by Al Lacy
Patty Ruth knew Chris considered himself to be an expert horseman, and she smiled to herself as she looked at Buster. Chris wasn’t really an expert; he just acted smart in the saddle to impress Lula Mae Springer, who lived on a farm two miles down the road. Chris was always riding over there on Saturdays to see Lula Mae, and sometimes on weekdays if there was time between chores and supper.
Both Nipper and Buster nickered as Hannah and daughter alighted from the wagon. Biggie got himself petted by his favorite redheaded five-year-old, then dashed to Hannah for attention as she unhitched the horses from the doubletree. She took time to pat Biggie’s head and rub his sides while Patty Ruth opened the corral gate.
Patty Ruth went upstairs and sat on the window box in her and Mary Beth’s room. She fixed her eyes intently on the road and watched for her brothers and sister to appear. She wanted to hear Mama tell them how close they had come to losing their sweet little sister that morning.
There they were, right on time, at 3:30.
Patty Ruth heard Mama tell Biggie that the kids were coming up the road, then the front screen door squeak open and close. Biggie came into view, barking happily, as he charged through the yard and hurried to meet the other Cooper children.
Patty Ruth ducked back from the window and tiptoed down the hall to the edge of the stairs. “Listen, Ulysses,” she whispered to her stuffed bear, “they’re gonna be glad nothin’ bad happened to me.”
Patty Ruth was surprised when she heard her siblings ask Mama about her near miss by the big horse. Somehow they had learned before leaving school that Patty Ruth was almost killed.
All three asked questions, but Mary Beth’s voice was the loudest. Then Patty Ruth heard her mother say something she couldn’t make out.
Whatever it was lost its importance, for she heard Mary Beth running toward the staircase, saying, “I’m going up to see her!”
Patty Ruth darted back to the bedroom and quickly hopped on her bed just as Mary Beth appeared at the open door. Patty Ruth gave her sister a solemn look but didn’t speak.
Mary Beth, the only blonde in the family, had dimples and a beautiful smile like her mother. As she moved toward Patty Ruth’s bed, she smiled. “Hi, honey. We heard at school what happened this morning…and Mama explained it to us just now.”
Patty Ruth gave her a pitiful look, but still said nothing.
Mary Beth sat on the edge of the bed and laid a hand on Patty Ruth’s shoulder. “I’m sure glad you didn’t get hurt. I know it must have frightened you. Are… are you okay?”
Patty Ruth sighed, placed the back of her hand to her forehead, and said as she had practiced, “Oh, I’m all right, Mary Beth, but you almos’ didn’ have a little sister no more. That big ol’ horse jis’ about killed me.”
Mary Beth knew her little sister well and could see she was all right. She glanced down for a moment to cover her laughter and said, “Well, sweetie, we can thank the Lord that Mr. Wilson was there to keep you from getting killed.”
Patty Ruth sent a wounded glance toward the door. “Where’s Christopher and B. J.? Don’t they care that I almos’ died?”
“We’re right here, little sister,” came Christopher’s voice at the door.
B. J. took a step ahead of Chris and moved up close beside the bed. “Mama told us Ulysses almost got killed, too, Patty Ruth,” he said, eyeing the stuffed bear pressed close to his little sister’s heart. “Is he okay?”
“Yes,” Patty Ruth said with a sigh, making the most of the attention she and her bear were getting. “Mr. Wilson had to grab me pretty fast, ’cause that big ol’ horse was gonna tramp me. An’ I dropped Ulysses. He fell pretty hard, but he just got dusty.”
“Trample, honey,” Mary Beth said.
“Mm-hmm. That’s what that big ol’ horse almos’ did to me.”
“Well, I’m just mighty glad you and Ulysses are all right, Patty Ruth,” Chris said. “I sure wouldn’t want anything to happen to either one of you.”
Patty Ruth managed a weak smile. “Thank you.”
B. J. grinned. “Patty Ruth, if you had been killed today, I would’ve taken care of Ulysses for you… for the rest of his life. He could even sleep in my bed with me.”
Patty Ruth sat up and frowned. “No you wouldn’, B. J.! If’n… if’n I had died, I would’ve tooken Ulysses to heaven with me. Me an’ Ulysses would sit on Jesus’ lap together.”
