Chapter 30

“This is absolutely beautiful. I just love the way the houses and barns look with all the pecan trees around,” Miranda said.

“It does look good and shady back in them trees. We need to plant some pecan trees over at the other place to shade it a little, I reckon,” Eli agreed.

“You boys get you some clean buckskins and go back behind the barn and get a bath,” Eli told the six boys.

“Miranda, would you help Sissy get the girls back there and get them bathed?”

“I will, but first we’re going to get your gunshot wound washed with alcohol and dressed in clean bandages,” she told him when Don brought his box of medical supplies from the chuck wagon.

“Then I guess I better go get washed up some too, before you start doctor’n on me too much,” Eli said as he pulled out a clean set of buckskins.

Eli stood knee deep in one end of the long watering trough, while the boys bathed and tried to swim in the rest of it. After they’d washed with soap and dried off, they dressed and walked back around to the front of the barn. The girls were ready and all four of them ran to get their baths.

Miranda and Sissy wanted Eli to lie on the back gate of the wagon, so they could wash the bullet wound out with whiskey, without getting blood and alcohol on his clean buckskins.

Don was nearby, visiting with the two men and two women they’d brought with them. He’d learned the two women were sisters and neither one was married. The older man was their uncle, the younger was their cousin. He became even more interested in talking to the older of the two women. She was about his age.

While Sissy and Miranda worked on Eli, they both listened to Don as he struggled to ask more about the woman without making a fool of himself. Her name was Clara Wharton and she was twenty seven years old. Her sister’s name was Martha, she was twenty three and their parents were the ones killed by the cavalry patrol.

Sissy listened to Don Cowden as he tried to think of things to say to the woman. Sissy liked Don. He was her daddy’s partner at the ranch.

“Don, why don’t you take a wagon back and bring their parents over to the ranch to bury them? You could get Clara to go with you and show you where they are,” Sissy said. She saw Clara Wharton look at Don, as if pleading with her eyes.

“Thanks Sissy, I never thought of that. I’ll get a team hitched to a wagon and get someone to help us. Miss Clara, would that be alright, if we brought your parents back here to bury them?”

“Yes, please do. We had no choice but to leave them, trying to save our own lives. I’d be forever grateful if you would,” she answered, smiling at him for the first time.

“Joe, you better ride with Don, we don’t want anyone else getting ambushed by that bunch of renegade soldiers, if there’s any of them left that is,” Eli said.

“I’ll go too, Daddy. Miranda can finish up with you. Joe and I don’t go anywhere out here alone,” Sissy said as she wiped her hands and turned to get her horse.

“Eli, this is still a wild country out here isn’t it? I never knew it was like this. Just to think, we’re not but a few hundred miles from Kansas City, and these people just shoot at others with no afterthought of who may be killed,” Miranda said.

“It is a wild country, Miranda, and you done good back there on the trail. You took care of them kids like you were used to being shot at. That meant a lot to me, knowing you were lookin’ after them while I went chasing through the brush looking for the shooters.”

“Eli, I guess the mother’s instinct just came over me and I knew we had to keep the younger ones safe at all costs. I thought I was going to have to tie Lee Yu down though. Those two youngest girls all have a taste of your temper, did you know that?”

“I reckon we all get mad when folks come at us like that. They’ve seen it before, me gettin’ mad, that is. I’m proud of you, Miranda. The more I know of you, the more I like about you. I’m proud Rose and the others hired you and not some man to be our teacher.”

“Eli, will you let me teach you too? I promise I’ll never correct you in front of anyone, even your family. I’m becoming attracted to you, not only as the father of all these children, but as a man.”

“Miranda, uh, I reckon I could use some extra schoolin’. Just don’t make me look bad in front of the men, or embarrass me in front of strangers when you correct me. I’ll learn fast so you won’t have to spend so much time teaching me. You came out here to teach our kids.”

“I’ll teach them and make sure they know how to conduct themselves in public. I know they’ll never change the way they are when you’re around. They all want to be just like you, even Sissy and the girls.”

“You really think that?”

“I know that, Eli. Besides, you and I will have lots more time together, if we do it this way.” She laughed when he turned his head to look at her.

“This is going to burn when I put this whiskey on your open wound, Eli. Are you sure you want me to do this?”

“If you say I need it, then go ahead. I’ll try not to holler, so the young’uns won’t think I can’t take it.”

“Eli, it’s alright to be human. Holler if you feel the need to,” she said as she held a cloth beneath the wound and poured whiskey over the open bullet holes.

Eli stiffened every muscle in his body. He grabbed her knee and squeezed so hard, she thought she was going to holler! He never made a sound, just closed his eyes as the tears welled up in them.

The six boys and four girls had gathered around. They watched as Miranda poured whiskey on his bullet wound, with him never making a squeak. Of course, they knew him, and knew he’d never let something like this bother him. He’d killed five men, got shot through and through, and still came running out of the brush to kill another man, before running over to see about all of them.

