Chapter 73

Crow Ridge March 29, 1889

The family was up before dawn to see the Crow girls and the Young Bucks off. Even their younger brothers and sisters were up.

Eli cornered Little Eli and Ezra as soon as they came downstairs and pulled them aside.

“I need to give you men something. I’ve been wanting to tell you about this, but never felt like it was the right time until now.

“Eli, back when you told me that you Bucks wanted to have a place of your own and still wanted it to be near each other, I talked to Howard and Jefferson about it. They told me they already knew of such a place and described it to me. I told them to buy it. There’s over four hundred and twenty five thousand acres up there that we bought from four different tribes before the reservations were done away with.

“Dad?” Ezra said, shocked at the news as he looked at his dad then Little Eli.

“Ezra, I told Dad about us talking and that we wanted to have our own place and live close together to raise our kids.

“Dad, did you use the money we found in the cave and what Grandma Connor left me?” Little Eli asked as he turned to his dad.

“No. I wanted to do this myself for each of my sons and my daughters. Each of you still have the money you had, plus what Jon David and I have put back for you.

“Here are the maps, and you can see by this main map here that each of you have forty thousand acres, more or less. Each of your ranches have been marked out too. Jon David has the deeds to all your lands in his safe at the office. You’ll all have flat land, grassland, water, and timber.

“Now, you swing by there on your way down to Pecan Ridge and show this to your brothers and sisters.”

“Dad, I don’t know what to say,” Ezra said as he rushed his Dad and hugged him.

“Son, you and I hold a special place in our lives. You know it as well as I do. I love you as much as I love Eli. Just as much as I love all my sons and daughters. None of you will ever be slighted, none of you will ever be favored.”

“Thanks Dad,” Little Eli said as he hugged his dad.

“Lets go brother, we have miles to cover,” Little Eli said, turning to Ezra.

When Eli threw his hand up, his sons turned to face him once again.

He’d decided to tell his sons about White Elk’s grandsons and Jud McClanahan’s younger brothers, now that he had told them the secret about the land deal he’d made in their names.

“I wasn’t going to tell any of you about this before you left, but I decided just now that I better tell the two of you.

“White Elk has two grandsons who will be down that way soon. I’m not sure if they’ll already be at the reservation when you get there, or will be arriving at Little Tree in the coming days. They’re seventeen and he wanted them to be there to stake out their own plots, just as you young men will. He wants them to meet your sisters, Kia and Michi too, and after he showed me their pictures and told me about them, I wanted them to meet.

“Now then, Jud’s two younger brothers have been going to military school back in Knoxville, Tennessee for four years and he wants them to be a part of what we have planned down there. I’ve decided I want Lee Yu and Lilly Beth to meet them two boys.”

“Dad, we understand. We’ll watch out for them. I’m glad our sisters are getting to meet boys close to their own age. Living way out here, they never have the opportunity to meet boys who’d meet your approval. We’ll make sure they’re treated with respect or we’ll have some hides,” Ezra spoke, then looked at his brother and smiled.

“He’s right, Dad. I’m proud our sisters will finally have the chance to meet boys their own age. I know you trust White Elk and Jud McClanahan both or you’d never put the girls in a position like this. You want us to keep quiet about all this and just let it happen?” Little Eli spoke, sensing his dad’s intentions.

“Eli, that’s exactly what I want you to do. I know you’ll probably tell your other brothers so they will be aware of what’s about to happen. I’ll leave that up to you two. Just make sure your sisters meet those four boys without knowing they were set up. If they meet a boy they like, I want you and your brothers to stay out of the way, just stay near them. I’m nervous as hell about all this now that I’ve planned it. I just hope I’m doing right by my girls, setting them up like this. You men watch after them for me, I mean, well, just keep your eye on them. Hell, just let them meet the boys and make up their own minds about how to behave with them.”

“Dad, we’ll always look out for our sisters, no matter where they are or how old they are. We’ll make sure this happens like you planned it too. Thanks for letting them meet boys like this. I was afraid they would be grown before they got to know what it’s like to have friends of the opposite sex,” Ezra told him.

“Ezra, don’t you men be saying sex in front of your sisters. I don’t want them thinking about that yet ... I mean, well, you boys know what I mean and I trust you to let it happen. I mean, well...

“Hell, Sons, just let your sisters meet them and have fun. If they fall for a boy, make sure he shows his best manners to your sisters, or I’ll cut his nuts out when I catch up to him.”

“Dad, they’ll be fine and we’ll make sure they’re not taken advantage of. I hope you know though, Catt, Eva, and Sissy have those girls primed and ready to meet boys. It’s not like it was when you were young. Times have changed, Dad,” Little Eli said. He and Ezra were laughing when their dad looked shocked at what Little Eli had told him.

“Dad, you and all our mommas have done a good job raising our sisters. They can shoot and fight as well as most men, and they have some good common sense about them too, even for girls,” Ezra told his dad, grinning again at his Dad’s shocked expression.

“You two get the hell out of here. You’re making me nervous, talking about your sisters, and sex, and all that other stuff, at a time like this,” Eli told them, then reached out to grab his two sons, pulling them back to hug them together one more time.

When the Young Bucks and Crow girls had made their way over to the Frisco, headed southwest, Little Eli looked over to Ezra and grinned.

Ezra nodded, then Eli told them he wanted to swing to the north and look at a long deep valley that Jefferson and Howard had told him about. He didn’t tell them that he carried maps to the place and that Jefferson and Howard had already purchased the land. He and Ezra had a big surprise for their brothers and his sisters.

“What kind of place, Eli?” Kit asked excitedly, as she rode beside him.

