, then paused. Everybody waited.

  “There’s one thing that’s different about now from the old days,” Pa went on, “and that is that my sons are grown men now, or nearly so. Tad, you’re twenty . . . Zack, you’re twenty-six. What about you, Christopher? How old are you?”

  “Thirty-one.”

  “There, you see. Both my sons, and the feller that’ll likely one day be my third son if he don’t show himself to be more of a nincompoop than anything I’ve seen in him yet”—Pa gave me a wink and a smile—“you three aren’t just young’uns, you’re men. Yeah, you’re right, maybe I am the boss and I’m the Pa and the oldest. But it still don’t seem like I got the right to ask you all to sacrifice your other jobs, where you’re making money just for my mine, which might be nothing but a harebrained idea of somebody who once hit gold and thinks everywhere he digs is gonna turn out the same.”

  “So what are you proposing we do, Pa?” asked Zack.

  “I’m proposing to make the three of you a proposition. I say whoever of you wants to be part of this thing—and I ain’t pressuring you, I’m just saying you can if you want, but you don’t have to—any rate, whoever wants to, we’ll be partners . . . equal partners. We’ll share the work, and whatever we find we split up four ways, and the gold will be yours to start your own lives with.”

  Tad and Zack immediately began whooping and hollering and talking again. They were so excited they were ready to start swinging the picks right then.

  Christopher looked over to me. I met his gaze. There was nothing to say. We both knew what an opportunity Pa was giving us.

  “’Course we’ll have to talk to Nick, on account of him owning half the mine. I ain’t exactly sure where the line is between what him and me claimed before and what Almeda and me has bought and staked claim to since, but we’ll want to give him his fair share, too, and invite him into this here partnership if he wants.

  “Thing is, finding that vein, and then pulling whatever gold is there out of it—that’s gonna take a heap of work. Ain’t no work harder than mining. So I want you to think it through from one end to the other—count the cost is what the Good Book calls it, and that’s what I want you to do. Then, if you’re of a mind to join up with me, then I figure maybe you’ll have to let your other work go for a spell—maybe not entirely, but mostly, ‘cause we’re gonna have a lot a work in front of us.”

  All three were ready and willing, from the looks on their faces, but Pa wasn’t finished. “Tad, that means the livery for you, and I know you like working there for Mr. Simms. He’s been good to you. Same for you, Zack. It might mean less work with your ponies for a spell. But if you’re gonna be part of a partnership, then hard work and lots of hours is all you got to put into it. So that’s a decision the two of you are gonna have to make. Same goes for you, Braxton. Might be too much work for you to have time for much else.

  “But for my part of the partnership, I figure it’s only fair that I give you all room and board till we find out if there’s gonna be any gold there. ‘Course, Zack and Tad, you two know that as long as Almeda and I are alive you always got a roof over your head and a plate in front of you without owing no obligation to us. We always made that clear to you. I love the two of you like only a father can love his own boys, and you can live under my roof as long as you like—I hope it’s many more years of the same.

  “You can bring your wives too—if you ever have them, that is,” Pa added with a grin. “This here plan of Christopher’s is one I’m starting to like, so I might just make you bring your wives here to live with us for a year before I give you my permission to marry them. What do you think of that, Braxton?” said Pa with a laugh.

  “I’m happy the arrangement is meeting with your approval,” smiled Christopher.

  Again we all laughed. I don’t know what the boys thought of Pa’s suggestion, but they didn’t seem shocked by it. And already they were hitting it off well enough with Christopher that I think they saw why he had wanted to do it this way.

  “That’s the same deal I’m gonna make with you, Christopher,” Pa continued. “If you want to be in on this partnership, then I’ll take care of your room and board. You don’t have to worry none about your bill with Mrs. Gianini.”

  Now for the first time Christopher began to squirm a little in his chair.

  “I said I didn’t want you to pay me, sir. I wouldn’t feel right taking money from you when I was the one to broach the subject of working with you.”

  “You said you wanted to work for me.”

  “But I came to you.”

  “And I said I agreed with your plan.”

  “Yes, but not for pay. If you had needed a hand and had hired me, so to speak, but as it was—”

  “Well I’m coming to you now,” insisted Pa. “I’m asking if you want to hire on as my partner. I’m making you the same deal I’m offering to my own two sons.”

