Solomon. Marilyn Bishop Shaw
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you think, Mr. Harker,” Moses said, glad he didn’t have to make the decision. “I just know I don’t want to see their kind again. No, sir, don’t want to see this again.” As Moses moved his family toward the wagon, he heard a low gravelly growl as Pete spoke to the scoundrels. He couldn’t hear the words, but felt pretty sure their pack would steer clear of Freeman territory.
The Freemans in their wagon followed Harker to the west away from the river they’d followed on their trip south, trusting him to get them away from trouble the quickest way. As they traveled, he explained how he’d come upon them. “I skirted around a pretty sizable camp on south of here. Easy enough to tell it wasn’t a place I wanted to be.”
Pete took a deep breath and continued. “I’d heard of these bunches but didn’t quite believe the tales. They’re mostly Reb deserters come down this far to save themselves from fighting. Others were dissatisfied with the outcome of the war and came to preserve their, ah” Harker paused, struggling to find the right words, “their so-called purity. Let’s just say the camp looked about as bad as those three. I thought I’d avoided them altogether, until I came on a wagon with what looked like bags of supplies on it. I heard the voices and knew somebody was in trouble. Didn’t know it was you until I got in the middle of it.”
In just a few minutes they stopped at another wagon loaded with all manner of supplies. Harker leaned forward in his saddle and said very formally, “Mr. Freeman, I expect those men owe you and your family an apology and I can’t think of a better one than to offer you some supplies for the winter.”
Lela’s face and voice were firm, “Mr. Harker, that’s stealing. I won’t bide stealing. “
“Begging your pardon, Miss Lela,” he chuckled. “ I wish you wouldn’t think of it that way. I reckon it’s not stealing if you’re accepting it as an apology from those who stole it to start with! Don’t you get it in your head that these men have any honesty about them—they don’t.”
Solomon had scrambled down from their wagon into the other and called out its contents. “Oh, Mama, there’s sugar and corn meal, and real coffee! Wouldn’t you and Papa like some of that?” Moses and Lela looked wistfully at the wagon while the boy continued investigating. “Oh, look here, it’s some cans of,” he struggled to read the labels, “p . . . pea . . . pea-ches. Peaches! And milk!”
Moses had quietly joined his son and they spotted the red at the same time. A knowing look passed between father and son and they pulled the bolt of red calico from the bottom of the wagon together. “Solomon, we don’t have no use for such as this, do we, son?”
“Don’t know, Papa, I just don’t know. We need something to cover the opening of our new-built house,” Solomon said, leading the game on.
Moses stroked the cotton fabric. “This ain’t none too thick, though. I don’t know if it would do much for that.” The fabric was tossed back into the bottom of the wagon. “Guess we’ll just leave this behind.” He knew Lela must be biting her tongue nearly in two by now but couldn’t look at her and hold the game.
“Yeah, you’re probably right, Papa. We got ’most a wagon full anyway. No need hauling stuff we can’t make use of.” Their game was interrupted when Pete Harker couldn’t contain his laughter any longer. He burst into a howl and joined right in.
“Miss Lela, if those two men of yours aren’t the worst for seeing what’s in front of them, I don’t know what to say. I can’t imagine that calico doing a thing in this world better than being made into a dress for you.” Lela clasped her hands to her breast and smiled at her men. Harker continued, “Fact is, the cloth looks all right now, but wrapped around you, it’ll be downright beautiful. Isn’t that so, Moses?”
Moses and Solomon couldn’t contain themselves any longer. “Oh, Lela, honey. You know full well me and Solomon ain’t gonna let this here cloth waste when you can make it so purty.” He turned to grin at Pete. “And Mr. Harker best learn to keep all his fancy talk to hisself and remember you my wife!”
“Oh, you men, all three of you are rotten, just rotten!” Lela reached to take the red bundle and laughed with abandon. “I understand what you’re saying, Mr. Harker, and I do appreciate it. I guess it won’t hurt to accept peace offerings from that lot, but only a few things we really need.”
“Lela, honey, you just name it,” said Moses.
As Solomon called out items, Lela found places for them in their wagon. Meal, coffee, sugar, a few cans of milk and peaches were settled into place. For just a moment she cradled a bag of salt as though it were a fragile treasure then held up her hand. “Stop. That’s good enough to teach them manners and to take us through the winter just fine. We won’t go greedy.”
The men didn’t argue. Just as Moses was about to step from the larger wagon into his own, he spied something he had missed before. He reached his hand down and pulled out an old, but serviceable, shotgun. Solomon took in a gasping breath. “We could sure be puttin’ meat on the table with this.” He passed the gun gingerly to Harker’s outstretched hand.
“Why, Moses, this old thing is in fine condition,” Harker observed as he turned the gun over in his hands. “I don’t know whose it was; sure not those fellas, but it’s been taken care of. There must be shells.”
Solomon dragged four boxes of shells out from under the piles of goods and looked for more. Moses hung his head. “Mr. Harker, I’d dearly love that gun, but I got to tell you I ain’t never shot one before. Don’t know as I can.”
Immediately sorry he hadn’t anticipated Mr. Freeman’s lack of experience with guns, Pete said, “Moses, I’ll take my old whip given a choice, but I’m a fair shot. It won’t take a thing to teach you and Miss Lela and young Solomon, too, how to put this old thing to good use. Don’t you worry about that.”
“We’d be obliged, Mr. Pete, much obliged.” Moses knew that if he looked directly at Lela now, her smile from a few minutes before would be gone. He’d hear her fears later. He didn’t know just when, but he knew he’d hear them. For now, nothing was going to spoil their good fortune.
Moses nodded purposefully. “Family, I think maybe we had ’bout as big a dose of adventure as we need right now. Let’s go home. Mr. Harker, you welcome to join us if you a mind to.”
“If I’m gonna teach you to shoot, I’ll have to. Guess that means I’ll finally have to eat some of that awful cooking Miss Lela makes you two eat.” Their mingled laughter echoed through the forest as they moved northward.
5
They covered the twenty-two miles home in only two days since they moved directly toward the farm. It had been an eventful trip, but they were all glad to be home. He couldn’t have explained it, but Pete Harker felt oddly like he had come home, too.
“Why, Moses, you’ve done some work here,” Pete said as he surveyed the homestead. This’ll beat being in the open in a cold winter and, believe me, winter here can be as bad as they get anywhere.”
Moses knew their new friend had probably never lived in any house as rude as this one, but appreciated the comments. “It ain’t what I hope to give my family, Mr. Harker, but it took us weeks and ’bout kilt us couple a times. Takes some muscle to handle them logs.”
“I’d say so! How about the front part, Moses? Any plans for that?” Pete asked, hopefully.
Solomon jumped in enthusiastically. “It’s fixed so we can put the front wall in, too, Mr. Harker. We just afeared we wouldn’t get that done before cold comes. We have some blankets to put up there.”
“I have an idea that none of us can hold out to practice shooting all day long. How about my helping you for a few days and see if we can’t get a front wall with a door in there?”
“Oh, Mr. Harker, we couldn’t oblige you to do that. You’ve done enough for us already,” Lela said, not wanting to take