It wasn’t easy work; the weather was miserable, kind of drizzly but with a cold tang. Walking through the woods and gathering, Cass encouraged the boy to bring downed branches back to the woodlot for burning. Small as the boys were, she never commanded them, instead she explained what a help they would be. Using positive reinforcement she got more work out of them than ordering them about would ever provide. Stephanie was impressed and pleased as it kept them out of her hair while she rendered the wood ashes and fat into different soaps. From the caustic soaps used for cleaning to fine soaps that she added fragrance to for sweet smelling and soft feeling when they were used. It was a dirty, smelly job but without the boys underfoot she got a lot accomplished.
“We will have to save all the fat and wood ashes so I can make more in the fall for winter, maybe it will be good enough that we can sell them in town,” she stated to Cass who agreed with her. She loved the smell of some blue soaps that Stephanie had made. She knew that Stephanie really wanted to be a help to her and not a burden with her big belly out before her. In the weeks she had been here she had gotten very large. Her sale of her butter had encouraged her to make money for them to buy things for the boys, she had picked up some corduroy and tougher denim material to make them clothes as they were helping Cass so much and getting filthy and their clothing would not last.
“We will have a lot of wood ashes from the fire when we render all the maple syrup,” Cass reminded her.
They found they worked well together. They both watched out for the boys and taught them things they could do around the farm to help. Timmy was exhausted most days as he did his manful best to do things beyond what was expected of him. Tommy though was just too small but both his Mama and Cass encouraged him to learn how to feed the poultry and other chores he was capable of.
Cass wouldn’t let either boy or even Stephanie go into the woods though without her along. She said they weren’t familiar yet with the woods and she didn’t want anyone lost, it would cost them too much valuable time to go looking for them. They took the cart along with one horse hitched up to it with a large kettle in the back. They all could switch an empty bucket from the trees and take the ones back to the kettle to pour into the larger kettle. Some days they filled it before they had checked all the trees they had tapped and had to take it back to the farmyard to empty. It was a pleasant time with them riding on the cart behind the bay horse and singing as they drove along. Cass would begin emptying the kettle bucket by bucket into a large caldron she had set up in the yard. Stephanie would start a fire beneath it and tend it while Cass finished emptying the kettle and going back to the woods with the boys to fill it again. Meanwhile Stephanie would keep the fire going and watch the caldron for her. She kept the syrup boiling but also kept it from boiling over. Using a long handled spoon she kept pouring out the syrup high above the caldron to ‘cool’ it in the air so it wouldn’t boil over.
When it came time to pour out the syrup that had boiled up in the huge caldron, a large spigot at the side allowed them to pour it into jars with white cloth across the top to catch anything else that might have been caught in the syrup, then the remaining syrup was allowed to boil until it grained and then poured into pans to cool into maple sugar. It was long, hot, exhausting work but with constant contributions from all of them they kept at it over the days that Cass wanted to collect and as long as the weather held. Normally this would have been done earlier in the season but winter had held on so long that spring was late this year. Jar after jar went on the shelves downstairs and into crates or boxes that stacked up along the wall. Finally though the run had passed and Cass pulled the spigots out and plugged the holes with clay before gathering the buckets, spigots, and caldron and left them out by the bee hives where they would gather this ‘natural’ sugar for their hives when she opened them.
Cass explained that she gathered honey every fall and sold the surplus. This year she hoped to have doubled the number of hives she had last year and cautioned the boys to stay away from the hives that stood in a row beyond the well house. She explained that they were cranky in the spring from a long winter of inactivity and if they swarmed like she hoped they would she wanted to catch them and put them in the new hives she had waiting. She showed Stephanie and the boys the boxes she had been creating with long skeins of dimpled wax that were held in frames inside the boxes for the bees to build cylinders and fill with larvae and honey. She had made them over the long cold winter. She gently explained to the little boys how important bees were for the crops and garden. How they pollinated and took the pollen to make honey for themselves but enough that they could share with Cass.