“You’ll all see. I want it to be a surprise to each of you when you see it. The way they described it to me, it made me wish I was already old enough to own a place like it.”

“Eli, are you thinking of buying some land with some of your money we’ve saved back?” Caleb asked.

“Yep, I’d like to already have a place of my own when Kit and I get married. I’d like for us to have a big herd of prime beef cattle and raise some fast horses like Cheyenne, maybe even some Quarter Horses like the Blasingames and William, Ben, and George have.”

Isaac spoke up and expressed his thoughts, “Sounds like a fine operation, Eli. I’ve been talking to Ruby about us buying some land too when we get married. I know we could all live there on Crow Ridge the for rest of our lives and the folks would be tickled about it, but I think we need to get out on our own and have our own place like you’re talking about doing.”

“Eli, you and Kit better have a few spare rooms when you build your house. You know us girls will be there if we can ever get away from our mommas long enough,” Kia said as they rode along the trail together, talking loud enough to be heard by the others.

“Yeah, it’s not likely any of us will ever get to meet a boy way out here we can court anyway,” Lilly Beth spoke up. She was serious and she, Lee Yu, Kia and Michi never smiled.

“You girls will meet some boys one day, just like we met the Blasingame sisters down at Fort Worth,” Caleb told them, not yet aware of what his dad had told Ezra and Little Eli.

“Well, at least y’all got to travel and meet girls. You don’t know what it’s like for a girl growing up here in Indian Territory and never even meeting boys, unless it’s over at the social dances or Mr. J. M. Hall’s store,” Lilly Beth said.

“Yeah, and then the only ones we see there just grin at us with tobacco juice dripping off their chins,” Michi told them with a serious look while the others laughed at her.

“We’ll help you meet some good boys, as soon as we have a chance to get away from the family more, won’t we, Kit?” Ruby told them.

“Ruby, we don’t want to be old women when we meet them. We want to be like you and Kit, and our brothers who’re going to meet their girls down at Little Tree. I’d love to be meeting a boy like that now, while I was young. I want to have fun with him like all of us all do now,” Lilly Beth told them.

Ezra looked at Little Eli. They both nodded, yet never spoke.

They hadn’t had a chance to tell their other brothers about the boys that were supposed to be down at Pecan Ridge for the land run. They wanted to wait and spring the new land deal on them first.

Little Eli tried to give his four sisters some hope, “There’ll more than likely be lots of people down here for the Land Run. You never know who you’ll meet, or where for that matter.

“We’ll make sure all of you meet some good boys. Boys you’d be proud to take home to meet Dad and your mommas,” Little Eli spoke loudly, then glanced at Ezra once more.

“I agree with Eli. We’ll help you meet some boys and make sure they know how to treat you like a lady too,” Ezra spoke up.

“We sure will, we’ll all help,” Isaac agreed.

The other brothers spoke up and vowed to help their sisters meet boys while they were young and having fun being sisters to The Young Bucks.

“Well, just don’t be too rough on them if you do. You Bucks will run off any boy who’s not as big and wild as you six are. There probably won’t be many that will be like all of you anyway,” Kia told them and smiled just a little.

“I want me a boy just like my brothers,” Lee Yu spoke up and they all laughed at her.

“We all do, Lee Yu, but there’s just not many to choose from way down here in Indian Territory, that’s not running from the law, that is. We may have to go off to school like Dad said, before we can meet a boy he approves of and the Bucks approve of too,” Lilly Beth told her as they rode side by side.

“I don’t even want to think about going off to school. Not even to meet a nice boy our Dad would like. I want to meet a boy just like Eli and Isaac met Kit and Ruby. I want what they have,” Lee Yu stated firmly.

“We all want that, Lee Yu. Maybe Eli is right and we’ll meet someone who is here with their family for the Land Run. We can always hope, anyway,” Michi told her.

“Stop with this moping. We’re on our way to Pecan Ridge by ourselves for the first time ever. This is supposed to be a fun trip. If all of you will just stop thinking about NOT finding a boy, you’ll more than likely run upon one. Or at least be smiling and happy so a boy will find you and like your pretty smile,” Eli told them and the others laughed at his reasoning.

“Beside that, we’ll stop at that big lake and swim on the way down. That is if we have some happy sisters when we get there,” he added and that brought yells of approval.

Indian Territory
March 31, 1889

They had already ridden across two fast running creeks through the low hills and dense timber when they came out on a wide, level plateau. The long flat, grassy spanse of sloping land overlooked a large, fertile river valley with many creeks running through it, emptying into the river. The bottom land was lush with tall, dark green grass, and scattered growths of trees up and down the river basin. The sloping hills would make good grazing land. The wide plateaus on either side of the valley would make some fine croplands.

“Eli, this has to be the place! Is it?” Kit was the first to speak. She just knew it had to be.

“This is it. I hope all of you like it. I mean if we can get it.”

“Eli, this is some fine looking ranch land. If we can find us some nearby, can we be neighbors?” Micah asked.

“Are you already talking about you and Belinda wanting to buy land?” Eli asked, grinning at Micah.

“We’ve been talking a lot about it. In our telegraph messages that is. It’s hard to talk with much sense in those short messages. She writes me a long letter every week, though, and I write her back. The things that girl can come up with to tell me about herself. I may not survive long enough to buy some land. I already know we’ll love each other as soon as we have the chance to,” he told Eli, and the others laughed at him.

Eli wanted to see his brothers have a girl to love like he and Isaac, “I hope all of you do fall in love with those girls, Micah. They’re some fine girls, just like Kit, Ruby and our sisters. I know our dads like them already, and our mommas will like them as well, when they meet.”