“Good for them. And I wondered if you’d like to take a stroll with me.”
Lavinia looked unsure, but then she closed the book and slowly stood. “Yes, I suppose a leisurely walk might do me good. And it is a lovely day. Besides, I haven’t had a good conversation with you since we reached the Columbia. I suppose it’s time to catch up.” She called over her shoulder now. “Augustus, you stay in camp until I get back, you hear?”
“Yes, Ma,” he called from the back of the wagon.
Lavinia chuckled. “All of Augustus’ clothes are drying on the line at the moment, so he is confined in the wagon with a book.”
Elizabeth laughed. “I felt badly that I was unable to wash JT’s clothing before he left. It was hard watching him set out in his dusty trail clothes.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. He will only get dustier and dirtier.”
Elizabeth linked arms with Lavinia. “Let’s walk past our old traveling companions…” she said. “See how they are faring.”
“Hugh tells me that some of the smaller rafts are nearly ready to float, but they’re only big enough for passengers and limited goods. Many wagons will be left behind.”
“We’re fortunate that we can take ours.” Elizabeth noticed a skinny pair of barefoot boys in raggedy clothes trying to catch something with their hands in a nearby creek. “It looks like they’re fishing,” she said quietly.
“Haven’t they heard of a fishing pole?”
“Perhaps they’re too poor to have one,” Elizabeth whispered. “Look how skinny they are. I’ll bet they haven’t eaten today.”
“Truly?” Lavinia frowned. “That’s not good.”
Elizabeth now led Lavinia toward them. “Let’s do a good deed.” She slipped Lavinia one of the biscuits and then called out to the boys. “Young men,” she said to them. “Are you having any luck with your fishing?”
The boys looked up at her with grubby faces. “Nah,” the bigger one said. “They’re too fast.”
Now Elizabeth held out a biscuit. “Would you like this?”
His eyes grew wide as he hurried to her. “Thank you, ma’am.”
“You too,” Lavinia called out now. “Come and get yours, little man.”
“Hurry, Levi,” the bigger boy called. “Come get a biscuit.”
Elizabeth knelt down to look into their faces. “Now, don’t tell the other children about this because we don’t have enough for everyone.”
The taller boy shook his head as he gobbled up the biscuit.
“Good luck with your fishing,” Elizabeth called out as she linked arms with Lavinia again, walking her away.
“Those poor dirty little urchins,” Lavinia said. “What kind of mother lets her children go around looking like that?”
“Some children on this train have lost their mothers,” Elizabeth reminded her. “Some have lost their fathers.”
“Oh, yes…I suppose that could be the problem with those poor waifs.”
Elizabeth continued walking Lavinia past the various camps. Some seemed to be faring well, but others looked fatigued and hungry…and hopeless.
“Let’s go back to our camp,” Lavinia told Elizabeth. “This is making me uncomfortable.”
As they walked back, Elizabeth explained that she and Clara had done an inventory and made lists. “It appears we have surplus food.”
“Surplus food?” Lavinia looked skeptical. “That hardly seems possible.”
“We checked the supplies twice,” she told her. “And we didn’t even take into account the smoked venison and salmon the men are providing.”
“Well, even if we do have surplus, we will need more provisions for the remainder of our journey.”
“Yes, I know. But we should be able to replace some things in Fort Vancouver.”
“Maybe…but they may only have foods like beans and cornmeal.” She made a face. “And I am sorely tired of beans and cornmeal.”
“Then perhaps we could donate some of our beans and cornmeal,” Elizabeth suggested.
Lavinia tipped her head to one side as if considering this. “I suppose I could agree to that. But only after I see our supplies and your lists. I will not risk my family’s welfare.”
“We wouldn’t expect you to.”
By the end of the day, it was agreed that unit one would donate some surplus food to be administered by Captain Brownlee and shared among needy families with children who were going hungry. “But please don’t reveal where the food came from,” Asa told the captain that evening as they all gathered at their campsite.
“This is very generous,” the captain said as he eyed the tins and boxes of beans, cornmeal, and rice. “And I have some good news for unit one. Your raft is ready to go. First thing in the morning, I’ll bring one of the spare oxen teams, and we’ll start getting your wagons loaded.”
With their six wagons secured and everyone aboard, the large log raft, with two hired men poling, began to drift down the Columbia River. The canvas coverings had been removed from the wagons in order to prevent them from acting as sails that could hamper the navigation of the raft.
“Isn’t this exciting, Mama?” Ruth grasped Elizabeth’s hand.
“Yes.” Elizabeth looked out at the water. “Just don’t get too close to the edge, Ruthie. If the raft hits rough water or a rock, you might fall in.”
“But I can swim,” Ruth reminded her.
“Yes, but this water is swift, and you could be swept away. Besides that, you need to stay out of the men’s way. They need to be able to get around easily on the raft with their poles. They might not see you and accidentally knock you overboard.”