The days started to turn warmer, she took off the covers from the hives so the bees could start their ‘work.’ Cass began to sharpen the plow shares, carefully taking them off one at a time to sharpen on the stone which she peddled herself, tapping out a mental tune as she pumped up and down on the pedal to turn the stone quickly to sharpen the edge of the share. Both boys were fascinated by this activity but she kept them a good five feet away in case the sparks or the stone sent out something that would hurt little boy’s skin or eyes.
“Hey Cass,” she turned at the hail and smiled in surprise at the unexpected visitor.
Raymond walked into the yard walking his horse with a calf over the saddle and its legs tied around the body of the horse.
“What have you got there?” she frowned at the sight.
“Payment for your delivery,” he smiled as he turned to untie the calf from its bonds.
“Don’t you think that’s a bit much?” she asked but was pleased at the gift.
He shook his head, “You don’t know how pleased we are in the little girl you delivered. I realized I never gave you anything for the boys and this is my way of making up for that.” He soon had the knots untied and hoisted the calf as though it weighed nothing and put it on its feet on the ground, holding it until it was steady. Both boys came forward to pet it. He watched them indulgently. He looked over at Cass who had risen and put down the share. “It’s a heifer,” he told her for the boys benefit.
She nodded. “Thank you, she will come in handy in a year or so.” Thinking of how nice it would be to have a couple of cows to milk and hoping that Stephanie would appreciate all the extra work that would entail.
“She’s out of Blue,” he mentioned and she raised her eyebrow at this information. Blue was one of his best milkers and she knew the value of a good milker having thought about that very thing just now.
“That’s appreciated Raymond, how are the baby and Melanie doing?” she asked courteously watching as the boys petted the calf. Something about little kids and baby animals, she laughed as she watched the calf try to suck on their fingers.
“Splendidly,” he smiled, “We’ve decided to call the baby Melody and Melanie is doing smashing, she was up the next day and you would never have known she was pregnant.” He smiled proudly as though he had done all the work himself.
Cass smiled not willing to burst his pride. Melanie was a good mother and she had no doubt she was up the next day. It was another reason she had her patients squat for delivery, it was less stress on the mother’s body.
She and Raymond began to discuss plowing and the work they both had in the coming weeks and she got him to agree to help her with her northernmost field later in the season, she had a lot of stumps she wanted to remove this year, they had rotted there for years and she was tired of cutting growth from the roots they had sent out. “Melanie’s Ma had a mixture she swore would rot the roots right out of the ground and you could always burn them,” he offered.
“Ever use the mixture yourself?” she asked interested.
“Once or twice, I’ll see if Melanie knows it and see what she says; it sure would save us a heap of work from pulling them out with the horses if they were rotted out.”
She nodded knowingly; it was a lot of work to dig up the roots of these trees. She wanted to connect her north field with a meadow she ha
d beyond it but had to cut down a swath of trees in between the two. She had never used the meadow for anything other than gathering some of the hay but it was sparse and not worth the gather most years but would make an excellent crop field if she could join it with what she already had.
They discussed a few more things before Raymond said, “Well, I must be going, I got a lot to do on my place too. I’ll get back to you with that mixture after I talk to Melanie.” With a wave to his hat he climbed up into the saddle and said, “See ya,” before kicking his horse and heading back the way he had come.
Cass looked down at the heifer calf that was trying it’s best to suck on the boy’s fingers and laughed. A calf’s tongue was one of the worst feeling things it was so raspy. She went over and began to pull it along to the barn. They would have to watch this little gal she was so small. Cass was sure she was weaned from her mother and would drink from a pail, Raymond would have seen to that.
