Chapter 31

Miranda turned and sat sideways on the top rail as she watched Little Eli run over to get on his horse. Lee Yu, Lilly Beth, Kia, and Michi were all waiting for him. They all waved to her when they saw her looking. She felt like getting off the fence right then and grabbing Eli Crow. She was so in love with him and his family. No matter if it was right in the middle of the cattle pens, and right in front of all the men, she could have thrown him to the ground and loved him right here.

They loaded cattle until dark and got the first two trains loaded with fifteen cattle cars each. The trains pulled out a little after sundown, one right behind the other, their steam whistles screaming into the night sky until they were out of hearing range.

During the night, four locomotives rolled into Little Tree and parked on the long sidetrack. Two were connected to fifteen empty cattle cars, two backed in first and each one hooked onto fifteen of the cars already parked there.

The town of Little Tree, Texas, was jumping with customers at the hotel and the stores. Don had already told his men to stay away from the saloon until they had the cattle all loaded.

Eli rented nine rooms in the ten room hotel. They all took baths out back where they had heavy canvas curtains separating the men’s side from the womens side. They had to carry their own water from the pump next to the wooden platform, and there was no hot water.

Sissy and Miranda, with Clara and Martha’s help, bathed the girls. Then they helped each other carry water as they got their baths. The men’s side had three tubs and the boys all got their baths two at a time in the long tin tubs.

Howard Claymore was bathed and dressed in clean clothes before the others, and took the boys into the hotel dining room to start ordering enough food for the whole crew.

He was told that the tall Indian Marshal had come in earlier in the day and told them to have supper ready. They had a big crew of trail hands that were gonna be tired and hungry.

After they’d eaten plates of roast beef and gravy over biscuits and drank coffee until they had their fill, Cookie and the ranch hands went to the stable. They said they’d never be able to sleep bunched up in a room together.

That left plenty of rooms for the rest of the crew. Miranda saw Sissy bent over talking to Little Eli and every now and then they would look over at her. She was hoping the two of them were making plans for their daddy.

The boys were in one room, the four girls in another. Don Cowden and Clara slipped off to a room together as soon as they’d eaten. Martha Wharton had a room and their uncle and cousin had a room. Ben and George had a room, Joe and Sissy went to their room. Miranda held Eli’s hand as he talked to Howard Claymore and Moses in the hallway. Howard and Moses went to their room, both smiling as they saw Eli and Miranda slip into the last room.

“Eli?” Miranda spoke as she still held his hand.

“Miranda?”

“Eli, am I going to have to take your clothes off for you? Can’t you see that I’ve already fallen in love with you and I want you to love me so bad?”

“Miranda, I can see that when you look at me. I can feel you when we sleep next to each other in the bedrolls. I reckon I want the same thing, Miranda. I just don’t know how to say the words you want to hear.”

“Eli, look at me and tell me you want me to be your woman.”

“Miranda, I want you to be my wife, not just my woman, can we do that? Can you love me, with a houseful of young’uns already, and more women back home?”

“Eli, did you just ask me to marry you? Please ask me again, and say it so I’ll know.”

“Miranda, will you marry me and be my wife and love my young’uns and love my women too?”

“OH GOD YES I’LL MARRY YOU, ELI. Can I take your clothes off now?”

“Can I take yours off, Miranda? I’d like to see you before we turn the lamp off.”

“Eli, let’s leave the light on, can we?”

“Miranda, have you ever done this before?”

“No I haven’t and I want to remember each and every second of the first time we make love. I’m so glad you asked me to marry you. OH Eli, you’re such a pretty man. Can I ask my parents to come to Tulsa when we get married? Did you know Sissy, Little Eli, and the girls already wanted us to be married?” Miranda was so excited, she couldn’t stop talking.

“I’m glad Little Eli, Sissy, and my girls like you already, it means a lot to me. It would mean a lot to me if your parents come to see us get married too.

“Miranda, I like looking at you naked.”

“OH Eli, love me and I’ll never hurt you. I’ll never let anyone else hurt you either. Get in bed, Eli. I need to hold you.”

“I love you, Miranda. You’ve made it easy for me to love you. I’ll never hurt you, have no worry about that. I do have a bad temper, but only when I get cussed or somebody comes after my family. Lay with me, Miranda, I’m going to love you for a long time to come,” Eli said. He sat on the side of the bed and pulled her down with him, as he lay back.

