Alone on the Oregon Trail

by Vanessa Carvo

  A bundle of Mattie and Meredith mix, she was a handful. Watching her grow made me soon realize that I was growing old and not as quick at this as I used to be. By the time Grace was five years old, she had learned to do everything for herself, including deciding what she could and could not do.

  One morning she wailed at me that she wanted to go out and ride her pony. Thanks to Mattie, she passed on the family tradition and had bought a pony for Gracie Brook by the time she was four.

  We had tried on every occasion to explain to her that she had to wait until she was six years old, but she would cry and claim that Jumper would be too old to ride by then. She brought us rays of sunshine as well as a need for more patience.

  Grayson took her every day out to the barn and let her spend time with Jumper, but that never seemed good enough to her. On this one morning, I had made myself again say no to her tiny request and I went along my way doing my washing of the clothes.

  Kate was on an errand in town so as I got busy with the washing, little Gracie snuck out the door and headed for the barn. We had never quite figured out how she got up on top of Jumper, but I suppose a child will get done what they will and she managed to crawl up on Jumper and she headed out for her own pony ride.

  Guilt comes with the territory of being a mother and I soon learned what that meant when I went to check on Gracie, fully expecting her to be in her room. To my horror, she was not and I set out hunting her down.

  I had checked everywhere I could think of and then it came to me, that awful sick feeling in my stomach that a mother gets when she realizes her child is gone. I ran to the barn, holding up my skirt so far that it was nearly over my head.

  When I reached the barn, my expectations and fears were met with realization; Gracie was gone and so was Jumper. Without even taking the time to holler at Meredith who was by now, down by the stream, washing clothes, I took off on an old mare in the barn.

  I was screaming her name as I was crying her name and praying God heard both. My heart was pounding out of my chest as I rode and rode, looking for my tiny baby girl. The thought of anything happening to her tightened my chest and opened my lips to choking sobs.

  Grayson had told me about a wild cat that had been seen in the area and all I could see now was her being attacked. I knew that time was of the essence, so I stayed with my search. As I got further and further into the woods, I knew that it would be growing dark very soon and I had better get back and get a team to go out and hunt her down.

  I did not want to stop looking, but I didn’t want to waste time either. So, I headed back with a canter that the old mare was not so keen on performing and arrived at the barn in time to see Grayson standing there with hands filled with sacks of potatoes.

  Grayson took one look and he knew something horrible was wrong and came running to me. As I screamed out to him what had happened, he yelled at Cambell who was in the barn, telling him to run to town and get a team that would come back and help us search through the night, if need be.

  Cambell was off and we ran to get Meredith to come inside and stay with the rest of the children. Then Grayson and I ran to get on some horses that would last the search and we headed for the woods behind the house, hoping we were on the right path.

  What seemed like hours were minutes and we reached the end of the woods and still no sight of Gracie and I was getting sick to my stomach and in tears, blaming myself all the while.

  Grayson did not have time to tend to me, and he told me quite bluntly that there was no time to blame myself and that this is what children do -- they cause their parents worry. He assured me that we would find Gracie and we would find her in time.

  I had to believe this and I had no choice. By nightfall we had not found Gracie and things were looking so bad that I had to be carried out of the woods and was taken back to the house. The men and Grayson continued to search for Gracie and about the time they had about given up, they heard a meek and tiny cry as they passed by a small patch of brush.

  As Grayson backed up his horse to check the brush, his eyes caught the likes of Gracie who had curled up in a ball to take a nap and had just woken up all alone and had begun to cry for me.

  Jumper was nowhere in sight and Grayson snatched up Gracie, thinking he would have to go back and hunt down Jumper the next day. When he started to leave with Gracie, she began crying and telling her daddy that he could not leave Jumper.

  This took Grayson by surprise and also irritated him, as he explained to Gracie that Jumper would have to wait. Gracie immediately began crying telling her daddy that he could not leave Jumper because he had saved her from a big kitty and that Jumper had ran the kitty away and she was waiting for Jumper to come back.

  This broke Grayson’s heart and he was afraid that if the story was true than Jumper may not have survived. He then told Gracie that she would be taken back by Cambell and that he would hunt down Jumper, fully knowing that he probably would not find Jumper alive.

  This satisfied Gracie enough to hush her tears and she hopped on Cambell’s horse and he took her home.

  In the meantime, Grayson searched for Jumper and as the night turned into day, he finally found Jumper who had run off the wild cat into a river and Jumper had followed the cat into the river, but he did not survive the battle and he had died as he tried making it back to shore.

  It tore his heart into and he did not want to even return to tell Gracie what had happened. As Grayson sat out in the darkness, trying to think about what he would tell Gracie when he returned, he remembered the farmer where Mattie had bought Jumper and the farmer had another pony, a brother to Jumper and he wondered if he could talk this farmer into selling the pony to him so that he did not have to break his daughter’s heart and he at once went to the farmer’s house.

  Early mornings met many a farmer in the prairies and as Grayson rode up to the farm, he saw the old man outside his barn and he explained the situation to him, praying for mercy that he could get this pony for Gracie.

  As the old man listened to the story and seeing Grayson’s pained look, he offered to give as the Lord gives and he walked into his barn with the pony tied to a rope and smiled, while putting the rope into Grayson’s hand. No words were spoken, except a muffled thank you from Grayson and he was off with Jumper’s brother that just happened to look just like Jumper, except for one extra spot upon his back.

  Grayson decided that if this little trick worked now, that would be good enough and later if Gracie figured it out, he would deal with explaining it then. For now, he just wanted to see his baby girl’s smiling face.

  I stood at the porch and saw my husband galloping across the meadow, with this pony trailing behind, and I knew that somehow, some way, Grayson had taken care of the problem.

  As he came closer to me, I noticed that Jumper had gained a big brown spot upon his back and as my mouth opened, Grayson placed his finger over his mouth in hopes I would understand and we watched Gracie barrel out of the house, onto the porch and she jumped into midair as she saw her Jumper staring back at her.

  This was one of those moments at the Loves’ home that was a blessing from God. God finds ways to take care of all things, large or small. He takes care of mighty trials and small trials alike and He is very good at satisfying a little girl’s heart.

  To this day, we don’t know if Gracie ever figured out that that was not Jumper, but if she did, she just loved him the same.

  God is good, God is great, and He lives where we place Him.

  If we place Him in our hearts, then we can be sure He lives there.

  If we place Him outside our hearts though, we will never know the gift of knowing Him, but all the same, God is there too. The Creator of all things calls us unto Him for His own sake, for He would rather we all be saved, and He calls each day, name after name, to come to Him.

  Loves’ Landing knows the Lord and the Lord knows us by name.

  What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

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