“Jamie,” she asked over supper. “Who owns this land?”
“I ... ah, don’t know. Mexico or France or somebody. But in two or three days, we’re going to own a chunk of it.”
“How?”
That brought him up short again. “Well, we’ll settle on it. That’s how. We’ll build us a cabin and that’ll show that we’re here to stay.”
“That’s how it’s done?”
He smiled. “That’s how we’re going to do it.”
* * *
Jamie fell in love with the country. Five hundred yards from where he’d left Kate by the wagon, the land turned soggy and soon he was surrounded by a tangle of brush and woods so thick he had to hack his way through. In the dark still waters — bayous, Preacher had called them — he saw huge alligators, twelve-to fourteen-feet long, and rattlesnakes and water moccasins as thick as his wrists. He found signs of bear and wolves.
He loved it, but it wasn’t what he was seeking. He wasn’t sure in his mind what he was looking for, only that he’d know it when he came to it.
Then, on his fourth day of exploring, he found what he was looking for. The area was set back in the thickets, but there was firm ground leading to it and clearings dotted the location. He knelt down and tore up a handful of earth. Rich soil that would grow good crops and produce fine gardens. When he got back to the wagon, Preacher had returned.
“She’s there, all right,” the mountain man said, drawing a crude map in the dirt. “You got tradin’ posts set south, west, to the north, right up here, and one right acrost the Sabine River over in Frenchy land. The settled Injuns here won’t bother you if you leave them alone. They’s Alabama and Coushatta. Been here about twenty or so years. They’s Kiowa and Comanche all over the damn place, but mostly to the west of here. Ain’t many white folks around here, but I heard talk that some feller name of Austin has done settled three or four hundred families in various spots in Texas and he riled up the Mexicans by doin’ so. But they’ll get over it, I reckon. They’s a bunch of Frenchies down here just north of pirate city — some call it Galveston. Them Frenchies has settled in the valley of the Trinity River. So now y’all know as much as I do about this area of the country. I seen what I want to see of this country. It’s all right. But I got a hankerin’ to get back to the High Lonesome.”
“You’re not going to wait until the morning, are you?” Kate asked him.
The mountain man shook his head. “Nope. I’m takin’ out right now. My feets is gettin’ itchy.” He stood up and stuck out his hand to Jamie. “But I wanted to come back and see y’all one more time. See you.”
The young mountain man walked to his horses and rode away to the northwest without looking back.
“Do you suppose we’ll ever see him again?” Kate asked.
“I don’t know, love.” Jamie stood behind her. He put his arms around her, under her breasts, and pulled her close. “But I do know this: except for each other, we are alone.”
Kate smiled. “We won’t be for long.”
“What do you mean?”
“Jamie Ian MacCallister, you’d better get a cabin built pretty quick. We’re going to have a baby.”
Twelve
It didn’t take Jamie long to recover from his shock and within minutes Kate was laughing so hard at the way her young husband was acting toward her, she had to sit down on the tailgate of their wagon.
“Jamie! I’m not some delicate flower or piece of fine china. I’m pregnant, that’s all. It’ll be several more months before I better not do any really hard work.” She took his hands in hers. “Now listen to me. We can still get a garden in. It’s late, but we’ll salvage something out of it. We can’t plant potatoes, but we can plant other vegetables. And we’re going to need a milk cow.”
“A milk cow? Where am I going to get a milk cow out here?”
“I don’t know. That’s your job. Just get us a milk cow. Right now, let’s move back to where you’ve picked the spot for us to live and get busy.”
“I’ll get some sort of shelter up for you, Kate, and then I’ll have to leave to find some cows... or a nanny goat.”
“Either one will do.”
Jamie sighed as a little bit more weight settled on his strong young shoulders. “Let’s just hope it isn’t twins,” he said.
Kate smiled. “Triplets run on my mother’s side of the family.”
“Oh, Lord!”