Kia and Michi helped Miranda hold bandages over both holes, as she tied the bandage tight around his waist again. She took a wide piece of cloth and wrapped it tightly around his waist over the bandage, just to help keep the wounds covered. She knew he’d never stop being Eli Crow long enough to heal properly.

Don Cowden’s ranch cook had already loaded the cook wagon with food and supplies for the big roundup and cattle drive over to Little Tree, Texas. While Don was gone back to gather up the dead from the group of homesteaders, the cook built a fire in the barnyard and started supper.

As soon as he started building a fire, the boys and girls of the Crow family came over to offer help. He let them gather more wood from the woodpile, to keep from burning the wood he’d stowed away on the wagon.

“What’s your name?” Little Eli asked.

“They call me Cookie, so I reckon that’s good enough. Hope you young’uns like beans and fried cornbread fritters, ‘cause that’s what we eat a lot of when we drive cattle,” he told them.

“We love ‘em,” Isaac told him.

“Good, you boys bring me that big iron pot over there. Careful now, it’s full of cooked beans. You girls look in the back of the wagon and find the cornmeal. It’s in a white sack. Don’t be moving stuff around back there. I know right where it’s all at.”

“We’ll get it, Cookie,” Lilly Beth said as the girls ran to the back of the cook wagon.

Cookie had worked for Don Cowden since Don first started his spread down in Abilene. He’d helped Don bury his family when the fever took them. They’d been through a lot together, and from what Don had told him, this was the best deal they ever had. When they drive the cattle over to Little Tree and sell them, Don and his men would have more than they ever had in their lives. Cookie had just grinned at Don, when he told him that. He’d never had more than three dollars in his pocket at one time in his whole life, and very few times had that much. It sure wouldn’t take much to beat that.

While they stayed with Spotted Owl, tending the cattle, Cookie had noticed one of the unattached squaws making eyes at him. He’d never been married and never had a woman of his own. He’d already planned to ask that squaw if she wanted to hook up. That is, if Don was right, and they each had a few dollars coming from his dealings with Marshal Eli Crow.

Now that they had a fancy house and barn, he felt like he had a home at last, and was looking forward to possibly having a woman of his own.

The boys set the heavy kettle full of beans near the fire and watched as Cookie hammered the iron rods into the hard ground, to hold the pots above the fire.

Cookie started mixing cornmeal and water as he worked at the back of the wagon, on the backboard. The ten kids gathered around and watched as he worked and mixed and whistled his little tunes.

“We know that one, it’s ‘Camptown Races’,” Kia said.

“You mean you know the words to it?” he asked, then whistling again as he mixed his cornmeal.

“We all do. We know lots of songs like that one,” Lee Yu told him.

While Cookie fried cornbread fritters in his greased hot cast iron skillet and warmed his beans, he and the kids sang all the campfire songs they had learned back in Fort Smith, plus a few he knew of, that they didn’t know.

When Joe, Sissy, Don Cowden and Clara Wharton came back with the bodies of Clara and Martha’s parents, the men dug their graves on the east side of the house. After burying the Wharton sisters’ parents, they ate a late supper by the campfire, talking about all that had happened, already making plans for tomorrow.

The next day, they were up before daylight again. Cookie had sourdough biscuits, gravy, and coffee made as they all awoke hungry and ready to start the big roundup. Joe, Ben, and George helped saddle the horses for the young’uns and when they were ready to ride, Spotted Owl and his men rode in.

With Don taking charge of the roundup, he soon had them scattered out on the eastern side of the tree lines, driving cows and calves across Chickasaw lands. The pecan trees, though plentiful, were less here than on the Crow lands Eli had bought from Spotted Owl.

The Wharton sisters rode the chuck wagon with Cookie while the two men, Nate and Newt Whelan, rode horses and helped with the roundup. Nate was a brother to the Wharton woman who was killed. He and his son Newt, along with the Wharton sisters, were already planning to stay here with Don Cowden after the roundup. Eli had told them last night of the speculation that the unassigned lands would be opened in the next few years. They decided to stay and be ready to stake out a legal claim on their own homestead when it happened.

Working long hours, scouring trees, creek bottoms, and around small lakes, it took the twenty-two men and women, along with the ten kids and the Chickasaw Indians four days to drive the cattle from the Chickasaw and Crow lands out into the open lands of the Cheyenne and Arapaho.

Joe and Sissy had ridden over to tell White Elk of the coming roundup when they first arrived. By the time they drove the big herd out onto the open prairie, White Elk, his sons, and the men of the Cheyenne People had an even bigger herd gathered near the Canadian River.

They arrived at the Canadian late in the afternoon and decided to camp there for the night and leave out for Texas at first light. While the others were making camp and preparing to feed the big crew of drovers, Eli rode out alone.

He saw Moses and Howard riding in from the east and was happy to see his two friends had made it down here. He had worried about them running into trouble on the way, though he knew Moses was capable of handling just about anything that came up.

“Moses, good to see you. I trust you didn’t have any trouble on the way down,” Eli greeted him with a handshake when they rode up next to each other.

