Westward Hearts (13 page)

Matthew chuckled, and Elizabeth exchanged glances with her father. He nodded soberly, as did Matthew. It seemed to be clear.

“Brady, we would be honored if you decided to come to the Oregon Territory with us,” she told him. “You know we consider you as family.”

His face brightened. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“So you’ll come with us?”

He still looked unsure. “You don’t think I’m too old?”

“Aw, Brady, you’re not that much older than me.” Asa patted him on the back. “And we all know you’re a good hard worker.”

“That’s true ’nough. I sho’ am.” He nodded.

“Everyone has to pull his weight on the trail,” Matthew warned.

“I got no problem with that. I reckon I druther drop dead with you folks than be back there peeling taters in Missus Barron’s kitchen.” He glumly shook his head. “That woman seems to think she bought me when she bought that there house.”

“Brady!” Elizabeth suddenly noticed he was only carrying a small bundle, as if he’d left in a hurry. “Did you remember to bring your papers?”

He patted his chest. “Oh, yes, ma’am. They be right here on my person.”

“Oh, good.” She smiled in relief. “I’m so glad you’re going with us.”

“Why don’t you ride with me,” Matthew said to Brady. “I’d appreciate the company.”

Brady’s face broke into a happy grin. “I reckon it’s true then. I’m going to Oregon!”

They loaded back into their wagons, and as they continued on their way, Elizabeth told the children the good news.

“I heard Mrs. Barron talking to Brady,” Jamie quietly confided to her. “Before we left for Grandma and Grandpa’s. You wouldn’t even talk to a stray dog that way, Ma.”

Elizabeth just shook her head. “Well, I’m glad it worked out like this. God must have known we needed Brady with us.”

“Can we sing songs?” Ruth asked. “Traveling songs?”

“You get us started,” Elizabeth told her. And so, rumbling along the town road in the gray dawn morning, they sang “Oh, Susanna.”

As their small wagon train made its way into town, Elizabeth felt a tinge of sadness. She spent her whole life in these parts, and she suspected the time would come, maybe months from now or maybe sooner, when she would miss Selma and Kentucky. It seemed only natural. She sighed as they passed the children’s school and then their church with its white steeple.

Because it was early and a Saturday, not many people were out and about, but Harvey Fortner, at the feed and seed, glanced up as he hoisted a big bag into the back of a wagon. He grinned at them. “Wagons, ho!” he called out as he reached for another sack.

Elizabeth waved and Jamie tipped his hat…and on they rumbled through town. Elizabeth had just been into the feed and seed last week, gathering up dozens of packets of vegetable and flower seeds to use for her garden in Oregon. These were safely packed in the crate that contained her fabrics and linens. It still amazed her to think of what her new home might be like…one day. Right now it seemed a distant dream. First they had many, many miles to travel and many, many days to pass. And she was no fool—she knew that it would not be easy. Her simple prayer was that they would make it. All of them.

After several hours of travel, they stopped for a midday meal. Clara and Elizabeth had packed a basket of sandwiches wrapped in brown paper and two jars of fruit preserves, which they shared together alongside the road. During this break, Clara checked some of the food crates, curious to see how her other carefully packed preserves were faring. Fortunately, not one jar had broken. Clara knew they would need to be consumed early in their journey or risk perishing, but she had not wanted to leave the carefully preserved foods behind.

“How long until we get to Paducah?” Ruth asked as they were loading back into the wagons.

Elizabeth laughed. “We’ll get there when we get there. And if I were you, I wouldn’t fret over how long any part of this trip will take.”

“We’ll be there before dark,” Asa promised as he helped Clara into the wagon.

“Will we sleep in our wagon tonight?” Ruth asked Elizabeth as they began to rumble along again.

“Not tonight.”

“Why not?” Ruth sounded disappointed now.

“Because your grandmother preferred we stay in a hotel.”

“But I want to sleep in the wagon,” Ruth protested.

“Trust me, dear daughter, you will have plenty of nights to sleep in the back of the wagon once we’re on the Oregon Trail. Until then, you should just count your blessings.”

“Uncle Matthew said he and Brady are going to sleep with the wagons tonight,” Jamie informed her. “Can I stay with them?”

“I don’t know…let me think about that.” The idea of Jamie sleeping in the back of a wagon parked in a busy town like Paducah was a bit unsettling. Still, she knew that there would be many new challenges to face in the upcoming months. Perhaps she should simply get used to it.

It was just getting dark when they arrived in Paducah. They took the wagons directly to the livery stable that Asa had reserved with a telegram a couple of weeks ago. Then Clara took Ruth across the street to the hotel where they’d reserved rooms, and the fellows began to remove harnesses and yokes and see to the comforts of the livestock. Elizabeth, wanting to do her part, began to fill a feed bag.

“I’ll do that, ma’am.” Brady set down a harness and took the grain bucket from her.

“Looks like you folks must have quite a trip ahead of you,” one of the stable hands said. “Going west?”

“We are,” Asa confirmed as he tossed some more hay in front of the horses.

“Why don’t you head on back to the hotel,” Matthew told Elizabeth. “We can finish up from here.”