Hannah Cooper had come to the bedroom door in time to hear this last remark. Now she leaned against the door frame with her arms folded and set her chocolate-brown eyes on Patty Ruth. “So you’re going to sit on Jesus’ lap when you get to heaven, are you?”
Patty Ruth slid off the bed, clutching her bear, and said, “Mm-hmm. If’n I go to heaven when I’m a little girl, I will. Jesus loves little girls an’ likes to hold ’em on His lap.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Hannah said. “Well, boys, you’ve got chores to do. And girls, we need to get down to the kitchen and start supper. Papa will be home in another hour, and he’s unloading goods off a freight wagon this afternoon, so he’ll be hungry as a bear.”
Patty Ruth smiled as she looked into the shiny shoe-button eyes of her best friend. “Hear that, Ulysses? Papa’s gonna be as hungry as you are!”
“I’m gonna hurry and get my part of the chores done so I can ride Buster for a while,” Chris said. “I need to work on my horsemanship.”
Patty Ruth looked at her big brother impishly. “I know why you want to learn to ride better, Chris… so’s you can show off in front of Lula Mae. That’s where you’re gonna ride, isn’t it? To Lula Mae’s house?”
Chris tightened his lips and looked toward the ceiling. “Oh-h-h! You may have had a close call this morning, baby sister, but you’re still the same Patty Ruth!”
Everybody laughed, and Chris hurried down the hall to change his clothes.
B. J. couldn’t resist teasing his little sister, who was so possessive about her stuffed bear. “Patty Ruth, you couldn’t really have taken Ulysses to heaven with you if you’d been killed today. Stuffed bears don’t go to heaven. But I would’ve put him up on the barn roof and laid him on his back so’s he could look up and wish he was in heaven with you.”
Patty Ruth’s eyes flashed fire. “No you wouldn’t, B. J.! An’ stuffed bears do go to heaven! Don’t they, Mama?”
“No, they don’t, do they, Mama?” B. J. said in mock seriousness.
To B. J., Hannah said, “Brett Jonathan, you get your clothes changed and do your chores. Do you want your father to come home before you have them done?”
“No, ma’am.” B. J. headed for the door, then stopped to look back over his shoulder. Patty Ruth said, “Stuffed bears do too go to heaven, B. J.!”
B. J. opened his mouth to reply but changed his mind when he saw the look in his mother’s eyes.
When B. J. was gone, Patty Ruth said, “Sometimes brothers are so dumb. Anybody who’s smart knows Ulysses is goin’ to heaven.”
“Let’s drop the subject, Patty Ruth,” Hannah said. “Come on girls, we need to get supper started.”
As they headed for the stairs, Patty Ruth asked, “Can we go to the Square and see all the wagons tomorrow, Mama?”
“Yes, we can do that.”
“Are you an’ Papa gonna talk some more about movin’ out west?”
Hannah was silent for a few seconds, then said, “Probably It’s a big step, though, honey. Nothing to rush into.”
“I think it would be neat to move out west, an’ so does Ulysses. Don’t you think it would be neat, Mary Beth?”
“I might,” Mary Beth said, “but it wouldn’t be easy to leave Grandma and Grandpa and all of our friends here in Independence.”
Patty Ruth jumped the last two steps and landed on the floor with a thud. Her mother frowned, and the little redhead remembered that Mama had said ladies didn’t do that. To escape a sharp reminder, she said in a rush, “That would be hard. ’Specially leavin’ Grandma and Grandpa. But they could
go with us.”
“Your grandfather plainly stated that he wasn’t ever leaving this town, honey. And when his mind’s made up about something, nobody’s going to change it.”
“I know how we could make him change his mind about movin’ west,” Patty Ruth said.
Hannah moved to the big cookstove. “How’s that?”
“Well, if we took Grandma with us, he’d come pretty soon ’cause he wouldn’t have Grandma to cook for him!”
“Wouldn’t work,” Hannah said with a chuckle. “Grandma won’t hardly leave him to go shopping. She certainly wouldn’t leave him to go west with us.”
