Read Online The Traherns #1 by Nancy Radke - Free Book Online

dressed
quick and took the mules and Comfort out to graze. This was man's work and I'd
let my man do it once he was able to go longer between rests, but I figured he
needed the sleep.
    As it was, two hours later when I
came back and hitched up and looked around, he had those fish fried and the
coffee hot and he'd done one other thing.
    He'd shaved. At last I could see
what had been under all that black beard and my first thought was why he hadn't
left it on.
    I tell you he was the homeliest
man I'd ever laid eyes on. Now I like mules better'n most horses and its not
because of their looks, but I'd never seen the back end of a mule as ugly as
this man. Of course he was still all gaunt and thin and sickly from the
treatment the Indians had given him, but he'd never win any beauty prizes. Pa
always warned me to judge a man by his character and not by his looks, but this
man's character had better be considerable.
    He had a square jaw, long face,
high cheekbones and deep set eyes. His eyes greeted me, steady gray eyes that
took in a lot of territory. "Eat up," he said, offering me a couple
of fish and we dug in.
    That fish was the best I'd ever
tasted. He could cook, but most western men could do some basic cooking, it was
cook or starve. His fire was small, big enough to do the job but small enough
to cover with your hat. I made note of it, realizing that the rest of us made
our fires too big and wasted fuel.
    A body doesn't think of going easy
on the fuel until he lives in a land where there ain't none. Around here you
burned grass and buffalo chips and little bits of twigs and brush. It would be
a crime to cut down the trees; there weren't enough of them and those few were
needed for shade. Also the fire was easier to put out when we were ready to
roll.
    We pulled out first in line that
morning and for the first time in days I wasn't eating dust. We left the Little
Blue and headed northwest for the Platte, figuring to make Fort Kearney before
the week was up.
    It was mighty nice, sitting there
beside him on the wagon seat with nothing afore us except those mules. We sat
there quiet for awhile, just enjoying the morning, then we commenced to
talking. We hadn't done much to get acquainted, we'd either been working or
sleeping. To really talk, serious like, a body needs some time.
    I asked him about these western
plains for he looked like someone who knew how to survive out here and he did.
He knew the plants and animals, the weather and the Indian tribes; how to
survive a blizzard and what rivers could be counted on to have water. I wasn't
going to get it all in one day, but if I could get him to talking a little
every day, I'd sure get me an education. One that might keep me alive.
    One thing, I wasn't going to have
to worry none about food with that man around. He pointed out plants that were
edible as we drove by them, things the Indians gathered and ate. They were few
and far between, but they were there.
    "Tomorrow morning I'll hunt
us some fresh meat," he said.
    "Sounds good. Uncle Dem
wasn't much on hunting and we had to make do on what we could trade from the
others."
    "If it weren't for the
Indians, you could've hunted; you're a good shot." Surprised, I looked my
question at him and he added, "Web told me. Bragged on you. He also said
I'd better marry you 'fore someone else beat me to it."
    "He did, did he?"
    "Figured you were in a
corner, but beat down tired, or you'd have put a gun to Hayes and told him to
mind his own business."
    His eyes had a twinkle in them and
there was a lightening of the lines around his mouth. I smiled too. Web had
figured it right. Already I was resenting what Hayes had done.
    "Now the way I see it, you
and I got married to keep them wolves away from your door. I never took kindly
to shotgun weddings; a woman and man had better think well of one another
before they try pulling in double harness. So I'll just keep them away until we
reach a settlement and you decide what it is you want."
    A