by Caryl McAdoo
“And done a right fine job of it, too.”
She glanced at him, then started filling the first plate.
Levi moseyed up. “Looks like I timed that pretty good.”
“Would you get Becky up, honey?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He went to the closer wagon, kneeled beside it, and used his singsongy voice. “Bitty Beck, Bitty Beck. Always last in bed. Time to get on up now, you little sleepyhead.”
She sat up and grinned, then threw her arms around his neck. “Give me a ride to breakfast, Levi!” He stood with his giggling cousin hanging on and lumbered back to the fire.
Sue handed Henry his plate heaped with food. “So how far is it to Captain Daingerfield’s Springs?”
“ ’Bout twelve miles.”
“Six hours, huh? Maybe a little less. So we’ll get there around midday?”
He had filled his mouth with a chunk of biscuit covered in gravy, so he only nodded. She handed Levi his plate, then got her daughter’s.
Once Henry had swallowed, he put up a finger. “You make a fine water gravy, and yes, around noon’s what I figured.”
“Twelve miles by midday. Why so quick? You planning on going more than twenty if we can?”
“No, thinking to cover the majority in the cool of the day, less later.” He passed the honey to the boy.
Sue finally settled with her plate in her lap. “Well, that’s a good idea. Plus, it’ll give us some time to fill the water barrels at the springs.”
He smiled and nodded.
She was glad he didn’t say that’s what he’d planned, although she figured he had intended to. He seemed to stay ahead of her all the time.
During the rest of breakfast, talking dropped to a minimum. As soon as Becky finished her plate, she hurried out of camp. “Come on, Blue, let’s take a little walk ’fore we go. I’ll find me a bush, and maybe you can find you a squirrel!” The dog followed her with his tail awaggin’.
Levi stood, too, and handed Sue his empty plate. “Thanks, Aunt Sue. Sure was good.” He turned. “Anything else you need me to do, Mister Henry?”
“Checked your mules’ hooves?”
“Yes, sir. They’re all ready to pull out. Yours need anything?”
“No, sir. They’re ready, too, but thank you.” Henry pointed to his honey jar. “Suppose you could stash that for me?”
“Glad to.” The boy picked up the jar. “You had any yet, Aunt Sue?”
“Thank you, Levi, I’m fine.”
He turned and headed toward the far wagon.
Sue smiled after him, then faced Henry, letting him share the boy’s smile. “Thank you for being so good to him. He needs more time with a man, and you’re a great influence. You wouldn’t believe the difference I see in him.” She finished her last bite of biscuit. “Maybe once we’re back home, you could come get him from time to time, take him fishing or hunting with you some. I’m sure he’d enjoy that.”
“You’ve done a fine job raising him up, Sue. He’s going the right direction.” Standing, Henry reached toward the sky and stretched. “Guess I’m ready to go when you are. Let me know.” He yawned and turned.
Sue stood, wondering why he didn’t readily agree about having Levi over. But never mind that, she had more pressing issues. She grabbed his arm. “Wait, Henry. There’s something I need to talk with you about.”
“Sure. What’s on your mind?”
She could still offer up another subject, maybe him not answering about having Levi. No, she knew it was the Lord. He’d been convicting her until she fell asleep last night and then started again that morning about the eavesdropping. She had to get the guilt off her chest if she was going to have any peace.
She drew in a big breath. “I need to ask you to forgive me.”
A shocked look came across his face. “What for?”
“I didn’t mean to, except I guess I did. I could have left.” Tears welled in her eyes. Shame gnawed at her, but she did not want to cry like a little girl in front of him. She turned and opened her eyes wide so the tears wouldn’t fall and give her away.
“What are you talking about?”
She faced him again, then examined the ground in front of her, rubbing her forehead. This was harder than she’d expected, but she had to spit it out and get it over with. “Oh, I was at the wagon getting potatoes for supper last night. I heard Littlejohn’s name mentioned, and I—I—well, I didn’t leave. I turned around like a sneak in the shadows and listened to yours and Levi’s private conversation.” She looked up at him. “I’m glad to know the circumstances, though. Glad to know that none of those killings were your fault, Henry.”
