Ida nodded and looked towards Stephen.
“Bearboy was also very kind, and he splashed water on my face and gave me cool water to drink, it made me feel much better. Then he took me along to their tent village. Even the bear cub is very sweet. It is called Bearbaby. I also had very nice food at his mother’s tent. She is called Sings-in-the-wind!” Ida said the name in Indian, as she had learned. “And when I said I wanted to go home, Bearboy showed me the way. But we got angry at each other, when I said Stephen had to come home. I’d seen him playing with the other children, you see. And Bearboy knew it. I ended up running away from him. But then it turned out Stephen had been following me. We only met here in the house, Stephen and I. And I was so glad that he came. I was scared, because the house was cold and dark.”
“Yes, we were not home,” Katrina answered. “We were at Henry and Rose’s place to help them put finishing touches to their peat house. Anna is staying with them.”
“Haven’t you been out looking for me?” Ida said indignantly. Her parents nodded and Katrina sighed.
“We have just been looking in another direction. We were so very sad because it seemed now two of our children were missing.” Ida could see that her mother had been crying.
“But we are back now!” Ida said and hugged both her parents. She showered them with kisses.
“We will walk with Stephen over to the Kennedy house first thing in the morning,” Frederik said. “But now it is time to get back to bed and to sleep. We have been working so hard on the new house, and then out looking in the forest and worrying. We are completely exhausted.”
Her parents hurriedly made another bed ready, while Lisa wanted to lie between Ida and Stephen. She stared at him for such a long time, that he finally got embarrassed and turned away.
Chapter 46
“I am actually quite fond of this suit,” Stephen said in the morning. “It is so light and comfortable to wear.”
They all nodded and looked out at a dreary dawn curtained by heavy rain. It had started in the middle of the night.
The rain was pouring down, so they drove the wagon across the hill to where Henry and Rose were building their peat house. In the wagon, Stephen stared for a moment at the blanket lying just behind the drivers box. Then he looked at Ida and Lisa and shrugged. That time was over.
They pulled slowly uphill towards the new peat house, the horses were having a hard time in all the mud. Stephen crawled out onto the driving box as they approached his parent’s new house. He sat between Frederik and Katrina and gazed wide-eyed at the house, that was still under construction. Henry and Rose were working on the roof. They had sunk tree trunk poles into the hillside and the peat house was built with the rear wall dug into the hillside. It was going to be a grand house. Stephen stood and shouted at the top of his voice, “Mum! Dad!”
His parents could not hear him at first because of the heavy downpour. He yelled even louder. Rose stiffened her back then spun around to see the wagon slowly approaching. She held a long roof pole in her hands and it fell crashing to the muddy ground when she saw him. Stephen waved his arms over his head and shouted.
“Marm! It’s me, Stephen!”
“Stephen!” Shrieked Rose and flung herself down from the roof and scrambled slip-sliding through the mud down the hillside to meet the wagon, laughing and crying at the same time.
“Stephen! Henry! Come quick, it’s Stephen!” When she reached wagon, she stared at him in astonishment.
“What on earth is it that you look like, my boy?” She cried in a thick Irish accent.
“I look like an Indian, mum,” he cried proudly. Henry rushed up behind Rose. Frederik halted the horses as they reached the flat outside the house and Rose held her arms towards Stephen. He leaped from the drivers box into her arms so she nearly fell. Henry caught them both in a big hug. When Stephen was finally standing in the yard in front of his parents in the rain, they all burst into tears and hugs and laughter. Henry pulled his wife and son toward the new house out of the rain. Unfortunately, the roof was not yet finished, but there was at least half of a shelter inside. The ground everywhere was oozing mud.
“Yes, it is very wet here in America!” Exclaimed Anna, who sat on box in under the partial shelter. Katrina had brought along a hot can of coffee and a big pot of porridge, which had been kept warm in a box of hay.
“What to do without a hay-box?” She burst out.
