[Oregon Trail Time Travel 04.0] Angie and the Farmer

by Susan Leigh Carlton

  “I’m glad to hear that,” she said.

  “While we were there, I asked about a doctor, and there is one in Salem, about twelve miles away. Salem is the state capitol and is about the size of Oregon City, but not as large as Portland.”

  “There’s plenty of timber, and a couple of sawmills not too far way. I think we’ll have time for a late garden and winter wheat,” Hiram said.

  “How long will it take us to get winter shelter?” Sophie asked.

  “We should be in within two months. I’m going to hire some help to work on that, so we’ll have time to get everything done.”

  * * *

  “You said you loved me. Does this mean you changed your mind about marrying me?”

  “Not unless you ask me. That is if you ever get around to it.”

  “Angie, will you be my wife?” he asked, his nerves revealed by the quaver in his voice.”

  “I will, but I want to wait until we have our own place. I love your family, but it would be crowded, and might be embarrassing at times.”

  He blushed, taking her meaning. He looked around, no one was watching so he took her into his arms and kissed her. His tongue traced the soft fullness of her lips. Her head reeled as spirals of pleasure raced through her veins. While his lips massaged hers, she pressed her body against him. She could feel the firm bulge pressing against her midsection. They broke the kiss, but the memory lingered in her mind.

  “You had better hold me up,” she said. “That buckled my knees.”

  “I can’t believe the prettiest girl in the state just agreed to be my wife.”

  “You don’t know that. You haven’t seen all of the girls in the state.”

  “I’ve seen enough to know you’re the prettiest. I’m going to take care of you and protect you. I’ll be the best husband possible to you.”

  “I’ll make you a good wife. With the examples I’ve had, how can I go wrong?”

  “When do you want to tell the family?” he asked.

  “What’s wrong with now?”

  “Good question,” he said.

  The assembled family…

  “Now that we made our way here, and have filed our claim, I have something to tell you. A little while ago, I proposed to Angie and she accepted. We will be married when our cabin is ready to be lived in.”

  “Angie, did you get a bump on your head too, and taken leave of your senses.” Mandy asked.

  “Mandy, you apologize right now,” Sophie said.

  “Angie, I’m sorry you’ve taken leave of your senses,” the undeterred Mandy said.

  “Will you stay with us in the meantime?” Sophie asked.

  “If you will have me.”

  “Then it’s a done deal,” Sophie said. “I’m happy for you, and if he gives you any problems, let me know. He’s not too old for me to spank.”

  Chapter twenty-three

  Planning

  Haynes’ Mill…

  The two-wagon caravan made camp outside Salem midday on Tuesday. Hiram and Jed planned to sleep in the barn rented for their belongings. Sophie and the two girls were staying in rooms at the same boarding house where Seth and Polly were staying.

  The next morning they set out to see their land. They ferried across the Willamette River and headed west from Salem.

  “This is Haynes’ Mill. A man named Abner Haynes has a lumber mill on the creek down-stream from us. We can cut timber and float the logs down the creek to the mill to have them cut into lumber for the house,” Hiram told them. “Seth and Polly will be right below us while Jed and Angie are above.”

  “There’s where our claim starts,” Jed said, pointing ahead. He could not control his excitement as the trail curved around a bend in the creek. “What do you think?” he asked Angie.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said. “It looks like it needs one pass with a plow and we’ll be ready to plant.”

  “Yeah. I love it. There’s plenty of trees to build a cabin. I probably won’t have to go too deep to hit water either.”

  “How far are we from town?” she asked.

  “I reckon we’re about ten miles, don’t you think, Papa?”

  “That would be my guess,” Hiram said.

  “I have to start living here within six months,” Jed said. “I’ll have to start cutting logs for a cabin pretty soon.”

  Breakfast…

  “Your mother talked about it last night, and for your wedding present, we’re going to have the same crew that will lay out our cabin, do the same for yours. That will get the walls up and a roof on. We should both be able to move in less than two months.

  “We’ll need to get a barn up at our place for our stock, and then we can start with yours. We still have time to get winter wheat planted.”

  “Papa, you and Mama are the best,” Angie said. “Oh, I should have asked first. Is it all right if I call you Papa and Mama?”

  “We’d be honored,” Sophie said. “Truth be told, I was going to suggest it. Being called Miss Sophie didn’t sound right.”

  The weather cooperated, and both cabins had walls and a roof up in five weeks. Rocks for the chimneys were found and hauled to both home sites. “What’s next?” Angie asked as they sat on the logs Jed had rolled in to use as chairs.

  “We have to chink the walls and finish the fireplace and chimney.” Jed told her.

  “I don’t know what chinking is,” she confessed.

  “The wind can get in through cracks between the logs, and it would be cold,” he told her. “I’ll stuff the cracks with mud and twigs to seal it as much as possible. After that, I’ll be putting boards on the inside walls, but I can do that in any kind of weather.”

  “I can help do this chinking thing,” Angie said.

  “Honey, your hands are too nice to be dabbling in mud and sticking it in the walls. I don’t want you to do that.”