His eyes, like daggers, bore into hers, cutting into the depth of her soul.
She’d never seen him angry before. “I’m sorry. Will you forgive me?”
He took a turn looking at the ground. When he finally raised his head again, he took a breath and blew it out. “What else can I do? Of course, I forgive you.”
He stood there, not moving, as though he would like to say something else.
She wanted to step in closer and let him wrap his arms around her and hold her and comfort her, but she held still.
* * *
WITHOUT SAYING what was on his mind, Henry walked to his wagon and began checking the harness. “Levi!”
The boy ran to his side. “Yes, sir.”
“How about you ride with me?”
“Sure, be proud to.”
“Take care of that fire ’fore you board, would you?”
“Yes, sir. Sure will.”
Henry pulled out in the lead before false dawn and chided himself for not asking her about Andrew when he’d had the chance. Though he didn’t like being spied on, it actually relieved him that she knew, especially about the time when he was fifteen. No way should she have been listening in on a private conversation, but confessing sure took a heap of guts; all the more a witness to her courage and strength, her asking him for forgiveness.
He grinned. More than he’d done that night he eavesdropped on the Dawsons’ porch.
Besides, he’d intended to tell her anyway.
Less than two hours out, a few cabins dotted either side of the trace, marking the place Titus had told him to turn back east toward the springs. He’d met Major Pitts, who first settled the area a couple of years back; if he’d had more time, he’d try and locate him, but he’d have to get back to Pittsburg some other day. He wanted to make Captain Daingerfield’s Springs by noon.
Henry shook his head. “Territory sure is growing.”
“Yes, sir.” Levi nodded. “I been hearing Jonesboro and Pecan Point was busting at the seams, over a hundred families in either one now. Even Sulphur Fork, number of folks on the prairie’s about doubled in the last year. You hear about that convention they had back in the spring?”
Henry turned the team and headed southeast. “Indeed, I did. Friend of mine attended and stood with the rest demanding that Mexico legalize whites’ immigration.”
“I don’t understand why they don’t want folks coming to settle Tejas.”
“Well, the way I heard it, a couple of years ago, Mexico’s President Bustamante outlawed all immigration from the United States—that’s what the convention was all about. And he ordered all the slaves released. Cotton grangers didn’t much care for that. Religion’s an issue, too. Mexicans are mostly Catholic.”
Levi sat up straight and stretched. “Used to be a few of those presidios around our parts. Wasn’t any fighting, but they up and left anyway. Would you fight over the land?”
“All depends.” Not fond of talking about war, Henry brought the topic of conversation to a close. “Don’t suspect there’s anything the Mexicans can really do about all the easterners flocking in.”
Right about then, a dog from one of the homes ran out to the road barking and checked the wagons’ smells. Old Blue Dog’s neck hairs had to be bristled, but no fight ensued. Henry’s dog never did like another mutt around. He could just
picture Rebecca making the hound stay down on his sick pallet.
Midmorning, the off lead mule stumbled again. Henry watched him hard, then decided to ignore it. The old boy must be ready for a blow. “Remind me to check my off lead mule when we stop. He stumbled again.”
“Yes, sir. Sure like this pace we’re on. Like visitin’ with you, too, sir, about important things. I’ll tell you true, I love Aunt Sue, and Bitty Beck, but women, well, sometimes, they about chatter my ears right off.”
Henry laughed. “Know what you mean, son.”
“I don’t know why the women can’t just stick to riding together and leave us men to discuss politics, the war, and what’s happening in the territory. Or ride quiet, you know? Women seem like they have to be talking all the time. You’d think they enjoy each other’s conversation same way we do.”
They rode in silence until the houses ended again and the land stretched out before them. “Ever seen pines tall as these, Levi?”
“No, sir, never did.”
By the time the sun neared straight overhead, the next smattering of cabins came into view. Most were rough-hewn log and cedar-shingled hovels, but one good-size, downright impressive clapboard home anchored the settlement.