“It served us very well on Lolland,” Anna said in Danish. Ida had promised to teach her to speak English, but it was slow going.
“That will happen in my next life,” Anna had said. “I can make do with signs and pantomime. It is quite entertaining.” Ida had laughed at Anna, as she often did. Anna was sweet and funny.
“It is such a good thing you were on board that ship to America,” Ida said
“How could we have managed without you?” Katrina said smiling. Anna was such a wise and cheerful person, the older woman was a good help in so many ways, for everyone.
Stephen walked around and looked the peat house all over. He nodded approvingly at everything. Rose followed him, holding onto his arm, touching his hair, his new clothes, and finally, he turned abruptly towards her.
“Mother, it is enough now. You have seen that I am here, right?”
“Yes,” she laughed, and tousled his hair one last time. “You know we have been crying so much, because you were gone and we are building a family home with no family. But now you are here! We are going to take such good care of you and I am not letting you out of my sight ever again!”
Stephen merely nodded.
Then it really rained with a will, so they removed into the wagon and drank the coffee and ate the porridge under shelter of the canvas, which could barely keep the rain out. It was damp and warm, but better than nothing. Luckily, the wagon was parked so that they could enjoy the beautiful view.
Chapter 47
The next day the sun shone bright and powerful from a cloudless sky, and everyone worked on the Kennedy house which steamed in the sun. They finished the roof, so that the house was water tight.
“Now we just need a stove,” Rose said and looked around her house. They had stacked all their boxes and luggage inside the house, filling up the corners.
“It is some funny pieces of furniture,” Rose said and laughed. “Boxes and sacks. Yes, this is the latest in ‘Settlers style’ interiors.” She turned to Henry. “Are you going to town tomorrow?”
He nodded adding, “Until we get a stove, we can set a good fire in front of the house, settlers’ style.”
Henry and Stephen went to gather wood for the cooking fire, in a small grove of trees lower down hill. Henry kept a careful lookout all the time. Stephen was happy and carefree. He sang and whistled all the time and worked diligently locating dry twigs and branches. He wore his Indian clothes with ease. His parents could not convince him to put on his own European style clothes again.
“The Indian clothing is mine and I like to wear it,” he said calmly. Rose had to give up.
That night, the Jensens and Anna slept in the prairie wagon. Henry, Rose and Stephen slept inside their new peat house.
In the morning Rose started to set a fire in the yard in front of the house. She wanted to make a rack so that a pot could hang over the fire.
“I will make that,” Stephen said. “I have seen how the Indians do it.” He took three sturdy branches and stood them in a triangle the tips against each other, like a small teepee frame.
“Please give me some string.”
Rose found something for him. It did not take long to tie the branches safely together.
“Throw a couple of stones into the fire.”
Henry stared in surprise at his son. But he found some stones and threw them into the fire.
“Where is the pot you want to use?”
Rose brought a big iron pot out to the fire, and Stephen fastened the pot between the branches. “Fine, when the stones have been lying in the fire for
a little while, then you pull them out and put them into the pot.”
“Why?” Rose asked surprised.
“Can’t you guess?” Stephen asked and looked at his mother. She shook her head.
“The stones heat up the food quickly and keeps it warm for a long time,” he explained.
“Where did you learn that?” Ida asked and looked on curiously.
“I learned a lot in the Indian camp,” Stephen answered mildly.
“Where is the water that you fetched?” Rose asked impatiently.
“Right behind you,” Henry said, shaking his head.
“Now we heat up the water first then throw it away, so that we have clean stones in the pot.”
“Who will get the stones out?” Rose asked helplessly. “They are very hot.”
“I will do that,” Stephen said. “Where is a blanket or thick carpet?” Ida flew to the wagon. “Here is a good thick mat,” she said and handed it to Stephen.