Mary Beth nodded, then looked soberly at her mother and said, “I guess moving west is something that takes a lot of thought.”
“Yes, and a lot of prayer.” Hannah picked up firewood and dropped it into the firebox of the stove. “Be a terrible mistake to sell the store and the farm and move west if it wasn’t God’s will. Jonah ran ahead of God and got himself swallowed by a whale.”
Mary Beth smiled. “And Peter followed afar off behind Jesus and got himself in deep trouble for not staying close.”
“Mm-hmm. That’s why I said it takes a lot of prayer. Neither your father nor I want to get out of God’s will.”
Patty Ruth looked up at her mother with searching eyes. “So if the Lord wants us to move west, then we’d better do it, huh, Mama?”
“That’s right, sweetie. He will show us His will. If it’s to stay, we’ll stay. If it’s to go, we’ll go.”
“Well, it’ll be all right, whichever it is, ’cause whether we go or whether we stay, my best friend will be with me.”
Patty Ruth looked down at Ulysses and gave him a juicy kiss on the nose.
CHAPTER THREE
The grandfather clock in the hall struck nine as Solomon Cooper descended the stairs and entered the parlor. Hannah sat by lantern light, patching a pair of B. J.’s Levi’s. The soft lighting cast a warm glow over her bent head.
At the sound of Solomon’s step, Hannah looked up with admiring eyes and said, “You know what?”
“What?”
“Whenever I look at you, it makes my heart smile.”
“Oh, it does, eh? And where did you first hear that?”
“From you.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, if your heart smiles when you look at me, it’s all right for mine to do the same, isn’t it?”
“It sure is, darlin’. And I’m so glad it does.”
Hannah crinkled her nose at him. “Everybody settled down up there?”
“Yes, finally. The little one insists on giving her biggest brother a hard time about riding to Lula Mae Springer’s house. Chris takes all he can stomach, then lashes back. I told him to just let it go in one ear and out the other, but he’s not always willing to do that.”
Hannah nodded. “And I’ve told Patty Ruth not to tease him about Lula Mae. But she couldn’t resist it today.”
“So is that what all the fuss was about?”
“Yes. But I cured it, at least for a while.”
“You made them kiss each other?”
“Mm-hmm.” Hannah chuckled. “What is it with brothers and sisters, anyway? I’ve never been able to figure out what’s so awful about having to kiss your brother…or the other way around.”
“Maybe that’s because you were an only child, and never had a brother.”
“I suppose. But you never had a sister, so you probably don’t understand the brother-sister feud any better than I do. I know you and Daniel fought, because I’ve heard you two laugh about it.”
Solomon paused a moment, then leaned down and placed his hands on the arms of her chair “You know what?”
“What?”
“I didn’t have a sister to have to kiss when we fought, but if Pa was here tonight and told me I had to kiss the most beautiful woman in the world if I started a fuss with her, I’d start the fuss just so I could kiss her.”
Hannah smiled and met his tender gaze with one of her own. “How about since Pa’s not here, we skip the fuss and just kiss?”
“I was hoping you’d say that.”
They kissed tenderly, then Solomon turned up the flame of the lantern by his chair and picked up the novel he had been reading the night before—Great Expectations.
All was silent in the house as Solomon read and Hannah sewed. When the grandfather clock struck the half-hour, Solomon chuckled.
Hannah looked up. “I didn’t know you were reading a comedy.”
“Oh, I’m not. It’s just that this is so different from anything else Dickens has written. I see Dickens himself in the hero, Pip. It’s as if he’s letting us look into his own mind while we explore Pip’s mind, as he cries out against the brutal hardships he suffered as a young boy.”
“I suppose that’s what novelists often do,” Hannah said. “Show us themselves in their characters. And when the novelist is as good as Charles Dickens, he can actually help his readers by sharing his own trials and defeats.”
Solomon’s eyes took on a faraway look. “Maybe some novelist ought to ride one of those wagon trains west. You know…give the positive and the negative sides of traveling to the American frontier.”