“Wow, Aunt Sue didn’t think Daingerfield had a store or nothing.”
“Didn’t last time I was through.”
“Why’s there so many people then? I counted more than thirty.”
The wagon rounded a curve. “There’s your answer.”
“What’s that?”
Henry pointed up ahead. “That’s why. See that fellow talking to the others?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, he’s pitching those folks to sell ’em some miracle potion that he claims will cure consumption or whooping cough or take warts off your nose. Maybe all three.” Henry shook his head. “Don’t ever believe a guy like that. All his little bottle will do is get you soaked, maybe worse. He’s trying to bilk ’em out of their coin.”
As the wagon pulled closer to the springs, even more people clustered together in little groups. Women tended fires and children scampered wild, obviously thrilled to have playmates to romp with. Wagons dotted the area for a good ways out. “Now what do you suppose this is all about? Think they all came for the springwater?”
Henry pointed to the right. “Somebody’s set that tent up over yonder. May be having a camp meeting.”
“Aw, no! Aunt Sue’s going to want to stay and hear the preaching, I guarantee it.”
Henry laughed. “Best not guarantee what a woman is liable to do.” He winked at the boy. “I suspect she’ll not want to be here a moment longer than necessary.”
Levi nodded. “You’re likely right; I’d say Aunt Sue wants to get to Jefferson more than anything. Seen it before, her getting a powerful bug about a thing. Just like that cotton. I’s ready to give up on it more than once, but she wouldn’t have it. Never got so sick of anything as chopping them cotton rows.”
“That’s hard work, all right.”
Levi grinned. “While she prayed for rain, I asked for hot and dry so the weeds and grasses wouldn’t grow. Should’ve known the Lord wouldn’t have listened to me over her. Rains came, weeds growed, and I hoed.” He held out his hands palms up. Calluses on calluses. He stared at ’em a minute then wiped ’em on his britches.
“Those show you’re a hard worker. I’m sure your aunt appreciates all your help.”
“Yes, sir, I suppose.”
A couple of buckboards sat off to the side of the tent, and a string of horses stood tied to a picket line. Some of the men threw horseshoes, and a group of boys played mumbley-peg. A mess of tables sat end to end, and several ladies scurried around loading them with covered dishes and loaves of bread wrapped in towels and jars of various colored liquids.
“I sure wouldn’t mind staying for dinner unless they’re eating after the preachin’.” Levi laughed. “Them church ladies can lay down a spread!”
Henry stopped at the springs behind a buckboard. A man and boy worked at filling their water barrel. He nodded toward a big post oak up the hill and to the south a ways off. “Good spot to let the animals blow a bit; want to take them over once we’re done?”
“Yes, sir. Should I unchain them?”
“No, they’ll be fine staying in the traces.”
“I’ll go let Aunt Sue know what we’re doing and see if she wants to stay and eat.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
SUE REINED IN THE MULES in line behind Henry. Before noon, just like he’d said. And the team hardly acted tired at all. The people everywhere excited her, and Becky obviously couldn’t wait to get down. Since the outskirts of the settlement, Sue had searched the crowd for her neighbors, but hadn’t seen any.
Levi walked up next to the side opposite her. “Hey, Auntie.” He pointed up a hill. “After our turn, Mister Henry’s planning on blowing the mules up there by the big post oak.”
Becky stood on the wagon seat. “I want to go play.”
Sue knew her daughter so well. “I suppose that’ll be all right. Don’t go far; stay in sight.”
“Whoopee! Catch me, Levi!” She sailed through the air and into his arms, and then squirmed to be down. He held on, though. “Let go, put me down! I’m going to play.”
He held her even tighter, but she squirmed and looked almost too strong for him. “See that big oak over there?” He pointed, then tickled her with his pointing finger.
She wiggled and giggled. “I see it; I see it. Now put me down!”
“That’s where our wagons will be when we get done here. Understand?”
“Yes! All right, let me go now! Bye, Mama! Come on, Blue!”