  Christopher thought a moment.

  “I see your point,” he replied slowly. “However, I feel most strongly that it would not be right for me to accept money from you, which would be the major differe
nce between me and your arrangement with Tad and Zack. They are your sons. I am not yet worthy to be called anything except, I hope, a friend to you all. For the sake of our future relationship and the foundation of my hoped-for marriage to your daughter, I must not put you in an obligatory position with regard to me.”

  He paused for a second. Pa was listening intently.

  “It is not that I do not appreciate it,” Christopher went on, “but it would not be right at this time. Once Corrie and I are married—if your approval is forthcoming one day—then I would be your son in a spiritual sense, and everything would be different. Until that time, I must not presume upon your kindness and generosity.”

  Pa nodded his head slowly, trying to piece together everything that Christopher was saying. I could see that he was frustrated, but in a way which only heightened his respect for Christopher’s integrity.

  Most men are either too proud to receive help from another or else so willing to that they are constantly taking advantage of those around them by not holding up their fair share. Christopher was neither. He only wanted to walk the middle ground between the two so that proper order and integrity was maintained.

  “So you absolutely will not take money from me?” asked Pa.

  “I’m sorry—I’m afraid that’s correct.”

  “But you have no objection to sharing the proceeds of the mine if we do hit a strike?”

  “If I have done my fair share of the work. Though the fact that you do own the land disturbs me about what you are calling a partnership.”

  “Disturbs you . . . how?”

  “Even if we share the work, I would not be entitled to an equal share. It is your land . . . your gold. You could hire me to dig it out for you, but that does not make me a partner. The gold would still be yours.”

  “If you’re gonna be part of this family, then that brings you in for your share. Besides, until the Assembly lets out, you and the boys will be putting in more work than me. Don’t you see? It works out fair for everyone all the way around.”

  Christopher took in Pa’s words reflectively. “You make a good point, Mr. Hollister. But I still cannot allow you to pay for my board at Mrs. Gianini’s.”

  Again Pa nodded silently for a few seconds.

  “Well then,” he said in a tone of finality, “it seems to me there’s only one way out of this little dilemma. We’ll just have to add a bunkhouse onto this new barn we’re building.”

  No one said anything at first, not quite understanding what the new barn had to do with Christopher and money and the mine.

  “How come, Pa?” asked Tad. “How’s that gonna help?”

  “Well, we gotta find a place for Christopher here to live besides the boardinghouse, so that we can give him room and board too, but without any money changing hands.”

  I could hardly believe my ears! Was Pa really suggesting that Christopher move out here onto our property with us? And if he was, what else could it mean but that he liked Christopher and wanted him to be even more part of the family!

  “Well, what do you say to that notion, Braxton?”

  “I . . . I don’t know, Mr. Hollister,” replied Christopher with a laugh. “You have succeeded in catching me off guard.”

  “Can’t see as how you’d have any objection to living out here—in a room in the barn—and eating with us if you were working here with me and the boys every day.”

  “I see your point.”

  “I’d be showing you the same consideration I’d give to my other two partners here,” said Pa, nodding toward Tad and Zack.

  Christopher just looked thoughtful.

  “Good, then it’s settled!” exclaimed Pa. “Before your scruples think of something else you don’t like about it, I’m deciding that we’ll add a bunkhouse to the new barn.”

  Again Christopher laughed, not minding Pa’s lighthearted fun at his expense.

  “Can I live out in the bunkhouse too, Pa . . . with Christopher?” asked Tad.

  Pa’s face bent itself into a question mark as he thought about it.

  “Don’t reckon I see nothing wrong with it,” replied Pa. “That is, if Christopher’s got no objection.”

  “Of course not,” said Christopher. “It’s your place, not mine, and I’d welcome the company.”

  “Me too!” Zack now added boisterously.

  “Sounds like this bunkhouse is gonna take over the whole barn!” laughed Pa.

  “We can do it, Pa!” said Zack excitedly, “Can’t we, Tad . . . Christopher?”

  “Sure.”

  “I guess we can at that.”

  “The three of us’ll build a bunkhouse in the new barn! I know we can do it!”

  “Well, it’s sure all right by me,” said Pa. “The three of you can work on that and finish it up, though we’ll likely need more lumber. After you’re done and Christopher’s moved in—and you other two if you want to—by then we can start in on the new mine cave.”