“I want to do my share,” she informed him. “The other livestock still need—”

“I’ll help tend to them,” Jamie told her in a grown-up-sounding voice. “And I’ll take care of Flax too.”

“We got plenty of hands here,” Brady told her.

Asa nodded. “Go on ahead of us, Lizzie. You ladies can get yourselves some supper at the hotel and put our little Ruthie to bed. She looked mighty tired to me.”

“What about you?” she asked.

“We’ll get ourselves a bite to eat as soon as we finish up here. And don’t you worry about Jamie. I’ll get him safely to your room when we’re done.”

And so, feeling fairly tired and somewhat hungry, she decided to take her father’s advice without protesting.

“It seems that life will be much simpler once we’re actually on the Oregon Trail,” Elizabeth told her mother as the three of them sat down at one of the dining tables.

“I s’pect it’ll be simpler in some ways…harder in others.” Clara smoothed a hand over the checkered tablecloth. “But it was a good day, don’t you think?”

“Are you too worn out?” Elizabeth asked with concern.

Clara laughed. “Not at all. I enjoyed the trip.”

“So did I,” Ruth echoed.

The waitress came and began telling them their choices, and all three of them decided to have the fried chicken supper.

Elizabeth felt relieved. “And once we get on the riverboat, it should be somewhat relaxing.”

“What’s a riverboat like?” Ruth asked.

“The last time I was on a riverboat was about ten years ago,” Clara told her. “But I will never forget it.” She waved her hand and lowered her voice. “This hotel is very nice, but the riverboat your grandpa and I went on was even fancier. There were thick carpets and beautiful chandeliers and fine furnishings…Oh my, was it nice.”

Ruth’s eyes grew large. “Will our riverboat be like that?”

“I don’t know for sure. But I guess we’ll take what we get,” Elizabeth answered.

“Well, your father booked our passage,” Clara told Elizabeth. “If we don’t care for the conditions, I suppose we’ll let him know the reason why.”

When their food came, Elizabeth said the blessing and thanked God for their safe journey thus far. Then, as they ate, they made plans for where they would shop in the morning. And just as they were finishing up, Asa and Jamie came in.

“Matthew and Brady insisted on staying with the wagons, and they’re keeping Flax for their watchdog,” Asa informed them.

“What about their dinner?” Clara asked with concern.

“Matthew had helped himself to a jar of peaches when we left, but we promised to bring them both some dinner.”

“Here, take our table,” Elizabeth said as she laid her napkin down.

“I recommend the fried chicken,” Clara said as she stood.

“And I got an idea,” Asa said as he sat. “Why don’t you girls share a room tonight and Jamie can stay with me. That way you can set out to do your shopping whenever you want, and Jamie can help Matthew and me get the wagons over to the docks.”

“But don’t you need me to drive my wagon?”

“We got a plan all worked out,” Asa assured her. “Starting first thing in the morning, we’re going to take one wagon at a time. That way we can all help with the loading and make sure we get everything secured and the animals all settled in.”

“But what about the provisions we still need to buy?” Elizabeth reminded him.

“That’s right,” Clara agreed. “We need to get them safely packed before—”

“We got that all figured out,” he told her. “We’ll park our wagon right in front of McCall’s General Store. From what we hear, McCall’s has the best prices in town. You gals can take your time and get what you need. Then get it all loaded by noon or thereabouts, and that will be the last wagon we take to the boat.”

“Sounds like a good plan.” Once again, Elizabeth wondered how she ever would have carried out a trip like this without the help of her father and brother. Thankfully, God must have known how much she needed them.

They finished their shopping before noon, easily finding everything that was on their list and many things that were not. “I hope we didn’t buy too much,” Elizabeth said as they packed the dried foods in airtight containers and stowed them into the pine crates.

“I don’t see how we could possibly have too much food,” Clara said as she secured a lid onto a tin. “If you’re worried about the extra weight, most of it will probably be consumed by the time we reach the mountains.”

“That’s true.” Elizabeth poured a bag of beans into a tin. “And we can always share with other passengers.”

“Or use it to trade with.”

“That’s a lot of beans,” Ruth said as she folded one of the empty burlap bags. “Are we really going to eat all of them?”

Elizabeth chuckled because she knew Ruth didn’t care much for beans. “The list said to bring fifteen pounds of beans per person. We bought 120 pounds total, which was a bit more than needed, but like your grandmother said, we probably can’t have too much food.”

“And all that flour…” Ruth shook her head in wonder. “I never saw that much flour all at once. Will we really eat that many biscuits?”

“The list said 150 pounds of flour for each traveler,” Elizabeth reminded her. “When we have time, we’ll sit down and do the arithmetic on all of these things just so you can see how much it really is.”

“I’m glad we hadn’t done our shopping before Brady joined us,” Clara said as she handed Elizabeth another bag of rice. “We might have run short.”

“I don’t think we’ll ever run short,” Ruth said. “All this food is filling up your wagon, Grandma.” Ruth crawled to the back of the wagon to make room for Elizabeth as she filled another container.