  “When I was a little girl. I played in the mud all the time. You just called me honey. Do you realize it’s the first time you’ve done that? Just so you know, if you think I’m going to sit around looking prim and pretty, you’ve got another think coming. This is going to be my house too, and I want to help. I will help.

  “I just thought of something. Where are we going to sleep and what are we going to use for a table?”

  “Me and Papa are going to build bed frames, and a table. I don’t know what we’ll do about a mattress. Theirs came out in the wagon, so they’re okay, but they’ll have to get one for Mandy.

  “After we’re married, we’ll need to file for another section and double the size of our farm.”

  “At least I’ll be bringing something to our marriage,” she said.

  “You’re bringing yourself. That’s good enough for me. The only regret I have is you were used to things being so much nicer than what we’ll have.”

  “You listen to me. I walked from Missouri, a lot of the steps with shoe soles no thicker than a piece of paper, until you gave me the moccasins. Of course it was nicer then, but those times no longer exist for me. This is my time now. Our love for each other will make up for those things. I don’t want you thinking that way anymore.”

  She stood, and then sat in his lap. “Kiss me,” she commanded.

  He wrapped his arms around her and teased her by barely touching her lips with his. “That ain’t going to get it done, farm boy.” She attacked his mouth with a hunger that surprised her. She moved his hand from her shoulder to her breast. He quickly moved it away, but she moved it back just as quickly.

  “No one has ever touched me there except for my mother,” she whispered, as he began to massage her through the layers of fabric. She moaned as a burning desire raced through her body. She felt herself becoming wet.

  “We’d better get back,” he said. “They’re probably ready to head back to town. Papa said there were some things he wanted to ask about at the mercantile.”

  “Are you afraid of me?” she asked, squeezing his manhood.

  “I’m afraid of us,”
he said.

  “Chicken,” she laughed. “You know something? We are wasting time. Would you like to go ahead with the wedding?”

  “Don’t get upset, but I would like for our first night be spent in our home,” he said.

  “That’s romantic of you. What if I don’t want to wait?”

  “You’ll have to,” he said. “I’m the man and I’m boss.”

  “You just keep right on believing that darling. Loving you the way I’ve come to lately is changing me.”

  “In what way?”

  “I’m not a girl anymore. I feel like I’m more than a just a girl.”

  “You were never just a girl, Angie.”

  “You were right,” she said. “We had better go, this is getting heavy.”

  The family cabin…

  “What have you two been doing?” Sophie asked.

  “Not what you probably think. We’ve been daydreaming,” Angie said. “Imagining what it’s going to be like when we get all moved. Where we’ll sleep; how long Jed can survive on mush. Important things like that.”

  “We lived on beans when we first got married, didn’t, we hon?” Sophie asked.

  “We did, and a lot of them were burned, but we couldn’t afford to throw them away.”

  “You would remember that part,” Sophie said, laughing.

  “You’re a good cook. How did you learn?” Angie asked.

  “Trial and error, but mostly error. I actually learned from my grandmother when she came to stay with us after Grandpa passed. She insisted I do it, but she kept a close eye on everything.”

  “Seth ate a lot of mush when they first took me in and Polly was too sick to cook. To his credit, I never heard him complain.”

  “For Jed’s sake, I guess we had better start my lessons,” Angie said.

  “You’ve got another month or so.”

  “We were talking about it earlier. We’re wasting time, but he wants us to start off in our own home.”

  ‘It would be nice, but times change, and people change, like you did,” Sophie reminded her.

  Chapter twenty-four

  We Can Move

  Back at the boarding house…

  “Farmer’s Bank has taken back a house abandoned by a man that left looking for gold,” Hiram told his family. I arranged to buy the furnishings from the bank. I don’t know what all it has, but the price was great and the bank was anxious to get some of their money back. I also opened an account with them.”

  “When can we see what you bought?” Sophie asked.

  “It’s getting late for today. We can go tomorrow morning.”

  The next day…

  The house was furnished with the basics. The important items included a stove and beds. Everything was several years old, but in good condition.

  “I can’t help but wonder what happened to the family,” Sophie said.

  “The banker said they went back to Iowa after the man had been gone with no word for over a year.”

  “I hate to take advantage of someone’s misfortune,” she said.

  “Honey, they’re gone. No one lives here, so we’re not booting them out. Let’s just take a look. It might be the answer to Jed and Angie’s needs.”

  “You’re right. Let’s take a look.”

  “It’s used but serviceable,” Sophie pronounced. “I would want to boil the bedding and kitchen things.”

  “Let’s start getting it into the wagon,” Hiram said. “We’ll put the things going to your place in last,” he told Jed. “We’ll stop there first.”

  “This reminds me of our last day in Steubenville,” Sophie told the others.

  “We have enough to live here now,” Angie told Jed after everything was unloaded.

  “Not until we get the chinking done and the chimney completed. I’ll show you what I’m talking about when we get to Papa’s.”

  * * *

  Jed carried the water and hauled dirt for the chinking process. Three walls were complete when he said, “Let’s stop for the day.” He looked at her and grinned. “Hold still. You’ve got mud on your face.” He tried wiping it off with his sleeve, but only succeeded in smearing it.

