by Danni Roan
Silently she sank to her knees beside the heavy iron bed and closed her eyes. "Lord." she spoke softly. "I was so looking forward to going to church for once. I came with that intention in my heart but somehow I know you need me to head back home. I will trust you in this even as I have trusted you through every valley in my life. I may not always understand but I know you love me and that you have the best in mind for me. Give Chaz and me a safe journey home tomorrow and let everything be alright in the valley. Thank you for the chickens, and for allowing me to get everything I needed and still having something left over to see us through the winter. And thank you for Chaz. It is wonderful to have a friend I can depend on. Amen."
Rising Maggie crawled into bed but couldn't sleep. She felt the heaviness of the loss of not attending services the following day. The idea of being with other believers had cheered her. Then another thought struck her. What if Mr. Vane had been there and insisted on sitting with her. What would that have looked like? Suddenly all the sorrow of leaving town early was gone and Maggie slept.
Chapter 4
A light tapping woke Maggie the next morning before even a trace of sun light touched the eastern horizon. "Thank you.” She called softly to let the night clerk know that she was up. Quickly she washed and dressed, picked up her valise and walked down stairs. To her surprise the night clerk handed her a small white bundle.
"There's some biscuits and jam for the road Mis." He said smiling. "Lotty our cook wrapped them up for you last night knowing you were leavin' early. Said she put lots of butter on them just the way you like them."
"Thank you." Maggie said politely, “and thank Lotty for me too." Then she turned and walked out the door. Chaz met her just out front with horses and mule fully packed and ready to leave. He said he'd had to dig out a couple of carrots for Sampson before he'd leave the livery or let him put the small crate of noisy chickens up on the top of the packs.
Maggie smiled and took Joshua's reins. He, at least, seemed as anxious to leave the town behind as she was. There was no early morning traffic as they wound their way down the well-worn road toward the mountains. As the sun rose a few cowboys could be seen out checking fences, and soon wagons full of the local farmers and their families could be seen headed to town for worship and a day free of extra work.
The afternoon grew warm and they happily stopped beside a babbling brook near the turn off to the old trading trail that led toward the mountains. The horses drank thirstily and Maggie brought a small cupful of water to the chickens who still clucked noisily on top of Sampson's strong back. They ate a hasty lunch of sandwiches and then mounted up again. Just as they reached the upper range of the foot hills, dark clouds began scudding across the sky.
The wind picked up and in the wide expanse of prairie below them dust devils could be seen swirling and dancing in the afternoon sun. The breeze quickened as the sky rapidly grew black, then huge cold rain drops began to splatter them like great dabs of paint.
Pulling their rain gear from their saddle bags, they huddled close to their mounts and pushed on. Soon the sky opened and huge sheets of dark rain washed over them. The horses used to all sorts of weather plodded on up the ever steepening trail. Maggie noticed that the chickens had gone very quiet, huddled together for warmth against the miserable rain.
She pushed Joshua a little harder trying to make some time and hoping to get home before the feeble light was completely gone. It was gray and the rain had not slacked off at all by the time they came to the cut in the rock face of the mountain. Dismounting, she and Chaz carefully led their animals through the pass, stepping lightly on the slick wet stone.
Finally, they reached the valley floor and both the horses and the mule tossed their heads impatiently to be off and home. A brisk trot was all that Maggie could allow, worrying that the chickens might come to harm but they reached the barn just as the last soggy light of day receded behind the hills.
Exhausted, she and Chaz led the animals into the barn and unpacked them. Maggie lifted the soggy chickens out of their crate and examined them but aside from smelling horrid and being very damp they seemed to be fine. She scattered a handful of corn about the bar floor then watched as they shook themselves as dry as possible and began pecking at the feed. She then turned the horses into the open stall and closed all of the doors for the night.