Stephanie was indeed pleased by the news they had another calf, especially another heifer. Their cow had given birth the week before to a little heifer and gave off more milk than she had been prepared for but flush with the success of selling her butter she carefully made the excess into cottage cheese and butter. Fresh buttermilk with meals was delicious. With the prospect of having a couple of cows next year she was thrilled. Cass made sure to keep the new calf away from the cow, she knew it was weaned but its memory might have it trying to suck again and she didn’t want that loss of milk nor would Stephanie.
Cass was very busy in the coming weeks plowing the fields earnestly. She was grateful for the additional help in the form of Stephanie and even the boys in planting the corn and other seeds. She carefully plowed the garden and they planted some of the early seeds such as lettuce, carrots, and radishes. Stephanie had laid out low flat boxes she had asked Cass to make that contained seeds she wanted to try this far north that Cass was sure wouldn’t grow in their short growing season but was willing to let Stephanie try. The trays sat on the upper shelves in the unused den where they got the maximum sunlight throughout the day. The heat in this room was good for the seeds; everything Stephanie had planted had come up and was flourishing.
Cass stopped to wipe her forehead before beginning another row of plowing, she had plowed this field before and was now making ‘ridges’ for the corn to grow on. She watched as Stephanie used the hoe to make a hole along the top of the ridge. In this hole she had instructed Timmy to drop a seed at each end. Tommy then got to gently push the dirt over the top. It worked for almost an entire row before she had to gently correct one or the other boy on doing a good job but it was working, they were contributing. If Tommy got a little unbalanced or sloppy it was okay because she gently stepped to put dirt over the seeds and cover it without him noticing. He was still a toddler. After a few rows though he was ready for a nap and she was prepared for that too, having brought a blanket out for him to curl up in at the end of the field. It meant that Timmy and she had to fill over the seed filled holes but it was neater when they did it anyway.
Field by field they planted their crops and then the rest of the garden. Cass was tired. Stephanie was exhausted. The boys slept soundly at night from their work but they also both took naps during the day. Cass insisted on Stephanie lying down or at least sitting during the boys afternoon nap when the sun was at its hottest. Mornings were for weeding and before the bugs got bad they lined the narrow walkways between the seed lined rows with old newspapers and then sprinkled hay from the poultry pens on top to keep the wind from blowing the papers away. This kept out the majority of the weeds and saved them a lot of work in the long run. Almost a complete years’ worth of newspaper went into the garden. It would rot over the summer under the poultry manured hay and fertilize the garden. In the fall Cass would plow it all under and enrich the soil with all this compost. Stephanie had never heard of such but eagerly helped when Cass had explained it, it made sense, and as difficult as it was becoming for her to come up off the ground in her pregnancy she couldn’t see being on the ground too much for weeding. She eagerly looked forward to fresh vegetables from their own garden.
Cass began to pour the solution that Raymond had brought over, giving the recipe to the two women where they made gallons of the concoction to rot out the northernmost field of its stumps. After the first application on every one of the many stumps, Cass would no longer let the boys follow her out to the fields to ‘help’ as she was ringing trees to fell for fall and winter gathering. Sometimes swinging the ax meant she didn’t know where little boys were and she didn’t want any accidents so they had to stay in the farmyard or in the house with Stephanie. With all the ‘help’ they had been with planting and plowing they set up a fuss but Cass insisted. It created a lot more work for Stephanie who hadn’t realized how much the boys had been gone with Cass.
Daily Cass brought back one or two trees that had fallen or were lying on the ground to the woodlot. She would cut them up eventually when she had time but in the meantime they were piling up as she cut rings around the trees to kill them. Chopping could be heard daily when Stephanie stepped out into the warm summer air and looked across the fields where the corn and other plants were pushing their way up. She felt so proud what two determined women could accomplish and had totally forgotten that Cass had a brother that came around occasionally.
It was with a bit of shock when the boys came screaming inside from where they were playing with the puppies. Something had frightened them badly as they came running and all of Stephanie’s mothering instincts came to the forefront as she waddled quickly out to the door to meet them at the screen. Looking beyond them to see what was frightening them she saw Shia greeting some strange man. He was dressed in buckskins and carried a large pack on his back. A mule carried another set of packs equally as large and another mule behind that one carried the same.