  “I’ll just kiss it away,” he said.

  “If you start that, we might not get anything else done,” she told him.

  “It will be nice when we don’t have to stop,” he said.

  “We don’t have to now,” she said, a big smile showing her perfect teeth.

  “We do,” he said. “I want it to be perfect.”

  “If you’re ready to eat a lot of beans, let’s pick a date to move.”

  “I’m up for that,” he said. “Let’s tell Mama.”

  The family cabin…

  “Jed, they’re going to start our fireplace and chimney tomorrow. I figure three days here and two at your place. We should both be able to move in a week.

  “Mama, we want to have the wedding the day they finish the fireplace. Do you have anything you might need more time for?” Jed asked.

  “What would I need more time for? I’m not the one getting married. I’m fine. I just wish we had a church and a preacher to conduct the ceremony to make it more memorable for Angie.”

  “My wedding day won’t be a day I’ll soon forget,” Angie told her. “I would give anything to have Mom and Dad there. That’s not going to happen and I’ve made peace with it.”

  * * *

  Friday of the next week was picked as the day. It was Angie who came up with the best solution. Along with Jed, she went to the First United Methodist Church and spoke to the Reverend Stovall. “Reverend, we’re new to Salem and we would like to get married,” she said. “Would you perform the ceremony or can you refer us to someone?”

  “I would be pleased to do so,” he told them. “Have you found a church yet?”

  “No sir. We came from Ohio and Missouri and have just claimed a homestead. We’re staying at Mrs. Hinchley’s Boarding House until our cabin is finished. We plan to move immediately after the wedding.”

  “My dear, are you now living in sin?” he asked.

  “No sir. I was orphaned on the trail and Jed’s parents and another family were kind enough to take me in.”

  “We would be pleased to have you join us whenever it is convenient to do so. We’re a friendly congregation.”

  “Yes sir,” she said.

  “When would you like to take the vows?”

  “Would Friday be convenient for you?” she asked.

  “Yes, Friday will be fine.”

  “Good. It will be Jed’s parents, his sister, the two of us and our neighbors. Thank you, Reverend Stovall.”

  Chapter twenty-five

  A Tragedy

  The loud knocking on the door woke Sophie from a sound sleep. The knocking was punctuated by frantic calls of “Miss Sophie, Miss Sophie.”

  “Miss Sophie! Miss Sophie!” The panicked voice of Seth was muffled by the door. He knocked. “Miss Sophie!”

  She opened the door. “What’s wrong, Seth? Is it Polly?”

  “Yes ma’am. Something’s wrong. I’m afraid it’s bad. Can you come?”

  “I’ll be right there. Hiram, get dressed and see if you can find a doctor.”

  She went down three doors to the Gilley’s room. Polly was sobbing between the moans. “Put my hand where it hurts,” Sophie said.

  “Her belly and down there,” Seth said.

  “Is it steady or does it come and go?” The excruciating pain kept Polly from answering.

  “It’s steady now, but started out slow,” Seth replied. “Is it the baby?”

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t sound like it. Labor pains come and go. They get closer as the time comes. Hiram is going for the doctor.”

  It was almost an hour before Hiram knocked gently on the door, and stepped aside as an elderly, gray haired man came in carrying a black bag with the tools of his profession.

  “I’m Doctor Phineas Barlow. What do we have here?” he asked. “Are you a midwife?�
�

  “I’m just a friend and a mother. She said it’s her belly and private area,” Sophie said, as Polly screamed.

  “If you gentlemen would wait outside while I examine the lady.

  “Miss, I’ll try to protect your modesty as much as possible,” the doctor told Polly.

  “Doctor, I think modesty is the least of Polly’s problems right now,” Sophie told him.

  He pushed her protruding belly from side to side with his hands, each motion eliciting a scream. “I don’t think this has anything to do with the baby. Her belly is extremely sensitive and warm. I do believe it is the appendix.”

  “Do we need to get her to your office?”

  “I don’t think she would survive the trip. Go to the kitchen. Wake Mrs. Hinchley and tell her I need some clean cloths and hot water. Be quick now. We don’t have much time.”

  When Sophie returned, the doctor said, “I’m going to give her ether to knock her out. Then I’ll go in and get this thing out. Can you help, or do I need to get Mrs. Hinchley?”

  “I can do whatever you need. I’m a farmer’s wife. I’m not squeamish.”

  “Good. Would you arrange her clothing to bare her waist and abdomen?”

  She did as he requested. “Is this what you need?” she asked.

  “Yes. That’s good. I need for you to hold this over her nose and mouth. She may struggle until it begins to take effect, but keep it there, so I can drip more on it if she isn’t sufficiently under. We don’t want her waking up.”

  After fifteen minutes, he said, “I think she should be ready by now.”

  Mrs. Hinchley came in with a supply of white cloths. “Do you have the water heated, Clara?” he asked.

  “I do. Is there anything else you need?”

  “Not right now, this lady… What is your name, dear?”

  “I’m Sophie Lewis.”

  “Mrs. Lewis is doing a fine job. Let me scrub my hands, and I’ll get started.”