Together she and Chaz carried the heavy paniers to the house and opened the heavy oak door. Nothing had ever felt as good as coming home. Both she and Chaz were weary at the end of this drenching day but together they stored the supplies and brewed up some coffee. Having nothing ready for their dinner Maggie whipped up a batch of pancakes and fried them in reserved bacon fat then poured sorghum on them and sat down to eat. With the fire of the cook stove quickly driving the chill and wet of the day out of the snug cabin, and hot food in their bellies they both smiled over the oil lamp on the table.
"Well that was quite a day." Chaz offered amiably. "Yes, I'd have to agree. I didn't know just how thankful I would be to get home after being in town for such a short time."
"Why did we come back so quick, Miss Maggie?" Chaz asked plaintively " weren't we gonna stay another day? We might a missed this rain if we'd come back tomorrow."
"That's true Chaz but frankly I didn't like the way Mr. Vane was asking questions and insisting upon things for us. It made me uneasy and in my heart I just knew it was time to come home."
Still looking somewhat bewildered Chaz nodded. "I'll build the fire up a little tonight if you don't mind. With this rain it might get pretty cold tonight."
"Thank you Chaz that's a good idea and we can hang our wet clothes on the rack. It will be nice for you to have something other than an old blanket to change into now won't it?" Together they laughed and Chaz built up the fire. When Maggie had gone to her room he changed into his other new outfit of clothes, the flannel shirt feeling soft and warm to him. Maggie came back out and together they hung their wet things to dry overnight.
The next morning it was as if the rain had never come. Maggie, up early, wasted no time getting to the barn to check on the chickens. She found them nestled in the old hay in one of the stalls and noted that the rooster perked up rather defensively when she approached. Quickly she fed them then turned the horses out into the corral. They had not been using it over the past few weeks and fresh grass grew thick again.
Then she closed the barn up again and went back to the house to make breakfast. This morning she made one of her father's favorite dishes something he used to call fox bait. It consisted of frying up small slices of bacon with an onion, then when the fat had rendered down nicely tossing in stale cubes of bread that soaked up the fat, and browned. The final ingredient was a couple of scrambled eggs, which she had wrapped carefully in batting to bring back with her. Placing this hearty meal on the table she gave thanks to God for his many blessings and then dug in.
"Miss Maggie, " Chaz said between shoveling large heaps of food into his mouth "I hope this don't sound rude or nothin' but your cookin’ is lots better than anything they served up at that fancy hotel in Sawbrush. I mean, thank you and all and it was good food, but yours is just more fillin' like."
Maggie laughed and thanked the young man. Who by that time had eaten everything left in the large iron skillet.
As the summer progressed the garden grew, Clara filled out and began to look like a real horse and not just a scare crow version of one. The chickens laid eggs, and much as Maggie longed for fresh eggs, she let the hens raise their first two broods before she started collecting the eggs each day.
Together she and Chaz had mucked out the artesian well, opened up the drainage pipes and gravel beds that let water from the horse trough trickle toward the vegetable garden, re-plastered the seams in the log cabin and barn, patched the window, repaired the shutters, and re-wired the old chicken coop.
On a bright clear summer morning, as the golden sun glinted off the great limb railings that wrapped the front porch, she gazed out over th
e vast expanse of grass land and sighed. Some part of her soul seemed to be mended by that view. Just as she had worked with her own hands to mend the corral fences she had been knitted back together. She still missed her father and David terribly, but somehow she found strength in the mountains that surrounded her, wrapping her in their arms like a protector.
"Chaz." She called from the front step. "Chaz." He walked from the barn, scattering chickens and wiping his hands on an old rag. He'd been oiling the hay mow in anticipation of cutting the long grass soon for a winter’s harvest. Already the corn and wheat they had planted were nearly ready for harvest. "Maggie?" Chaz queried.
"Saddle up. Let’s go for a ride around the place and see what's out there. You'd better bring the rifle too, maybe we'll spot some good game." Chaz smiled broadly then turned back to the barn and whistled up the horses. Since this always came with either a good feed of oats or a few carrots, all three animals came pounding up to him from where they had been grazing freely in the field surrounding the cabin.
