[Oregon Trail Time Travel 04.0] Angie and the Farmer

by Susan Leigh Carlton

  “Put her face down on the ground,” she directed.

  She turned Mandy’s head to the side, resting on one arm. Forcing her mouth open, Angie put her finger in Mandy’s mouth and moved it around. She straddled the still body, and placed her hands on Mandy’s back, thumbs along the spine and began compressions. Water spewed from the prone girl’s mouth and she began coughing.

  The Lewis’s wagon and livestock made it to the far bank. Hiram, Sophie, and Jed ran to join the crowd. After glancing at the two shivering, soaked girls, Sophie said, “Get them back to the wagon. They’re freezing.”

  Hiram picked up Mandy while Jed carried Angie back to the train and placed them in the back of the wagon. Sophie put the flap down, closing off the rear of the wagon, and began helping them remove their wet clothes. Leaving their underwear, she pushed the rest through the flap and directed Jed to hang them out to dry. She wrapped the girls with buffalo robes they had purchased in Fort Laramie.

  “Jed, find another dress for Angela,” Sophie directed. “Get a fire started and move her clothes close so they’ll dry faster.

  “There’s no way we can ever repay you for what you did. Since you no longer have a family of your own, from now on, you are a part of ours.”

  That brought tears to Angie’s eyes. “Thank you,” she said. “That means a lot to me.”

  “Mama, you can’t do that,” Mandy said. “It would crush Jed. He’s sweet on her, and a boy can’t be sweet on his sister. At least not the way he is.”

  Her mother smiled, and said, “So that’s what it is. I thought he was cow eyed over something. It’s Angela.”

  “You two are crazy, Angie replied.

  “The highlight of his life was carrying you back to the wagon,” Mandy told her.

  Changing the subject, Angie said, “I guess we’ve had our bath, haven’t we?”

  “I may never go near the water again,” Mandy declared. “I have never seen anyone, man or boy swim like you did.”

  “I practically lived in the water when I was a little girl. I had better go help Polly. I wonder if my clothes are close to being dry.”

  “I’ll check for you,” Sophie said. She returned carrying the clothes. “Here you are, nice and warm, although they may be a bit damp in places.”

  “They’re fine.” Angie got dressed and left the wagon.

  “That was incredible,” Mandy told her mother. “She was so calm. She told me if I didn’t stop struggling, we were both going to die there. She said she knew what she was doing. And she really did.”

  “You should have seen it from our end. She was in the water and after you in the blink of an eye. No one else had moved. I thought we had lost you.” She hugged her daughter. “We were truly blessed when she joined up with our company.”

  “I wonder where she learned it.” Mandy asked.

  “It doesn’t matter. She was here when we needed her,” her mother replied.

  The Gilley wagon…

  “Seth told me what you did,” Polly said to Angela. “That was brave of you.”

  “She was in trouble,” Angie dismissed the praise.

  “You risked your life to try to save another person. Not many would do that.”

  “I had nothing to lose.”

  “Losing your life is a lot more than nothing.”

  “I wish…” She couldn’t finish the sentence.

  “Think about this. If you had died when your parents did, that girl you rescued this morning would be dead right now. It’s because of you she’s still alive. That’s the greatest gift you can give anyone.”

  “I could not do anything to help when the two people most important to me needed me. I can’t get past that,” Angie said.

  Later…

  “Good morning, sister,” Mandy said, when she joined Angie after the wagons began moving.

  Angie’s cheeks flushed at the affectionate greeting. “Good morning yourself. How are you doing this morning?”

  “I’m okay,” Mandy said. “Thanks to you.”

  “You would have done the same for me.”

  “We would both have drowned if that had been the case. Mama said you were the only one that did anything on the raft. I would not be here if it weren’t for you.”

  “I’m glad it worked out for both of us. Let’s not make a big deal of it.”

  It is a big deal,” Mandy said. “No one in our family will ever forget it.”