Kate was still laughing as Jamie hitched up a mule and started plowing up a garden for Kate — with a mule who wasn’t real happy about pulling a plow. But he got the job done and then Jamie got busy working on cabin and corral. He wasn’t going to hurry on the cabin and regret it later. He took his time shaping the logs. The wagon had contained mauls and froes, several draw-knives, and a broadax and adz. Jamie had the tools, and he knew how to use them. He was also determined that the cabin would have a wood floor.
“It isn’t necessary, Jamie,” Kate said softly.
“Yes, it is,” he said, and went back to work with the foot adz, which was normally used for squaring logs.
Hands on her hips as she watched the sweat streak the dusty skin of his bare upper torso, she said, “I suppose you’re going to want windows, too?”
“Certainly,” Jamie said. “But at first we’ll use doeskin membranes.”
“What?”
“Yes. But I’ll have to kill several bears for you to use the grease to coat the membranes. That lets the light come through.”
“That’s disgusting!”
Jamie paused in his work and cut loose with one of his rare laughs. After taking a swig from the water jug Kate handed him, he said. “You’re a pioneer lady now, Kate. Now get thee back to work, wench!”
She tossed the remaining contents of the water jug on him and then ran off to her garden, leaving Jamie dripping wet and laughing. She looked at the mess Jamie had made of the earth and shook her head. She didn’t have the heart to tell him he’d used the wrong kind of plow... Jamie had broken the earth for field crops, not a garden.
She stood at the edge of the plowed-up mess and did some thinking. They had plenty of flour, so wheat could wait until next spring. Corn, too, with pole beans among them so the vines could grow up the tall stalks. And they had pumpkin seed, and gourds would also grow among the corn. Jamie would have to get some potatoes at one of the trading posts, for they would have to have potatoes. And beans, peas, cabbage, turnips, and sweet potatoes. But that was next year. Kate wasn’t sure what month it was, but she knew it was pushing the seasons to try to plant very much right now. But she’d give it her best and say a little prayer. That never hurt.
* * *
Kate was showing when Jamie finished the cabin. She thought it was funny-looking at first, but she never cracked a smile. Now, looking at it, it made sense. Jamie had built a double cabin, with a dogtrot between them and two stone fireplaces with stone chimneys to prevent fire. On one side was the kitchen and sort of a living room, the other side a bedroom. It made sense in this warm climate, for they could sit in the dogtrot on warm evenings and enjoy a breeze.
“If you like, I’ll put some sort of floor down later,” he said.
They had seen no white men, but lots of Indians. Jamie quickly made friends with them and there was no trouble... not yet. But Jamie knew that in even the friendliest of tribes, there were those who harbored terrible blind hatred for all whites.
“Black man lives other side of this swamp,” a elder in the tribe told him one day. He pointed. “That way. Woman and three children. Came here four winters ago. Good man. Work hard. Friendly to all. He ask about you. I tell him that I believe you good. Then I tell him about your Shawnee name: Man Who Is Not Afraid. I tell him that I don’t think you like slavery.”
“I don’t. I hate it. No man has the right to hold another as a slave. It’s wrong.”
The Indian smiled. “Tomorrow, I bring my woman and daughters to stay with your woman during her time. We go see Moses. Is good for you
?”
“Good for me,” Jamie replied.
The Alabama gripped Jamie’s strong arm. “You good man, Jamie...”
Jamie had to burst out laughing, for the elder could no more pronounce MacCallister than he could fly to the moon. It came out sounding like MacCabaister-bucket. But the elder was a man of high humor and he joined in the laughter, taking no offense at Jamie’s mirth, as Jamie knew he wouldn’t.
The Alabama showed Jamie passageways through the country called the Big Thicket, and Jamie committed them to memory. On some of them, the water was knee deep and one had to carefully count the steps to gain safe passageway. Miss a count, and you found yourself sinking into the black water, or worse yet, mired in deadly quicksand. And one had to constantly watch for deadly snakes and alligators.