Maggie took her eggs to the kitchen and placed them in the old crock they used to store them. For a moment she gazed at them smiling. “Hm, now if we only had a cow." Then she dashed into her room and changed into a pair of stout riding britches.
Chaz had both Joshua and Clara, who now stood taller than the mule, saddled and together they swung up. They left Sampson free to follow or stay home. They started to the right of the cabin itself past the wood shed at the back and the privy on the other side. The valley, a large flat bottomed bowl covered nearly forty acers of land as Maggie had found out when she presented the deed to the lawyer in Sawbrush.
She had found that her title to the property was free and clear and that there was nothing that would not allow her to add Chaz as a partner for the property. She could see the whole way around the land she owned, marked out by steep purple mountains in the far distance. Together she and Chaz paced their horses through the tall grass. Here and there prairie chickens or grouse fluttered noisily into the air, startling Clara now and then.
By mid-day they had ridden to the opposite side of the valley and they could just make out a tiny dark dot that must have been the barn from where they stopped under a few cotton wood trees near a stream. Below in the clear depth of the stream they watched fish dart about, large dark shapes moving silently through the water.
"I could come fishin' here sometime." Chaz said looking longingly into the bubbling stream. "That would be a wonderful idea. If you caught a few extras we could smoke them for later this winter." They mounted up again and moved further along the ridge. From here you could see how the brook spread out into the middle of the property and formed a small pond further on. Beyond that it must have gone underground because no sun light was seen to reflect back on it. Close to the mountains a wide variety of trees grew and they noted nut trees and berry bushes were prolific in some areas.
"I remember picking blue berries with my father, further up there." Maggie said pointing toward a slope. They'll be ripening soon and we'll see if we can stock up on some of those as well."
Slowly they made the turn toward the cabin again and were only about a quarter of a mile away when they spotted a small herd of Mule deer. Chas looked at Maggie and she nodded. Dismounting quietly, she took the reins of both horses firmly in her hands and let Chaz move up closer to his prey.
Moments later a loud "Boom!" shattered the silence, Clara reared up pulling Maggie nearly off the ground while the herd of deer disappeared into the far distance. Only one remained laying still in the bright green grass. Chaz had brought him down with one shot. Maggie, finally getting Clara to calm down, smiled to Chaz who pulled his old knife from his belt and headed toward the kill. Maggie brought the horses in closer but Clara didn't like the smell of the blood. She also noted that Joshua just kept nibbling grass through the whole thing and didn't seem to be the least bit disturbed by the gun shot or the dead deer.
"I'll just gut it here, and put it up on Clara with me." Chaz said.
"I'm not sure if she'll let you do that." Maggie retorted looking at the spooky horse.
"Well she's gonna have to learn someday. I can't have a horse that can't do all the work I need doin.'"
After field dressing the deer, Chaz tried in vain to get Clara to allow him to put the carcass over her back but she was having none of it. Instead they tied the animal to Joshua's saddle and rode back double on Clara to the barn. By the time they got there they noticed that Clara had stopped bulking at the dead deer across her stable mates back and finally just got on home.
Chaz took down the deer and hung it in the root cellar for two days before he finished butchering it and then he and Maggie spent a very messy day smoking, jerking, potting, and cooking venison, but when they were done, they had a nice store of meat that would hold them for a while.
"If you don't mind too much I think I'll set some traps around soon. I seen loads of rabbit sign when we was out riding and I think that would be a nice addition to our meals."
Maggie thought it was a good idea and dug out her recipe for potted rabbit so they’d have more ways of storing up for the winter than tinned beef.
The sky was still dark but Maggie woke suddenly. Something had raised her from her sleep, some strange noise, and then she heard it again. The chickens, now locked tightly in their shed where making a terrible racket. Wrapping her dressing gown around her, she dashed through the kitchen just in time to see Chaz snatch up the rifle.
