Chapter 7

When we left the cabin, the sheriff and the attorney returned to town with us and went about business. “Burt, do you know where the property line for this property ends on the road into town?”

“I’ll show you.” We were riding through a patch of woods. On the right, three hundred yards from the cabin, two big shade trees were back from the road. Rocky stated, “That’s where you should build a home for Atea. It will be cool in the summer and cut down on the wind in the winter.”

We stopped and looked as Burt pointed, saying, “Your corner is a hundred yards nearer town beyond the trees. At least you won’t be infringed upon.”

“It is nice, that’s for sure. It would be a great place for Mable, too. Think about that, Rocky. If you sell, I hope you and Mable will move here close to Atea and me.”

“Don’t go giving your land away. I am going to miss the hell of you two.”

“I doubt we will build a home there. I want to build Atea a home where she can have a workshop under the same roof.”

“Kid, you do have the cabin to live in.”

“No, that’s Burt’s home. It is now his cabin and the lot it sits on. I’m giving him its title before we return to the ranch.”

Rocky stared as if I was crazy. “Rocky, when I tell you why, you will agree it is right for me to do. Let’s get to town, I’m hungry.”

“Where will you be building, then?”

“I think across the yard from the cabin for our home and beyond that far enough away to build my wheelwright operation. That’s all in the future, except the cabin goes to Burt and is my first bottom solid rock decision.”

“Okay Kid, it’s your land, and I have to sell my ranch before we move. We will talk about it more after I talk to Mable.”

We stayed in town just long enough to eat. It had been a long day with many things coming out about the day Pa died. Several of these things required a decision and action. I immediately found out that Weatherly Senior hadn’t killed my Pa, and to make it right, the best I could was to allow Burt to have a home to live in to pay for my mistake in burning him out of his ranch.

In this happening at the young age that I did this deed, I could play up the fact I was hurt over my parent’s death and too young to fully understand why I shouldn’t.

I felt Weatherly had acted acceptably, and by actually occupying the property, it was saved for me. On my return to claim the property, it was there for me.

In bed that night, I explained my thinking to Rocky, and he said, “There is nothing unreasonable about your thinking. I declare you have reached the adult and correct way of resolving the bad situation you made years ago.”

After breakfast, the three of us mounted our horses and took a range tour; Burt first showed us six small pens that held bull dairy calves. These pens were only big enough to feed and water but not to let the calf get any exercise. He had planted a few acres of alfalfa for the exclusive feed for these animals. I was mystified. “Those are a dairy breed; what are you doing raising them?”

“Farmers bring them to me, and I give them fifty cents apiece. No one wants to raise a dairy breed for beef, but they are suitable for veal. The town is big enough, so two places serve veal, and I am their only supplier.

“I grow them until they weigh from 300 to 375 pounds in twelve to fourteen weeks time. The meat is rose-colored and too mild for beef. It’s very tender. You make a stew of it and might think it was chicken. It is just a hobby, and I get as much for each carcass at three months as you do for a two-year-old feeder beef.

“No large market exists, so I just fool around with it for a little income. I tend the calves daily, but it takes only a few minutes each.” Burt took care of the animals while Rocky and I watched him.

I wanted to see where I buried my parents again and headed there when Burt finished the calf chores. “I enlarged the clearing some for better care, thinking someday you might return if you weren’t there with them. You can get a marker for them now that you have returned.”

“That was on my to-do list. Thank you for caring for the location; it’s not lost under the brush.”

We rode back onto the range. Burt did have some cattle grazing, but not nearly enough, and the range was seriously under-grazed. Burt said that sometimes, when he sold a few heads of cattle, he borrowed some help to get it to the railway from a farmer or two who had taken over his former ranch. That he still claimed after he sold his herd. “I still own the house lot where my ranch was, and I’m not selling it. The ashes there remind me of how I didn’t teach Junior right.

“Guess you wouldn’t know it, but a rail spur is here now. It missed the town by a few miles; the rail station is off to the south. I believe your land abuts the railway land. Farmers and I use a trail, and there is agreement in perpetuity that it is open to moving animals. There are cattle pens on the other side of the tracks that the railway built.

“The town is much bigger because of the railway and many new amenities in the last five years. There is a community center where they have shows and dances almost every week. The new unwanted stores and trades on Main Street in town will be soon taxed out of that section. The town fathers think it is terrible that the blacksmith shop is still on Main Street. Too damned citified if you ask me. I imagine the livery will get pushed out, too.”