Hannah was used to her husband’s way of, sooner or later, turning the conversation to the subject of moving west. She smiled without comment, then looked at the work in her hands and sighed. “That youngest son of yours is twice as hard as Chris ever was on his clothes. It’s a rip here and a tear there. If that boy makes it to adulthood, it’ll be a miracle.”
Solomon laughed. “Well, honey, B. J.’s just a chip off the old block. I was exactly the same way.”
She giggled. “And you still haven’t outgrown it. You—”
“Ah-ah-ah! Just sew up the boy’s pants, and leave me out of it!”
Hannah rolled her eyes and went back to her work.
Solomon was engrossed in his book once again when Hannah said, “Sweetheart…”
“Hmmm?”
“Did we have a good day at the store? I mean with the wagon train people today?”
“Sure did. If the season goes as well as it’s starting out, it’s going to be a good one. The first day the wagons started rolling in last year wasn’t nearly as good as today has been. It kept Randy and me hopping like jackrabbits this afternoon. We never did get that freight wagon completely unloaded. In fact, today’s receipts were so good, I had to wire Chicago for more supplies.”
“The Lord has been so good to us, darling,” Hannah said. “The store has done better this year than ever. And now, the wagon train season is here. Isn’t it wonderful that we’ve been able to do so much for the church in the past few months?”
“Well, as Pastor Chase so often says, ‘You can’t out give God.’”
“Amen. And we’ve never had as much money in the bank as we do right now. God has been so good to us!”
Solomon grinned. “I sure am glad you feel that way, sweetheart. I…ah…I extended credit to the Wolversons and the Beattys again today.”
Hannah’s rosy cheeks brightened and her smile deepened the dimples on either side of her mouth. “Wonderful! I prayed while driving home that you’d go easy on them.”
“Looks like your prayers were answered. The Wolversons came in, offering to pay what little they could on their bill. The Beattys showed up a little later to do the same.”
Hannah’s thoughts went to the Glenn Beatty family. They were members of the same church as the Coopers. When the Beatty house had burned down three months ago, Hannah and Solomon had taken the family into their home until a new house could be built.
Glenn and the men of the church, as well as other men in the community, were rebuilding the house. Progress was slow, since the bulk of the work had to be done on Saturdays. Hannah had worked Saturdays at the store so that Solomon could help the rest of the men. The Beattys had moved into the house two weeks ago, even though there was still work to do on closets, cabinets, doors and windo
w frames, and finishing touches on the roof.
The Beattys had lost everything in the fire, including valued family heirlooms, and Helen had taken the loss hard. She feared they would never recover from the financial loss and be able to care for their children properly.
As Hannah spent time with Helen, trying to help her find peace of mind in the midst of it all, she had shown Helen Scriptures such as Isaiah 26:3—“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Hannah had laid claim to this verse many times in her own life.
“Honey…” Hannah said.
Solomon raised his eyes and eased the book onto his lap. “Hmm?”
“I was just thinking about the Beattys, and how wonderfully the Lord provided their household needs through the people of the church and the town.”
“Yes. They were praising the Lord about that in the store today, in front of all those wagon train people. There were several among the wagon train who are Christians. We just about had a revival break out. The Beattys were telling people how the furniture they were given was better than the stuff that burned, how folks in this town had pitched in and restored all the necessary things they had lost in the fire.”
Tears shone in Hannah’s eyes. “Isn’t that wonderful?”
“Sure is! And Helen was telling the whole bunch about how you taught her to lay hold on the truth of Isaiah 26:3 by fastening her mind on Jesus for peace of mind in the midst of trials.”
Hannah wiped at her eyes with the back of a hand. “Bless her heart. I was just thinking of something I had never thought of before, in connection with that perfect peace the Lord promises…”
“Well, let’s hear it.”
“Do you know why the peace He gives is perfect and comes from fixing our mind on Jesus?”
“Mm-hmm. Because Jesus said in John 14:27 that the peace He gives us is His peace. ‘My peace I give unto you’, He said. It’s perfect because He is perfect. That same peace is what believers can have if they will stay their minds on Him.”
Hannah’s eyes grew wide, and a look of mock disgust came over her face. “Solomon Edward Cooper! You smart aleck! Why is it you’re always ahead of me? I thought I was going to teach you something.”