Miranda and Eli were sitting in the small hotel dining room when the ten young’uns came bounding down the stairs the next morning. The four girls looked at Miranda - she smiled at them and winked. The six boys looked at Eli and smiled when they saw him looking at Miranda. They knew then, it was a done deal.

Lee Yu ran around the table to sit next to her daddy as the others found chairs.

“Daddy, you and Miss Miranda are smiling, are both of you happy about something?” she asked.

“Yes we are, Lee Yu. Your daddy and I are getting married when we get back to Tulsa. I hope all of you will help me be a good wife to him and a good Momma to all of you.”

“We will, Miss Miranda. Thank you for loving our daddy, we already love you,” Kia told her, as they all grinned at them.

When the others came down for breakfast and the men came from the barn, the news about Eli and Miss Miranda quickly spread all around.

At first light, the loading began again. The railroad crews were trying to keep four engines running down to the small Texas town of Little Tree. Some days they loaded four, but most days they loaded two trains, pulling fifteen cars each.

They had a few delays waiting for a train during the next six days, and one day no trains at all showed up. Still, they loaded the eleven thousand, eight hundred and twenty-one head of cattle in eight days.

“Mr. Howard, how many head did we have down here?” Little Eli asked as they sat on the fence rail, watching the last train pull out.

“Near as I can add up on my tally sheet, we had eleven thousand, eight hundred and twenty-one head move through here at an average of eight hundred and fifty-two pounds each. Not a bad haul, I’d say. What do you think?”

“I’d say that was a really good haul. You must own half the money in the world to pay that much out to Crow Lands Cattle Company.”

“I’ll never have that kind of money, Eli. The packing company advanced me half the money before I left Tulsa. They’ll send the other half when the last of the cattle are delivered to the holding pens at the packing houses. Your daddy will have all his money soon after we get back to Tulsa.”

“Are you going to pay Spotted Owl and White Elk before we go back? Daddy said they needed money and food.”

“I have enough to pay both the Chickasaw and the Cheyenne, as well as Don Cowden, their parts. Your daddy and I will settle up before I go back to Kansas City. I hope you and your brothers have learned a little about the cattle business and will keep growing good, healthy cattle. I like doing business with Crow Ridge Cattle Company.”

“We’ve already talked about it; we want to learn how to grow big cattle like we saw in Kansas. We have some big bulls at Tulsa and a few down here. We want all big cattle though, even bigger than these down here.”

“Good for you. You boys need to start studying about breeding. Always breed the best bulls to the best cows and cull out the weaker ones, to build your herds.”

“We will do just that. Miss Miranda said her daddy was a professor at the college in Kansas and he knows all about that stuff. We’ll get him to teach us how it’s done.”

“Eli, which of you won the prize for guessing the closest number of cattle down here?” Howard asked.

“I’m pretty sure it was Caleb, he guessed eleven thousand eight hundred and twenty. The rest of us guessed way higher.”

“I’ll have to pay up then, I guessed a little lower than that,” Howard said.

Howard Claymore paid Don Cowden his fourth of the money directly to him as Eli watched him count it out in his hotel room.

“Eli, this is too much. I never even heard of this much money. Are you sure you want me to take all this?” Don asked.

“We had us a handshake deal, Don. You run this ranch and you ‘n your men worked hard for this. You deserve all you’re gettin’. I’ll leave it up to you what to pay your men, but if it was me, I’d pay them good wages and hold back the rest for ‘em til later.”

“I already made plans to do that, Eli. They’re like me, they can’t even count high enough to count all this money,” Don said.

“Just be on the lookout for some more good cattle, we’ll need some more Longhorn cows we can breed to our Shorthorn bulls. They made some good crosses.”

“I’ll put the word out, Eli. I reckon all of you will be headin’ back soon?”

“Yup, we need to get on back. We’ll be back this fall to start gathering up pecans though, so we’ll see you then.”

“Howard, it’s been good doing business with you. I hope Eli and me can have another big herd in a year or two,” Don told Howard as they shook hands.

“You build that herd back up and I’ll be back to see you again. Are you not riding back with us?”

“I reckon me and Clara will spend a few days here in Little Tree, so we can watch over my men. I’ve asked her if she’d marry me and looks like we’ll be getting hitched before we head back. Cookie, Martha, her uncle and cousin, and one of the other hands will ride back over there with you.”

“Take care, Don. I’m happy to have you as my partner. I’m happy you got a good woman too, you needed a family down here,” Eli told him as they shook hands.