“Are there any wagon wheel repair places? I know there wasn’t any when Pa was alive. That was what Pa would open up when he finished building the cabin.”

“Nope, no new ones that I know of; you break a wheel and will have to order one from back east somewhere. Of course, with the railroad coming in, you don’t have to wait as long as before.”

“I guess I’ll go into town and talk to the blacksmith. I never got as far as Pa teaching me to weld iron, a large part of wagon wheel making. With the number of farmers coming in, they’ll always need wheels and repairs. I’ll see if I can make a living at it.”

“You had better catch him soon, or you’ll have to go down to that new section by the railway to get your work done.”

I rode alone into town the following day. The Blacksmith, Sam Buckland, was shoeing a pair of workhorses. “Hi, I’m Matt Jenkins, the nickname of Kid. Can I watch you awhile?” Sam nodded that I could watch him.

I watched him remove the old, worn shoes and clean and shape the hooves for the team. He removed eight shoe blanks from a barrel and started the fitting. He had a good eye for this and certainly knew his trade. He then put the eight blanks in the forge to heat.

The Blacksmith, Sam, talked all the while he was working and ended up offering me a job as a helper.

“Sam, this isn’t my line of work. Pa was a wheelwright and good at it. He died a while ago, and I haven’t done much except keep my hand in a little. Where I was, there was little call for it. I want to get back into it.”

“Kid, it’s a good line of work. I get calls all the time. I have a tire bender and can weld up a storm. That line of work is much easier than it used to be. I deal with a factory that makes blank wheel parts. I telegraph the dimensions, and they rough out the shapes and sizes I order. The parts come as a kit. The hub, the spokes, and the fellos packed in a box.

“The tire comes in flat metal, and I bend it into shape. The hub is already bored with the axle size. I have trouble mounting the tire after I get the wood parts shaped and together. I seem to screw up a lot.”

He paused and continued, “When you have four wheels to assemble, which don’t always match, I’ve wasted my time. Besides that, I will have to move to the outskirts of town in another couple of months. I haven’t even looked for a location to move to yet.”

“Sam, maybe I can help you with that. Do you know Burt Weatherly?”

“I know of him. I went to the hanging of his son. “I’ll tell you I’ll never go to another hanging. It made me sick when it occurred. Junior wanted it to happen quickly, and the Sheriff promised it would be. It was.

“The sheriff brought him out of the jail and walked him down to that empty lot this side of the livery. He led Junior up the stairs to the platform with a trap door under the beam above, put the rope around his neck, and asked him if he wanted to say anything. Junior shook his head no, and then said two words. We couldn’t hear the two words he said to the Sheriff. We found out later that he had said was, “Trip it!”

“The preacher didn’t even get a chance to pray for him. Junior knew the preacher was long-winded, and he wasn’t having any. I turned away and walked back up here to my business.

“You know, Kid, people were upset that it didn’t take longer and complained about it. I guess they wanted more of a show or something. Now, what did you start to say about a location?”

“Sam, I own the ranch where Weatherly is living. I haven’t been here for a few years, but I rode around the property to the road many farmers use to get to the railway station.

“I’ll give you a lot next to the road to set up your business if you set up your forge and buildings. I need a forge for some of the business I’m going into. If you want to build a home, I can look at it and decide where it would be suitable. Why don’t you ride out tonight and look it over? Weatherly and another man, Rocky, will be at the Jenkins cabin.”

“Did you say—give me the property? I don’t believe it.”

“Sam, that’s what I said. I’ll be building a home in the same area and a woodworking shop specializing in building and repairing wheels. I hope I’ll be newly married. Maybe we can settle this tonight because I must return up country in a few days. This Rocky I am telling you about wants to move here, but he has a small ranch to sell before we return,”

“Kid, I’ll be out about six tonight. I’ll have my wife with me. I sure hope we can make a deal.”

I saw Steven Nickerson, the Lawyer, cross the street and go up the stairs to his office. I headed that way.”

“Hey there, young fellow, what are you up to this morning?”

“Steven, I’m rushing around getting things organized so Rocky, and I can return home. I’ve decided to give Burt Weatherly the cabin to live in. I’ll build my own home when I get here after I’m married. I’m talking to Sam, the Blacksmith, about moving out next to that road coming down from the north that the farmers use. He will look over what I’m offering this evening.”