  “Where’s Jed this morning?”

  “He went out with the scout to see if there’s any sign of Indians, and to look for camping places. I think they’ll be out a couple of days. Why?”

  “I was just curious, that’s all.”

  Chapter ten

  Angie and Jed

  The train had made camp for the evening when Jed and the scout rejoined them. He was grubby and dusty when he removed the saddle and bridle and turned his horse to graze in the corral formed by the circled wagons. He slapped his hat against his leg to shake off some of the dust.

  He spied Angela by the cooking pit next to the Lewis wagon and approached her. “I didn’t do a proper job of thanking you for what you did for Mandy. She’s not worth much, but she’s the only sister I have, and I appreciate it.”

  “I’m glad I was there,” she said.

  “I was swimming my horse and the stock across and didn’t know what happened until I was up on the far bank and it was over. I’m not much of a swimmer, but I would have tried if I’d known.”

  “Mandy’s been a good friend to me and Lord knows I don’t have many of them anymore.”

  “I would like to be your friend,” he said, his head lowered from the embarrassing admission.

  “I would like to have you as a friend,” she told him.

  “What are you two in a deep conversation about?” Mandy asked. “My nose itches, so you must be talking about me.”

  “You have a lot of nose to itch,” he said. “I was just thanking her for the other day.”

  “Where were you when it happened?” Mandy asked.

  “I was downstream with the stock, and didn’t know anything about it until it was over.”

  “You need to go down to the creek and jump in, clothes and all,” his sister told him. “You smell horsey.”

  “After two days in the saddle, you’d smell horsey yourself.”

  “Don’t you two ever let up?” Angie asked.

  “Not very often,” Mandy admitted. “He’d think I didn’t love him if I wasn’t on him.”

  “I’d never think anything like that, Sis,” he said and draped his arm around her shoulder.

  “I envy both of you having each other.”

  “You shouldn’t. You have both of us now,” Mandy told her.

  “Amen to that,” Jed said. “I wonder if I have time to go to the creek before Mama has supper ready.”

  “You go and I’ll ask her to hold off a few minutes.”

  “Can you eat with us, Angie?” he asked.

  “I wouldn’t want to surprise your mother unexpectedly.”

  “I’ll ask her,” Mandy said. “She can always add some water to the stew.”

  Dinner around the campfire…

  “How was your trip with the scout?” Hiram asked his son.

  “It was great. We saw a large herd of buffalo. I think a hunting party is going to go out and try to get a couple for meat. Slade pointed out some Indian sign, but we never saw any. He saw things I didn’t see until he pointed them out.

  “We also found three places with good grass and water. We’ll be camping at those for the next two or three days. We hobbled the horses at night so they wouldn’t wander off.

  What’s been going on around here?”

  “Nothing. Same old thing,” Mandy said. “Walk, stop. And walk some more. One of the boys from another wagon came over and walked with us. He never looked at me once. He only had eyes for Angie.”

  Angie’s eyes widened at the blatant falsehood. She started to say something, but Mandy shook her
head the slightest amount.

  When they were alone she asked, “Why did you say that? It wasn’t true and you know it.”

  “I was just trying to stir the pot a little,” Mandy confessed.

  “Are you trying to play matchmaker between Jed and me? If you are, stop it. I don’t need a boyfriend let alone a husband.”

  “You never know what’s in store for tomorrow.”

  “You don’t have a boyfriend,” Angie pointed out.

  “I had one. You said you never have. You could do a lot worse than Jed.”

  “I should have let you drown.”

  “At least you show a little spirit once in a while. Maybe there’s hope for you yet.”

  Later…

  “Angie, do you feel like taking a walk?” Jed asked.

  “I’ve walked all day. It’s the last thing I feel like.”

  “You’re right. I didn’t think. I’m sorry.” He turned and walked away.

  The plaintive note in his voice touched a tender spot. “Jed, wait. As long as we don’t walk too far, I’ll be okay.”