“I’ll be very careful, Mama.”
Elizabeth smiled. “I know you will.” She also knew that with Ruth being the youngest traveler and friendly to everyone, she had many sets of loving eyes on her. Still it was a little unsettling to see all that river and no railing to keep a person from tumbling over.
“I’m going to draw pictures of what we see going down the river.” Ruth pulled her pencils and tablet from the back of their wagon. Because her paper was limited, Ruth had worked hard to squeeze several drawings on each page. She already had a nice collection of pictures.
“Look, Mama.” She held the tablet for Elizabeth to see. “That’s the Indian woman who sold us the moccasins. Remember her?”
Elizabeth lifted the hem of her skirt to point at a moccasin-shod toe. “I certainly do.” They had both decided to give their shoes and feet a rest by wearing their moccasins to float down the river. Elizabeth had nearly forgotten how comfortable the soft shoes were.
With little room to move about the raft, people eventually made themselves comfortable in and about the wagons. Some napped on piles of bedding. A few read books or wrote in journals. Others, like Elizabeth, were perfectly content to sit and watch the landscape floating by. She’d never seen such majestic rolling hills before. Truly, they were probably mountains, but they had such soft, graceful curves that they seemed more like gigantic rolling hills. They were the color of a straw field before harvest—a warm golden tone. But the color seemed to change as clouds rolled by. It was really nothing short of glorious, and she felt she could happily sit and watch it all day.
“Look!” Ruth pointed to the south side of the river. “Those animals—what are they, Mama?”
Elizabeth peered at the herd. “They don’t look like antelope,” she told her.
“Those are bighorn sheep,” Asa hollered from the other side of the boat.
“There must be thirty or more of them,” Elizabeth observed. “Aren’t they majestic looking?”
Of course, the men were already talking about hunting and mutton roasts, but fortunately for that particular herd, it was far too early in the day to stop the raft.
By the end of the day, when the shadows grew long and the hired men said it was time to stop, Elizabeth was grateful to get back onto solid ground. Despite the beautiful scenery, she was tired of the confinement of the raft and a
lways having people so close around her. She was eager to stretch her legs.
It took several trips to unload what they’d need for the night. And Adam and Matilda, who had no tent, opted to sleep on the raft. They planned to rig a tent of sorts by running a tarp between the wagons. Asa agreed this was a good idea. “Just keep your rifle handy,” he told Adam. “If we hear shots, we’ll all come a runnin’.”
Again, Elizabeth was reminded of the dangers of being out here like this in the wilderness. However, she tried to believe that just as the captain and Eli had said, the Indians in these parts were relatively peaceful. At the same time she knew that the situation could change and deteriorate quickly. And she tried not to think of the scenes that Malinda had described.
They made camp right on the river, which made collecting water for cooking and cleaning much handier. Truly, of all the days on the trail, this had been one of the easiest.
“I’m not sure if I can get used to doing so little during the day,” Elizabeth admitted to the other women as they worked together to prepare supper.
“Perhaps my mother can give you lessons,” Evelyn told her.
Belinda giggled. “Yes, Aunt Lavinia is quite good at doing nothing.”
“I beg your pardon?” Lavinia looked up from her book. “I am doing something. I am reading a book. Furthermore, you young girls have all made it perfectly clear that your outdoor cooking skills are far superior to mine. Why would you want me to interfere?”
Elizabeth chuckled, wondering if Lavinia hadn’t pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes by pretending to be so useless over a cooking fire.
“Perhaps you should read aloud to us,” Ruby called out.
“Yes, yes,” they all agreed, begging her to read.
“All right. I am reading Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson,” she told them. “It was published in 1849, I believe.” She cleared her throat and began to read.
To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and what he touches. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime. Seen in the streets of cities, how great they are! If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.
“Oh, my!” Doris sighed. “Isn’t that beautiful.”
“And how fitting that Emerson was writing about appreciating solitude,” Elizabeth declared. “After being contained so closely together all day, unable to escape each other’s company while our little boat floated downriver, I can relate to his words.”
“You wanted to escape our company?” Lavinia demanded.
“No, no, not actually.” Elizabeth realized how this sounded. “I only meant that after having the freedom of walking out in the open so much, often being on one’s own, well, I suppose we’ll have to get used to dwelling in such close quarters.” She poured the cornbread batter into the Dutch oven and found a spot on the fire for it. Even though Belinda was making a lot of biscuits, they’d decided to make a large batch of cornbread as well. Whatever leftovers they had would get them through their midday meal tomorrow.
Now seeing that everyone else was occupied and that nothing more needing doing, Elizabeth decided to excuse herself. “I’m going to take a short walk and see if there are any berries nearby.”
“I would come too,” Ruth told her, “but Amelia and I are going to make some huckleberry pies for dessert tonight.”