“That would be great for him and the town. The town is urging him to move. Lately, it has been more than just an urge. So, Kid, what is he building?

“A shop, like he has here and a barn to shoe horses in. I said he could pick out a home lot, too. How big is his family?”

“He has a wife and three girls. The girls are big enough, so boys are starting to sniff around. Sam hopes one girl will find a boy interested in his line of work.”

“Yeah, that would be good for him. I know some of what he does, and I may help him for a while until I get a business of my own started,”

“Kid, what is it you do again?”

“Wagon wheels of all kinds, new and repair. Sam has already helped me by telling me about an Ohio factory where the new parts to construct wheels are shaped and only need fitting together. The factory will sell, box, and deliver by railway.

“That should get me established sooner. Rocky has already chosen a home lot, and I hope he and his wife will come with me. It would be just over the line on my property coming in from town. He plans to marry, but his wife must see the lot before deciding to build here.”

“Where are you and your new bride living?”

“I’ll be building a new home to the right of Weatherly’s cabin. It may change until I look the property over and let the woman I’m marrying decide.”

“That’s going to take time and a lot of money.”

“Yes, but until we have time, I’ll bring a tepee to live in. I can have Mr. Weatherly cut fresh poles here before we arrive rather than transport them a hundred miles.”

“That seems like a poor dwelling to take your bride to live in.”

“She’ll accept it and enjoy living in one. She lived in one for eleven or twelve years in her childhood. Her surrogate Indian Mother cared for her from the time she was three up until a couple of years ago. That is when she moved to town and lived with the woman who is to be Rocky’s bride.”

“Why did she move out and in with the woman then?”

“I had reached my limit on what I could teach her about how to speak our language. I looked around, and in one way and another, Mable, Rocky’s new friend, offered to teach her. That is when she moved to town. Atea, my girl, missed the ranch and me terribly. She missed her Indian mother and brother as well. Atea is to be my bride, and I have missed her as much as she misses me when we cannot be together.

“We were like sister and brother all these years. Our feelings have intensified, so I’ve asked her to be my wife.”

“Kid, I shouldn’t wonder. You confuse me with all these things about your life you are relating to.”

“Steven, I don’t doubt it. You will understand at some point later as you get to know more about what I’m like. Would you let me have a piece of paper and a pencil to draw where all these lots are and where the buildings will concern the cabin Weatherly is living in? That will make it clearly understood. I can measure the lot sizes and note them as they are constructed.

“You can help with this if you would. I haven’t seen where the railway is in the town yet. I want to sketch that in. I don’t remember the railroad at all. Too busy I guess. I’ll put Jenkins’ Road down where the buildings we construct will be and draw the road where the farmers travel to the railway. I understand that the creek beside Farmers Road crosses onto a different property west of my land, nearer the hills. It has a ford without a bridge where the creek crosses the road.

“Sam Buckland is coming out after work tonight, and I want to show him this sketch. I will only be here for a few more days, so you can see why I’m trying to resolve this as soon as possible. If any legal problems need taking care of, I’ll have you take care of them. That will include Sam’s problems in moving out of town to his new location. I’ll need an estimate of your charges to pay that forward until I return.”

Nickerson sat there thinking, picked up the sketches, and said, “The town fathers want Sam off Main Street badly. I’ll see if they will pay my legal charge for making it happen. I have the feeling you don’t have much for funds?”

“I don’t, and I depend on Rocky Sedgewich to pay some of it. I saved him and his almost wife from trouble a while back, so don’t be surprised that he is backing me.”

“Kid, I don’t suppose you will tell me about it?”

“No, not at this time; he taught me to protect myself so I could care for the problem, so it is his story.”

“Fair enough, what is your next move?”

“Steven, I’m going to ride down Railroad Street to look at the railroad station and up the Farmers Road to my property and go back that way. If possible, please ride out about six this evening.”

“Kid, you can expect me.”

I left Steven’s office and walked around town. I went by a Milliner’s Boutique with a few beautiful dresses in the window. The lettering on the window said, “Complete outfits for women.” There was a pair of women’s shoes underneath one of the dresses. They were gorgeous, but I knew they must be uncomfortable as all get out, or at least not as comfortable as the Moccasins Atea made.