  “It’s a nice cool evening,” he said, I thought you might enjoy it.”

  “What Mandy said wasn’t true about someone walking with us.”

  “Oh I know that. She was just trying to get me riled,” he told her.

  “I can’t walk any more. My feet are really sore.”

  “Can we sit for a minute?”

  “That would be a relief,” she replied.

  “You sit there,” he said, and sat opposite her. “Take off your shoe.”

  “What is this, some kind of a joke?”

  “No joke, seriously.”

  She removed her shoe. He took her foot across his leg and began massaging it. She sighed, “That feels good.”

  He removed the other shoe and did the same thing with the other foot. “There you go. Does that feel better?”

  “It does. Where did you learn that?”

  “Right after we left Steubenville, one of the men on the train told me about it. His wife got sick and they turned around and went back to Steubenville, but I remembered about the foot rub. He said his wife did his every evening.”

  “It felt good. Jed, I want to be your friend, but I really don’t want a boyfriend.”

  “That’s okay. I can use a friend.”

  “Mandy is your friend too.”

  “I know that, but she’s my sister and is supposed to be. Ready to go back?”

  “Did you enjoy your walk in the moonlight?” Mandy asked.

  “It was very refreshing,” Angie said. “I’m going to check to see if I can do anything for Polly.”

  After she left, Jed said, “Mandy, she really has a problem. Her shoes are worn thin as paper. In a few days, they will be worn through to her socks.”

  “I’m not even going to ask how you found that out.”

  “We only walked a little ways and she begged off because her feet hurt. I asked her to sit, and gave her a foot rub. That’s how I know. We have to do something.”

  “I’ll talk to Mama. She can probably repair them.”

  When Mandy asked, her mother said, “I can probably do something to them that will help.”

  * * *

  “Angie, I can probably do something about your shoes if you’d like,” Sophie said.

  “Why is everyone so concerned about my shoes all of a sudden?”

  “Because we love you,” Sophie said.

  “Now look what you’ve gone and done,” Angie said as her eyes filled with tears.

  “I have leather and needles I use to repair Jed and Hiram’s; now with Mandy walking more, I’ll probably have to do hers too.”

  “I doubt you’ve seen shoes like mine. They’re not very common.”

  “You’re right, but I’m pretty resourceful, I can keep you from walking on bare ground.”

  “I appreciate it, Mrs. Lewis.”

  Chapter eleven

  A Change of Heart

  The caravan made camp early because of the good water and grass. “Are you too tired to take a short walk?” Jed asked Angie. The walk took them to the creek. “Is it hard for you when you see a creek like this?”

  “Sometimes I get flashbacks, and it makes me remember what happened.”

  “Yet you went in the water after Mandy.”

  “If I had taken time to think about it, I might not have done it.”

  “It’s the bravest thing I’ve ever seen. If I had been there, I would have tried, and probably drowned in the attempt. I’m not even in your class as a swimmer.”

  She changed the subject. “You’re sneaky, you know that? So is your sister.”

  “Why are you calling us sneaky?” Jed asked.

  “Because you told your mother about my shoes being worn.”

  “Would you have said anything?”

  She hung her head. “No.”

  “Somebody had to say something. The bottoms would have worn through in a couple of days. You probably dismiss me as some kind of dull witted farmer. Actually, I always did well in school.”

  “What did you do back in Ohio?” she asked.

  “We had a nice farm in Steubenville and did pretty well with it.”

  “Why did you leave?” she asked.

  “Papa was in the war, and was lucky enough to come back. A lot of our neighbors didn’t and their families were hurting. I was twelve when he left, but Mama, Mandy and I were able to grow enough to feed us and pay the taxes. That’s all we needed. When Papa came back, nobody had the money to buy anything.