“We made it fine, Eli. The only thing we saw was a burned out wagon on the east side of Crow Lands. We knew it wasn’t the one you brought down and looked around for anyone who may have been stranded.”

“It was some of the Boomers who were attacked by the cavalry back on unassigned lands, Moses. We brought them here with us; they’re fine now.”

“Howard, it’s good to see you again. I suppose you’ve shipped all the cattle we wanted gone from Tulsa?”

“Yes, Eli. We had some really good days loading and the railroad crews worked hard to help. I have a hard count of six thousand, four hundred and twenty-nine head for Crow Ridge. Two thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine head for Iron Hammer and the Cherokee. I have one hundred sixty-eight for William and his brothers. I really like that boy, Eli. He’s smart and he told me all about how he came to know you. You really got a good man and a good friend there.”

“I agree, Howard. Him and his brothers are some good boys, they just needed a chance to make a go of it.”

“How many head do you estimate you have down here, Eli? Have you had a chance to even try and guess?” Howard asked as they rode back into camp.

“I don’t know where to start, Howard. I figure there’s even more than I first guessed though. The young’uns have all put in a guess, just to see who could get closest to the real count.”

“When I’ve had a chance to look the herd over tomorrow, I’ll put in a guess as well. I may even put up a twenty dollar gold coin as a prize for the winner. Of course, I’ll make sure one of them wins; I’m becoming attached to that bunch, Eli.”

“They think mighty highly of you too, Howard. Here they come to see you now,” Eli said as he saw the ten young’uns running toward them.

Pike ran to his daddy first and Moses hugged him in his arms as Pike started talking as fast as he could about all that had happened.

When the young’uns had welcomed Moses and Howard, and had settled down, they sat around on the saddles and wagon tongues. Eli filled the men in on the troubles they’d had. He pointed out the newcomers they’d picked up and brought with them. He explained all about who they were and what had happened to them.

“Eli, Moses pointed out a place back east of where we saw the burned out wagon. He told me that there had been a skirmish of sorts there. We knew it was you and your family being ambushed when Moses found that dead Paint horse belonging to one of the children. Why in the name of heaven does the cavalry want to cause you and your family harm?” Howard said.

“Howard, we don’t want you to get hooked up in our troubles out here. For some reason, the young cavalrymen from over at Fort Reno want to be boss of the unassigned lands. They have no jurisdiction over government lands or civilians. I’ve come to the fact that they have some young soldiers who are just about to bust out of their britches, wanting to be big and bad. I’m not even sure the men in charge at the fort know about what all happens out here.”

“Eli, you and your family be very careful out here. I never knew this land was as wild and untamed as this. Over the years, I have contracted with the Department of the Army for thousands of head of beef. I was told that once processed, most of your herds will go to them as well, over the coming months...

“I have many friends in the army in Kansas City who I deal with and I have many contacts in Washington also. When I get back, I’m going to start informing them of the incidents you’ve just told me about, and the ones Moses told me of on our way down. Innocent people are going to be killed and I don’t want it to be my friends.”

“Thanks, Howard. It just seems like they pick us out when we come through. I reckon I have been a thorn in their side a few times though. But I’m not gonna let a man and his boys in blue cuss me or my friends. They best be ready to die from now on too, when they pull pistols on us.”

“Eli, no man can fault you for defending yourselves out here. You, Moses, Duncan, and Joe have the authority of United States Marshals here in Indian Territory. The cavalry needs to rein in those young recruits,” Howard said.

The next morning, when the young’uns heard Cookie banging pots and pans, they were up and ready to drive cattle into Texas. This is what they came all this way and drove cows from the trees and brush for. They were all going to Texas today.

In a matter of minutes, the whole camp was up and while the men watered the horses at the river, the rest were eating and drinking coffee. When they’d eaten and saddled up, they were met by the Cheyenne who had camped upriver, and the Chickasaw, who had camped downriver. The Indians could only help drive the cattle as far as the Texas border, and they were anxious to see the cattle head west.

Spotted Owl and White Elk both knew this was going to feed their people for years to come, plus they were still making more cows as the best young bulls and heifers were left behind to breed.

When they came to the burned out saloon and whorehouse on the Texas border, the Indians pulled up and waved to their friends as they drove the cattle on west.

Moses told Joe and Sissy all about what had happened at the burned out place and Miranda heard him talking as they rode along.

“Eli, tell me about what happened back there. I want to know all about you,” Miranda said as they rode side by side in the dust of the cattle and the hot Texas sun.

“Miranda, I don’t do good tellin’ about myself. Clarissa has a lot of stuff written down about all of us and what Duncan, Moses, and Joe have told her. She’s even put some stuff in the newspapers and it makes me feel funny when I think about other folks reading about me. I’m not a bad person or a good person. I do like being a marshal though and try to do what’s right when we’re out here in the Territory. We’re the only law this big wild ass place has and there were over two hundred of us at one time. Now there’s not near that many, lots have been killed and lots have quit.”