The boys gathered in her skirts holding her and crying in their fear. She realized this must be Cass’s brother Cal and almost laughed but realizing she didn’t know anything about him but what little she had gleaned from Cass. He knew nothing about her and turned in surprise at her appearance in the doorway. He glanced from the children crying into her skirts and looked around the barnyard seeming confused.
“Who are you?” a gruff voice asked her with no greeting.
She smiled as she held her little boys to her and answered, “I’m Stephanie Evans, I’m Cass’s housekeeper,” she introduced herself hoping to make a good impression.
He looked at her suspiciously; he didn’t believe her in the least and looked around as Cass came running into the yard as she had heard the boys cries. She had her ax in her hand and must have run all the way. She looked from her brother to the two crying little boys that Stephanie was trying to comfort. The relief on her face was evident as she started to grin in preparation for laughter.
“Hey,” she said to her brother in greeting as she bent over to catch her breath, her hands on her knees, the ax held in one hand.
“Hey,” he answered looking from her to Stephanie and back, waiting patiently for his sister to get her breath back.
“You just get here?” she asked when she caught her breath. The boys were snuffling behind her as Stephanie tried to get them to let go of her skirts.
He nodded as he looked curiously beyond her towards the three on the back steps. Cass saw where his eyes were looking and knew without him speaking that he was asking who Stephanie and the boys were.
“That’s Stephanie Evans, she has agreed to be my housekeeper, and those are her two boys Timmy and Tommy,” she told him by way of explanation and introduction.
He nodded once, flicked his eyes towards Stephanie who was watching him now that the boys had stopped crying. He glanced at his sister speculatively for a second before he flicked his head towards the mules and their packs. Without words he said a lot.
“Let’s put them in the wagon right away,” Cass answered and started to walk towards the garage.
The
two of them spent the afternoon grading and sorting the pelts her brother had brought in. Prime beaver and other pelts would bring her brother a lot of money. Inferior pelts they bundled separately knowing that the townies would try to cheat them on their value if they were mixed with the mink, fox, or wolf pelts that were in demand. Several deer hides they stretched along the sides of the wagon for effect. Stephanie and the boys came out to watch them after a while and learned about grading pelts. The boys just marveled at the softness of the pelts as they petted them, Stephanie listened carefully as Cass explained for her benefit how to grade pelts. Cal’s knife rarely slipped so most of his pelts were prime and unmarred. He used snares and other hunter’s tricks and very few steel traps to gather his catches.
“You bring any meat?” Cass asked as they finished unloading the packs and put the mules out in paddock.
Cal nodded as he took from his own pack a couple of large packages and turned to hand them to Stephanie without saying a word. He turned back to Cass to offer, “Left most of it with Running Beaver’s squaw to make me new clothes.”
Stephanie looked up bemusedly at the tall man that was Cass’s brother, you could see the resemblance between the two siblings but she had been watching them both for a while. The same smooth movements were visible in both of them and yet Cal radiated a quiet and a wildness that wasn’t there in Cass. Although as she thought about it, Stephanie remembered Cass’s actions on the train platform and again in the bar and thought perhaps there was a wildness or fierceness in both siblings. She didn’t know why she spoke up then but she felt a sudden need to contribute, “I can make you some clothes if you’d like?”
Cal turned to her in surprise. Studying her for a moment he nodded briefly but didn’t say anything. He glanced down at the two boys who were petting a martin pelt that was especially fine. He knelt down to get to their level and said, “You boys know what that pelt is?”
Cass watched as her ‘fierce’ brother that anyone who really knew him knew what a kind heart he had. Not too many people really knew him though. He was thought of as odd, an outsider, despite the fact that he had grown up around here. His long absences and quiet demeanor had scared off a few people over the years. Many had forgotten she even had a brother.
The Journey Home Page 6