  “Our farm had a big seam of coal on it. We were right on the Ohio River so shipping it would be cheap, and the Steubenville Coal Mining Company wanted it enough to pay a big price. Papa decided to take it before they went to some of the neighbors with an offer. He signed up with Major Adams, and got our rig together and here we are. When we get to Oregon, we’ll be able to claim more land free than we had in Ohio. I’ll be able to file a claim on my own. It was a good opportunity for us to start over.

  “What about Mandy? She had a boyfriend. It must have been hard for her to leave.”

  “You know how she is, she likes everyone. Her boyfriend’s main interest was our farm. His family was trash. Mama and Papa knew it, but Mandy didn’t. She thinks everybody is good. They offered to let her stay with Mama’s sister, but she didn’t want to do that.

  “That’s enough about the Lewis family. What about yours?”

  “Well, I grew up on a large dairy farm in Brevard, Missouri, near Independence. I was a tomboy.”

  “What’s a tomboy?” he asked.

  “I liked to climb trees, ride. I get dirty like a boy does. Things most girls don’t like.”

  “What about your parents?”

  “They were both great. I think Dad was hoping for a boy and that’s why I turned out the way I did. I was definitely a daddy’s girl, but when I got hurt, it was Mom I turned to for hugging.”

  “Living on a dairy farm, you have probably done some milking, Mandy never would try that.”

  “I know how to milk, but most of ours was done by the milking machines.”

  “What’s a milking machine?” Jed asked.

  Realizing she had made a major slip, she decided not to lie. “Jed, if I tell you a personal secret, can you keep it to yourself?”

  “I guess,” he replied.

  “That’s not good enough. I’m sorry.” She returned to camp, leaving a puzzled eighteen year old sitting on the bank of Plum Creek, wondering what had just happened.

  He jumped up and ran after her. “Angie, wait. I can keep your secret.”

  “I can’t take the chance, Jed.” She continued walking to the Gilley wagon.

  “Angie, please wait. Talk to me.”

  “I’ve said too much,” she told him. “Just leave me alone please.”

  The next morning…

  “What did you do to my brother?” Mandy demanded.

  “I didn’t do anything. I just asked him to leave
me alone.”

  “He’s like a puppy someone just kicked. What did you say to him?”

  “I simply asked him to leave me alone.”

  “There’s more to it than that,” Mandy persisted. “I want to know what happened.”

  “Nothing happened. Will you please let it go?”

  “No, I won’t let it go. He’s my brother, and you hurt him. I don’t like it.”

  Mandy put her hands on Angie’s shoulders. “Angie, what in the world is wrong with you?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with me. I just want to be left alone.” She ducked between two wagons to the opposite side. Mandy walked back and climbed into their wagon. They honored Angie’s request to be left alone.

  * * *

  Clint Adams called for a meeting…

  “Folks, the reason I called for this meeting is we’ve got a decision to make. In two days, we’re coming to a fork called the Parting of the Ways. The right fork is the Sublette Cutoff. If we take the Sublette Cutoff, it saves us about 85 miles and seven days. You pay a price for this savings though. It is desert, has no water, no wood, and very little grass for forty-five miles. That’s hard going for man and beast.

  “Instead of that, there’s the Slate-Kinney Cutoff that saves forty miles instead of eighty-five, and it cuts the desert crossing to ten miles. It’s steeper and rougher.

  “You folks are the boss, and I’ll go the way you want. I favor the Sublette because of the seven day savings. You’ll have to make your water, and wood last.”

  When the caravan arrived at the fork, ten of the wagons opted for the longer trail. The Gilley’s and the Lewis’s decided to take the cutoff with the rest of the caravan.

  The third day on the cutoff, Mandy saw Angie staggering as she walked beside the wagon. Then she fell. “Papa, Seth, help. Angie fainted.”

  They stopped the two wagons and ran to where Mandy kneeled by the still girl. Sophie and Polly joined them. “Move her into the shade,” she said. “Mandy, get me a wet cloth. She’s hot. Seth how’s your water holding out?”