He reached down to the fire and using a stick, fetched the stones out and flicked them on to the mat. Then he lifted the mat and tipped the stones into the pot. Rose poured in some water, it hissed over the hot stones. They waited for the water to boil for a few minutes to really clean the stones. Then the pot was taken down and emptied and then filled with more water and placed over the fire again.
“Now we want to make coffee,” said Rose bringing out the coffee grinder. The beans were ground and the coffee powder filled into the coffee pot. Soon the boiling water was poured onto the grounds and the coffee pot stood on the large flat stones at the edge of the fire.
“Well, are you going to change into your clothes, Stephen?” Katrina asked him.
He pretended he did not hear. Rose shook her head at Katrina.
“That was just what was needed,” Rose said quietly.
“What?” Katrina asked.
“The Indians!”
“Yes?”
“He had to visit them and face his fears and find out what kind of people they are.”
“Do you really think that was what did it?”
“What else could it be?” Rose answered. “We had more or less given up on him. You saw yourself how he hid under that stupid blanket. Thankfully, he is not doing that any longer. He is his old self again. Better, even. He’s a grown up 12 year old!”
The coffee pot was percolating nicely and coffee was served for everyone. Katrina sat for a while pondering what Rose had said, watching Stephen as he played with the girls. They were playing with sticks and a ball. Stephen had constructed a goal in no time and they were shooting the ball at it with their sticks. An Indian game, she guessed.
“You are right,” Katrina said. “He has become a completely different boy.”
Rose nodded with sparkling eyes as she watched the children playing.
Chapter 48
When Henry and Frederik returned from town a few days later to the Kennedy house, they brought with them the supplies they needed, but also an exhausted cow, a black stove and a black piano. The women, girls and Stephen stood in the yard and stared in wonder at the new items.
“A cow! How wonderful. Fresh milk and butter and cheese!” Anna clasped her hands at her chest in delight. She had tended many cows in her life on Lolland. The little brown cow had a collar round her neck and was tethered behind the wagon. She had walked quite a way and was footsore. Frederik untied the leash and handed it over to Anna, who led the cow to the soft grass near the peat moor, where she could graze the fresh green tufty grass. The girls fetched water for her to drink.
“But a piano?” Katrina said in surprise. “What are we going to do with that?”
“Play it!” Rose shouted and jumped up onto the wagon with surprising agility and opening the piano lid, stood to play. It was not so badly out of tune after its journey, and she played an Irish jig with gusto. She played so that one simply had to dance. It became quite a party.
“Well I say!” Katrina said completely astounded. “You play wonderfully!”
Rose stopped with a flourish and turned from the piano. She flung her husband a grateful glance. “Thank you so much, darling Henry. How did you find the money for a piano?”
“I didn’t,” he said soberly. “We found it in an empty homesteader’s house. The cow was wandering dazedly nearby.”
“That was where we found the stove too,” Frederik said. “Unfortunately, we found a dead woman as well. She was lying just outside her house. The place had been ransacked, there was nobody else around. We buried her.”
All the merriment was hushed, everyone thought silently of the dead woman. Then Rose touched the piano gently and said,
“It is in fine working order, it only needs a little tuning.” She let her hands slide over the keys. “I am so happy to have this gift. Let the heavens know, I wish that the woman who owned it can see that her piano is in hands that appreciate it.”
The men got the stove and the piano off the wagon and into the house. They had laid grass-rush matting on the mud floor. Now they broke some wooden box-crates to make sturdy damp-proof and level footings on which to stand the piano.
“I hope it can take the moisture,” Rose said and patted it lovingly.
Next they installed a flue-chimney, so that they could start to use the stove straight away. Rose got out her frying pan, which she put on the stove after having lit the fire. “Now we shall have some nice pancakes,” she said happily.
A little while later, when they sat eating pancakes with jam, Stephen showed up in the doorway. He held up a beautiful bow and in the other hand he held a couple of arrows. They looked really good and straight, even with feathers tied on the ends.