“With the trout the men caught today and huckleberry pie, we are truly eating like kings,” Elizabeth proclaimed as she left. It was already getting dusky, but the sky reflecting on the river made it seem lighter, and she found a rock by the water’s edge and sat down. She was close enough to hear the sounds of the women working to prepare supper, and she could see some of the men just past the big raft with fishing poles. Truly, this scene was idyllic, especially compared to the rugged wearing days of the past.
She leaned her head back, and looking up at the sky, which was just turning a dark periwinkle blue, she prayed for the safety of JT and Matthew and the rest of them. Then she prayed for the wagon train travelers on the various trails and the ones waiting to ride the river. Finally, she prayed for Malinda and her family. She had no idea if they were still on their homestead or heading right now back to Kentucky.
“Hello?”
Elizabeth jumped to her feet. “Oh, it’s only you.”
“Only me?” Will looked deflated.
“I’m sorry,” she told him. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that you startled me, and then I was relieved you weren’t a Cayuse Indian out on the warpath.”
“Ah…the Cayuse…weren’t they responsible for the Whitman Massacre up near Fort Nez Percé?”
“That’s what I read a year or two ago. But it’s not something I particularly cared to bring up in these parts. Especially when we’re not that far from where it happened. That story would frighten poor Ruthie to no end, and I’m sure your daughters wouldn’t care to hear of it either.”
“So is that what you were so intently thinking on just now?”
“No, not actually.” She frowned to remember Malinda’s accounts about Indians. “But I suppose it was similar in some ways. I was just imagining how Malinda and her children might be eastbound for Kentucky and how she might be thinking she will find us there…and we are headed west, hoping to reunite with her.”
“Do you think that’s what she’s doing right now?”
She looked out over the horizon. “I don’t know…I certainly hope not. But can you imagine?” She used her hands to show him, passing each other in opposite directions.
“Ships that pass in the night.”
“Isn’t that Longfellow?” she said. “I can barely remember that poem.”
“Yes. The great Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Let’s see how much I can recall.
Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.
She sighed. “That is sad…and beautiful.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel worse.”
“No, it doesn’t make me feel worse. And if Malinda is heading east right now…well, there’s nothing to do about it, is there?”
“Look,” he pointed up the river and into the sky. “The first star. Perhaps you should make a wish.”
She smiled. “I’ve already prayed a prayer. That should suffice.”
“All right then, I’ll make a wish.” He stared at the star intently as if he was thinking hard about something.
“What’s your wish?” she asked.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why not?”
“Surely you know that a wish can’t come true if you tell someone.”
She laughed. “I thought only children believed in wishing on stars.”
Now he looked at her with nearly the same intensity that he had looked at the star. “I suppose there is still a child living within me. Just ask my daughters.”
“Speaking of your daughters, I should probably go back and help with dinner.”
“I’ll walk with you,” he offered. “Just in case there are any Cayuse lurking about.”
She wished she could make light of this, but thoughts of Malinda’s letter extinguished any humor. And so as they strolled she changed the subject. “Today was a perfectly lovely day,” she said. “I wonder if all our days on the river will be so pleasant.”
“The men pi
loting the boat say September weather is usually quite nice. But it’s possible a summer storm could stir up. Also, we’ll have some rough waters to go through here and there. It won’t all be smooth sailing.”
“No, of course, not.” Did he really think she thought it would be?
“I’d been meaning to tell you something.”
She paused to pick some wildflowers, avoiding his eyes and hoping he wasn’t about to say something they would both regret.
“I spoke to Brady.”
She stood up with some flowers in her hand. “To Brady?”
“I felt it was only fair that he be informed as to Oregon laws in regard to slavery and land ownership. I asked him if you’d mentioned any of this to him, and he told me you hadn’t.”
Elizabeth frowned. “I know…I had been meaning to…but how does one say something like that? And after all Brady’s been through recently. Nearly drowning and then getting beat up like that. How could I tell him about these new Oregon laws?”
“Yes, that’s what I was worried about. And I didn’t want him riding through Oregon with our young men and perhaps meeting up with some unsavory types, if you get my meaning.”
She nodded grimly. “I’m sorry to say that I do.”
“So I wanted Brady and the others to be warned. And I took it upon myself to do so.”
“What did you tell Brady?”
“I told him that if he wanted to be safe, he should simply pretend that he was their slave and act the part.”
“Oh.” She felt a rush of bitterness at the injustice of this.
“I know. It seems unfair to me as well. But as I explained to Brady, it could be the difference between life and death.” He shook his head. “Also, Brady out there riding as a free man could put our boys in harm’s way…I mean if their group was discovered by the wrong sort of men. So until we reach our destination, I have advised Brady to simply play the part.”
“And what did Brady say?”
“He seemed to understand.” Will winked. “And I told him that I would be proud to be his legal counsel should he need it.”
“That’s generous.” Elizabeth felt a new pang of pity and concern. “Did you tell him…about the other law too? About not being able to own land?”
A Dream for Tomorrow Page 23