Levi stood there a minute. Becky ran toward the children with her tail-wagging shadow on her heels. “I’ll pull your wagon up if you want to get on down, too.”
“Well, thank you, son. I’ll take you up on that.” She took his hand and climbed down.
Henry pulled up close when the buckboard in front moved off, and Levi urged the second team forward, then locked the brake and hopped down. Sue straightened her shawl and watched him get to work helping Henry without a word. The man grained using his hat while Levi hauled water to the barrel and filled the bucket to give the mules a drink.
She stretched her back and then lifted her hat and fanned herself a bit before heading down toward the tables. A woman stepped forward and offered Sue her hand. “Hello, saw you folks pull in.” She smiled and looked toward a group of children. “That’s my daughter, Nancy, over there who your little girl’s playing with. My name is Louise, Louise Koiner. I have a fresh pot of coffee if you’d like to sit a spell.”
“I’d be proud to, thank you. I’m Sue Baylor.”
The lady took her arm. “I have a son, too, Michael. How old is your boy?”
“Fourteen, he’s my nephew, but I’ve raised him, so he is mine.”
The woman led Sue to their campsite and spread a quilt. “Richard dear, would you please hand me that cup right there?” He did, and she poured it full. The coffee smelled wonderful.
* * *
HENRY FINISHED WITH THE SECOND wagon, then drove it up next to the first one. He made sure all the mules rested in the shade, then jumped down, checking the sun’s position. Another half hour might be in order. He strolled to where he’d seen Sue visiting and, on the way, spotted Rebecca with Blue right beside her.
He then found Levi with boys about his size. He grimaced when Levi took what looked to be a coin from one of the others. Henry shook his head, certain the boy’s aunt wouldn’t approve; she’d asked if he was a gambler. Maybe the boy needed him even more than he thought.
A man greeted him with an extended hand. “Good to meet you, Mister Baylor; your wife tells me you’re on the way to Jefferson.”
Covering her mouth, Sue made a little choking noise. Henry took the man’s hand and shook vigorously. “Name’s Buckmeyer, sir. Patrick Henry Buckmeyer. Go by Henry.”
Sue cleared her throat. “I employed Mister Buckmeyer to help me get my lint to market.”
The man touched the brim of his hat. “Sorry for the misunderstanding; pleased to meet you, Henry.”
He nodded and let himself be introduced all around, then listened politely to the conversation for a bit before excusing himself. “Good to meet you folks.” He turned toward Sue. “With your leave, boss, I’ll be about finding someone who’s traveled the trace from here to Jefferson. Care to join me? Or do you prefer to visit a little longer?”
She rose. “No, no. That’s a good idea. I’d enjoy accompanying you, Henry.” Turning, she leaned in and hugged the lady. “Thank you, Louise, for your hospitality.” She faced the men and took their leave, as did Henry. He held out his arm, and she hooked hers through it.
He headed toward the springs. “Could I ask a question?”
“Of course.” She smiled as if he’d walked right into a trap. “If I can ask one of my own.”
“Deal.” He took two steps. “You still in love with your husband?”
She showed no change of expression but patted his arm. “Andy and I met my last year in school; he only courted me a few months, but I suppose I loved him. Lord knows I missed him something terrible after he passed, but I did my grieving. With so much suddenly on my plate, wasn’t much time for sadness. I believe God’s healed my heart.”
He liked her answer, but it led to another question.
Before he could frame it, she pulled him to a stop and stepped out in front. “Why’d you have such a reputation as a layabout?”
He smiled and looked to the ground, shaking his head. “Best I can figure, it started four years ago. One night, I ran into a couple of men I knew from the war. They told me about Jackson finally getting voted in.” He shrugged. “They also were hauling a big load of rotgut. We got to toasting our new president.
“Next thing I knew, the three of us were under their wagon drunk as skunks, and it was the middle of the next morning. Of course, it happened right by the Jonesboro ferry, so every gossip who didn’t see me heard about it soon enough. Mother got twenty-something reports.”