“I’d hate to be on horseback coming through here,” Jamie remarked.
“That is your next lesson,” the Alabama told him. “It can be done. I will show you. It is also very interesting when you meet a bear or a panther on these narrow paths,” the Alabama said, with more than a hint of a twinkle in his dark eyes.
“You ever do that?”
“Yes. That is how I got my second name.”
“Your second name?”
“Yes.” The elder chuckled. “Man Who Walks On Water.” Then he burst out laughing as did the others with them.
Most people had the mistaken belief that all Indians would rather die than turn tail and flee for their lives when faced with a hopeless situation. Jamie mentioned this to the elder.
“Only the very stupid ones,” the elder replied. “And they’re all dead.”
Jamie had discovered that the Alabama and Coushatta tribes were very pragmatic realists. And that is one of the reasons why they would survive when the Texans made their purge of the red man in the late 1830s. The other was Sam Houston, who rewarded the tribes for their neutrality during the Texas fight for independence.
Moses Washington was a man Jamie guessed to be in his late thirties. He had a son, Robert, who looked to be a few years older than Jamie. And another son, Jed, and daughter, Sally. His wife was named Liza and both their parents had been brought over on a slave ship from Africa.
Jamie stuck out his hand and smiled. “If you ran for your freedom, I sure don’t blame you. And don’t worry about me. I’m running, too.”
Moses shook the hand and returned the smile. “But they’ll hang me if they ever find me.”
“Well, they’ll just shoot me,” Jamie replied.
Both men laughed and an instant friendship was formed. Only death would break the bond.
Sitting under the shade of a huge old tree, as they talked, Jamie could easily tell that Moses and his family were having a tough time of it. They were getting by, but just barely. Their clothing was very nearly in rags. But how to offer them help without offending the man’s pride?
“You know,” Jamie said slowly, thinking as fast and hard as he could. “Come this spring I sure could use some help in getting in a crop.”
“I’m a pretty good farmer,” Moses said. “Back in Virginia I could make almost anything grow.”
“That’s good. I’m not much of a farmer. This might solve another problem for me. You see, me and Kate brought so many supplies with us, I’m afraid one of the barrels of flour is going to be filled with bugs before we could use it. Could you use it?”
“I suppose we could,” Moses said slowly. “But I would take it only as part payment for next spring’s work.”
“That would be fine with me. And we have so many clothes and bolts of cloth, perhaps you could use them.”
“Oh, I reckon Liza could put them to use. They sure wouldn’t go to waste.”
“Well, that’s settled then. And when Kate’s time comes, she’d sure appreciate it if another woman was present. I sure don’t know anything about childbirth.”
“Womenfolk like another of their kind with them when they birth,” Moses said solemnly. “Liza and Sally will come only a day or two before and stay.”
“That’s a relief. You have a weapon, Moses?”
“Got a piece of a shotgun.”
“When you find time, come over. I’ve got more rifles and pistols than I’ll ever need. Horses, too. Some movers tried to kill us over in Arkansas. I didn’t figure the dead they left behind would be needing their weapons.”
Moses cut his eyes at this young white man. He concluded right then and there that Jamie Ian MacCallister would be a bad enemy to have... and a fine friend. “I can shore understand that,” he said dryly.
“You’ll come over then and let me share with you?”
“Would tomorrow be too soon?”
* * *
Kate and Liza and Sally hit it off from the first moment and Moses and Robert and Jed marveled at the newly built cabin in the thicket. Robert inspected every aspect of the work and Jamie could practically hear the wheels turning in the young man’s head. He suspected that soon another cabin would replace the one Moses and his sons had hurriedly thrown together.
“Anytime you want to borrow tools, help yourself,” Jamie offered.
“Kind of you,” Moses said, clearly embarrassed.
“That’s what friends and neighbors are for,” Jamie replied.