With Maggie carrying the lamp and Chaz the rifle they dashed to the chicken coop just in time to see a large bob cat, squeezing through the wire with a chicken still clutched tight in its jaws.
"Blam!" the rifle blared and the cat and chicken dropped to the ground. Maggie dashed over to see the animal up close then realized why it had raided her chicken coop. Its right front paw was obviously broken and it could not have hunted wild game. She also noted its heavy teats and realized that the animal was a mother. "Oh, Chaz." She moaned. "The poor thing."
"The poor thing? That thing was stealing our food."
"I know but now its babies will starve. Well there's nothing we can do about it now. Would you mind skinning it and we'll keep the fur. I'll take this chicken in and see if it can be salvaged.”
The early rays of the sun found Maggie at the cook stove boiling the now plucked and cleaned chicken, but as she chopped carrots, and onions to add to the pot for soup her mind kept wondering to the kittens she was responsible for orphaning. It was one thing to hunt for food and to use wild game as a way to support yourself but this just seemed like a terrible waste. Dumping the last of the vegetables into the pot and pushing it to the back of the stove to simmer she dried her hands on a dish towel and walked outside.
“Chaz?” She called, looking around and wondering where he was. “Chaz.”
“Miss Maggie?” He called back, stepping from the barn. A puzzled look on his face.
“Chaz, do you think we could track where that bobcat came from?” Maggie asked.
“Well I suppose we could, but why?”
“I want to see if I can find her kittens.”
Chaz chuckled a little but agreed to the plan. Starting at the hen house they worked their way around following the big cats trail. After wondering up the hill and then back down they ended up right at the wood shed behind the cabin. There they could see a dark hole under the logs and inside two tiny, undersized bob cat kittens who hissed at them as best they could.
Using Maggie’s shawl, they wrapped up the two kittens, still hissing and spitting, and headed back to the cabin. Once inside Maggie emptied the wood box, much to Chaz’ chagrin, then placing her oldest blanket in as a nest, Maggie put the kittens into the high sided box.
Retreating to the kitchen she poured some canned milk into a bowl, mixed in some warm water from the large kettle on the stove and took it to the kittens. They sniffed about and could smell it but did not know how to eat it. Maggie solved this problem by dunking their noses in the solu
tion. Soon tiny pink tongues darted out to lick dripping whiskers and then both kittens were lapping up the warm milk, squinting their luminous eyes set wide in black speckled faces.
Chapter 5
Over the next four weeks the kittens grew becoming more and more rambunctious every day and beginning to eat bits of scrap meat from the table. Maggie and Chaz, harvested most of the garden and began bringing in hay from the wide flat valley floor, where it grew golden brown as the summer wore on. Clara and Sampson began to work well as a team, pulling the hay mow, another blessing, smoothly through the valley and soon the loft above the barn was filling with sweet dry hay for the winter.
As the weather got cooler the antics of the now large bob cats, which Maggie named Moxy and Mawl, kept them well entertained, laughing as they stalked butterflies and then eventually hunted mice in the barn. Mawl lived up to his name on a regular basis by sneak attacking anyone careless enough not to be on the watch for him. He would pounce from behind furniture or from the loft onto Chaz shoulders with a screech, pulling a matching squeal from the attackee. Moxy who was more timid was content to bat at pieces of string that Maggie would dance in front of her, and stalk pray where ever it could be found.
The cabin was a constant bustle of activity as the two partners worked to prepare for the long winter ahead. Chaz began making repairs to the barn and house as best he could and Maggie worked endlessly in the kitchen canning and storing their produce from the garden, she even roped a reluctant Chaz into kitchen work which he protested loudly as 'woman's work' but took to steadily enough.
Soon Jars of tomatoes, green beans, peas, and beats lined the shelves and cupboards of both the kitchen and the root cellar. Putting up the last still warm jar Maggie dried her hands on her apron and then turned to look out at the early afternoon sun. Smiling brightly, she snatched off her apron, picked up a basket and walking out onto the porch called for Chaz.