“Look,” he said proudly. “I made them myself, now I can hunt.”
“No!” Shouted Rose. “You gave me such a shock, child, standing there against the light and armed. You look more and more like an Indian every day.” She put a hand to her chest. “And you are not an Indian. You are Stephen from Ireland. You are a settler in America.” She was becoming quite upset.
“Oh, let him play with his toys as he pleases,” Katrina said. “He is so happy. And the Indian clothing suits him very well.”
“I would not be surprised, if he runs away again,” Rose muttered with tears in her eyes. “He can’t seem to get that camp off his mind.”
“It was actually very exciting there,” Ida said. “The tents were really big and looked fantastic. They were so beautifully decorated with many colours and patterns and sort of looked like circus tents. The food was wonderful too. Dried meat with rich cream and berries. I really liked it.” Ida looked towards Stephen. “Did you like the food as well?”
He nodded and smiled.
“Pemmican! Of course. Yes, it was really good. We also had corn on the cob, both boiled and roasted. It tasted very nice. The dried meat they call jerky is very healthy, and it is really tasty.”
“Don’t you like my pancakes at all?” Rose asked indignantly. “Perhaps, they do not taste very nice?”
“Yes, but those that the Indians make, really are better,” Stephen said “They are thick and filled with berries.”
“Hm, maybe I have to go and learn how to cook, at the Indian camp,” Rose said bitterly. Stephen went over to his mother and hugged her.
“I did not mean it like that.”
Rose started to cry. Stephen ran outside.
“The Indians have taken both my sons,” Rose said quietly.
“What nonsense!” Henry burst out. “He came back. He left the camp when he found out we were alive and he came back to us. It is the good things about the Indians, that he is talking about and I am sure there are also some bad things, which he is not telling us.”
“But the Indians did not do anything bad to us,” Ida said and stared at the grown ups.
“Why, I am happy I saw how they are living, in their camp.”
“Well, yes, that is alright now,” Katrina said and made shushing signs at Ida. “I think it is time for us to start of
f back to our own home again.”
It was quite late when they set off for their peat house on the other hill and it was completely dark before they got home. Ida and Lisa lay in the back of the wagon and admired the sky.
“The starry sky here in America is just as beautiful as it is in Denmark.”
“I can believe that,” Lisa answered and slept a moment later.
Chapter 49
It was Sunday and they all gathered at the Kennedy peat house. The sun shone bright and the sky was cloudless and blue. Boxes and suitcases had been dragged outside and put in front of the house; some to sit on, others acted as tables. Plenty of sweet porridge with milk, buns with real butter, pancakes and coffee with fresh cream was served. Henry and Frederik dragged the piano to the doorway and Rose sat on a box to play and they held a kind of church service. They sang hymns, both in English and in Danish and Ida sang a Danish song, ‘High upon a tree there sat a crow’.
Lisa sat at her feet and hummed along enthusiastically and afterwards, she reached out to Ida and cried, “You must teach me that song!”
“Oh yes,” Ida said and pulling her to her feet they held hands and swung around and around. Until Ida suddenly stopped and stared up at the hill beyond the gathering, her mouth and eyes wide open. The families turned to see what she was staring at.
Bearboy and Bearbaby stood less than 10 meters away, watching them.
Ida quickly walked toward him and beckoned him to come closer. Stephen sprang up and ran to greet him with open arms. Bearbaby apparently recognised Stephen too, because with a toss of its head, it tore the leash from Bearboy’s hands and rushed down the hillside and threw itself at Stephen, who almost fell under the impact. Ida walked more slowly towards Bearboy.
He wore a very fancy doeskin suit and had a fine shiny feather in his hair. He looked very pleased to see everyone.
“Look, it is Bearboy,” Ida said, turning to the two families, to introduce him. She stopped, surprised to see their scared faces.
“It’s alright. He is very kind. And the naughty bear cub is his pet. He is called Bearbaby.”
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