Kate and Liza and Sally were busy sitting in the shade of the dogtrot sewing and taking up clothing for the boys. Jamie put a side of venison on the outside spit and then accompanied Moses as the man showed him the best places in the clearing to plant, and what to plant where.
“I got milk cows,” Moses said. “Bring one over for you and some chickens, too. Don’t know where the cows come from. We sort of found them on the way out here.”
Jamie cut his eyes to the man and smiled. “That was very fortunate.”
“We thought so,” Moses said, a very slight smile playing on his lips. “Man over in Arkansas had a whole bunch of cows. I reckon them that followed us just figured their boss man, why he had too many and we didn’t have naught.”
“I’m sure that was it. And the chickens, did they follow along, too?”
“No. How the chickens got here is a strange story. Big wind come up last year. Sort of a cyclone, I guess. Right out of the east. Them chickens just sort of sailed into our yard. Why, you never seen such confused hens. And the roosters was even more confused. Took them chickens two/three days to start layin’. But I reckon they like where they are. Didn’t none of them try to go back to where they come from.”
“Stranger things have happened, I suppose.”
“The Lord does work in mysterious ways.”
“Sure does.”
* * *
Up until the time he had met Jamie, Moses had been relying on traps to snare meat for his family. With the gift of guns from Jamie, he and Robert could now not only have adequate means to hunt the deer and wild pigs that abounded in the thicket, but they had the means to protect themselves against any enemy that might come along.
Jamie and Moses found a place in the thicket where their land very nearly joined. That winter they worked clearing out trees and stumps so their land could join and they could jointly work the fields come that spring, and also make the journey to and from each other’s home much easier.
Liza brought the men their nooning one day and smiled at Jamie.
“That smile worries me,” Jamie said.
“Me, too,” Moses said, staring hard at his wife. “Female type people get sort of mysterious at times. Speak your mind, woman.”
“Kate’s time is near,” Liza said. “And it will be twins.”
“Twins!” Jamie’s mouth dropped open.
“Twins,” Liza repeated. “I put her to bed and left Sally with her. Tomorrow you will have two more mouths to feed.”
“How do you know this?” Jamie questioned.
“Two heartbeats,” Lisa replied. “Two childs. One is bigger than the other. A boy and a girl, I am sure.” She turned and began the walk back to Jamie’s cabin.
“Sometimes
women spook me,” Jamie said.
“And they always will,” Moses added.
* * *
The next day, Jamie and Moses were working close to the cabin when Jamie noticed Jed coming at them at a flat run across the cleared field. Jamie and Moses dropped their axes and took off running.
“It’s time!” the boy hollered. “Mamma done said the babies is a-comin’.”
The three of them raced toward the cabin. They met a very determined Sally standing outside the cabin, a stick in her hand. “You stay out!” she warned the men, menace in her voice. “This ain’t no affair of menfolks.”
“Damned if that’s so, girl,” her father said. “How do you think babies is made — by wishin’ and hopin’? Stand aside.”
Sally raised the stick. “You’d hit me?” Moses asked.
“Mamma tole me to if you tried to come inside. I does what mamma tells me.”
“I’ll get me a limb and wear your fanny out, girl,” the father warned.
“Shut up!” Lisa called from the cabin. “And go away!”
“Do what, woman?” Moses yelled.
“Go work on the barn. Go huntin’. Do somethin’. Just go away.”
“What do we do, Papa?” Jed asked. Robert was working in a far field and unaware of what was taking place.
“Go away,” the father replied. He cast a hard look at his daughter. She raised the stick.
“No respect for elders,” Moses said, turning away and he walked toward the half-finished barn “No tellin’ what it’ll be like a hundred years from now.”
Thirteen
When Kate screamed, Jamie jumped up and started for the cabin, Sally and stick forgotten. Moses grabbed him by the seat of his britches and hauled him back down to the log bench. “All women holler when they give birth, Jamie. Don’t git upset.”
Eyes of Eagles Page 11