  “Yeah!” exclaimed Zack with a yell of excitement, which Tad joined in on the next second.

  Christopher glanced over at me with a smile. I could tell he was excited about this turn of events too. I was so happy I couldn’t keep my mouth from smiling.

  “So . . . we got us a partnership?” asked Pa, looking around at the three young men.

  They all nodded.

  “Then let’s shake hands and make it official.”

  He held out his hand to Zack first. They shook hands firmly, looking each other in the eye. Then he and Tad did the same thing. Finally he shook Christopher’s hand too.

  Seeing a father shake a son’s hand like that—as two grown men making a pact together—made something leap inside my heart. It seemed so good, so right, so in harmony with God’s order of things.

  “And one more thing, Mr. Christopher Braxton,” said Pa when they’d all shook hands. “If we’re going to be partners, and if you’re gonna be eating at my table every day and bunking down in my barn, I figure it’s about time you started calling me by my name. Folks down in Sacramento can get away with calling me Mr. Hollister. But around here, I’m just plain Drum.”

  Christopher laughed.

  “All right,” he said. “I’ll do my best to comply with your request. How about Mr. Drum?”

  “Nope. Gotta just be Drum.”

  They laughed.

  I could tell they were both having fun with each other, and my heart warmed to hear it.

  “It’s a deal,” said Christopher. “But it goes both ways.”

  “Fair enough.”

  Chapter 35

  The Bunkhouse

  If I’d thought the new horse corral and barn was enough to get Zack and Tad excited, it was nothing compared to their enthusiasm now!

  I woke up the next morning to the sound of hammering outside. It couldn’t have been much past seven—but already Zack and Tad were out in the new barn working away.

  I got dressed and went out to see what they were up to. And I was surprised to see that Christopher had already ridden in from town and was working away beside them.

  “Corrie!” he said, glancing up, sweat already showing on his face. “Good morning!”

  “What are you all doing?” I exclaimed. “It’s barely light.”

  “We’re planning where to build the bunkhouse,” answered Zack.

  “It looks to me like you’re already building it.”

  “We got the planning out of the way in the first ten minutes,” laughed Christopher. “Now we’re building.”

  “Building what?”

  “A wall right here. Zack and Tad have just about got that section framed already. By noon, there’ll be a wall where you’re standing right now.”

  “You’re not going to enlarge the barn?”

  “No. We already had the walls and roof up. It would have been too much of a structural change.”

  “It’s plenty big, Corrie,” said Zack, taking a break from his hammering. “We’re just converting a couple of the horse stalls to li
ving quarters.”

  “My bunk’s gonna be right over there!” said Tad, pointing with his hammer toward the far corner of the still-open space.

  “You already know where you’re going to sleep?” I exclaimed.

  “I tell you,” said Christopher, “we wasted no time with our planning!”

  “I thought Pa said there wasn’t enough lumber.”

  “We’ll have to order some more. In the meantime, a few of the horse stalls will just have to remain incomplete.”

  “Look, Corrie,” said Zack, taking my hand and drawing me into the room that would soon be the bunkhouse, “we’re going to put a door through here”—he pointed—“to the outside, so we can come and go without going into the barn, and then a window over in that wall, so we’ll have the light from the south.”

  “And over here—” began Tad. But just then Pa walked in.

  “Tarnation!” he exclaimed. “Put an idea in you young whippersnappers’ minds and you don’t waste no time!”

  He walked all the way into the barn, looking back and forth, surmising their plan from the boards that were already lying about and from the framework of the future wall lying on the floor, then glanced up and around at the three of them. “Well,” he said, “looks like you’ve got it pretty well figured out. What do you want me to do?”

  Immediately all three voices began speaking at once. I excused myself, though I’m not sure any of them even noticed me leave, and went back into the house to help Almeda with breakfast.

  She was right. Suddenly everything going on around here was men’s activities! I loved it though, because Christopher was one of them—almost like he was already one of the family! To see them all as such friends, and working so hard together and having fun, was sometimes almost more than my heart could absorb. It was so much more than I had ever dreamed of! And it could never have happened if Christopher weren’t here with us, working and talking and laughing and figuring things out and sharing with Pa and Zack and Tad hour after hour. The kind of friendship the four of them were forming as men could never have come about any other way.