“Thanks, Eli. Good luck to you and Miranda too. You needed some help with that herd of young’uns you got.”

They left Little Tree, Texas, early the next morning, riding slow beside the wagons so Cookie and Ben wouldn’t be left behind. The next morning, they rode onto Cheyenne lands.

“I see White Elk, Daddy,” Lee Yu said as she pointed over to the Indians riding toward them.

“Look what he’s leading, Lee Yu,” Pike said as they all rode toward the Cheyenne.

“Is she mine?” she yelled as they rode closer and she saw the tall, black and white Paint filly.

“She sure is, what do you think?” Eli asked.

“I like her already, she’s tall like Joe and Sissy’s horses. Can I ride her home?”

“Yep, she’s yours. We’ll have to get your saddle out of the wagon.”

While Moses and George saddled Lee Yu’s new horse, Eli and Howard spread a blanket on the ground and sat with White Elk and his men.

Howard counted out one hundred seventeen thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars on the blanket as White Elk and his men looked on, smiling at the many stacks of money.

“Eli Crow, you are a good brother to my people. You would make a great Cheyenne Warrior. We will now have food and white man dollars to purchase all our needs. Mr. Howard, you will be a friend of the Cheyenne people until the sun falls from the sky,” White Elk spoke to both of them, as they stood and shook hands.

White Elk and his people rode with them over to the corner of the unassigned lands, where they saw Spotted Owl and his men waiting for the Crow family and the cattlemen to come back from Little Tree, Texas.

The greetings of friends were met with smiles from all, as Eli once more took a blanket and spread it on the ground. As they sat cross legged on the blanket, Howard counted out another one hundred seventeen thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars on the blanket, as Spotted Owl and his men smiled at their fortune.

“Eli Crow, you have made the Chickasaw a happy people. We were without food, and you gave us plenty. We had no horses and you gave us horses. We had no guns to hunt with and now we have guns. We have all of these things and we have white man dollars to buy our children books to read and clothes for winter. May the Great Spirit watch over you and your family forever,” Spotted Owl stood and put his arms around Eli and the two men shared a bond of friendship as the others watched.

“Mr. Howard, you are a good friend of Eli Crow, you are now a friend and brother to Spotted Owl and all Chickasaw People. Come this way again and we will have a pow wow in your honor.”

“Spotted Owl, I have met many friends in my life, but none as kind and brotherly as Spotted Owl and White Elk. I am already honored to call you both my friends. I will come back with my friend Eli Crow one day and we will all talk of the Little Tree, Texas cattle drive once more,” Howard shook the tall Chickasaw Indian’s hand as each man looked deep into the eyes of the other and smiled.

Miranda had been beside Sissy and Joe the whole time Eli was paying White Elk and Spotted Owl, and saying goodbye to the Cheyenne and Chickasaw people. This was another part of the man she’d fallen in love with, his need to help the people of the plains. As she watched and listened to their conversations, she was moved by their heartfelt friendships and their warm, moving expressions of brotherly love.

When they arrived at the ranch, Cookie set about unloading all his cooking utensils and boxes and sacks of grub. The Crow kids offered to help, but he told them he would do this, they had done enough. He told each of them goodbye, remembering their names as they all smiled and wiped tears at the same time.

Martha Wharton and her kin, Nate and Newt Whelan, stayed with the men at the ranch. Martha knew Clara and Don would be home in a few days, married and happy.

They left the ranch early in the afternoon, wanting to make as many miles as they could on their trip back to Tulsa. When they came to the burned out wagon of the Boomers they turned further south, not wanting any more skirmishes with the cavalry. Eli knew he was going to make a trip down to see Judge Parker as soon as he got a chance. This problem with the cavalry was out of hand. He and his family had been made the target of someone’s revenge.

When they turned their horses back northeast toward the railroad, Moses yelled out for Eli to come to the front in a hurry.

“Joe, you, Sissy, and Miranda watch the rear, kill anyone who comes at us from behind,” he yelled as he saw mounted soldiers riding toward them in a column of two’s.

Eli turned to look at Howard, tossing him one of his shotguns.

Eli rode hard to where Moses had stopped, then they both rode out to meet the column.

Eli had heard about the ‘Buffalo Soldiers’, the black cavalrymen at Fort Reno, Fort Sill, and Camp Russell. He’d never run upon any of them, and rode with his double barrel shotgun resting across his upper thigh, held by his left hand. His right hand was resting on the butt of his .45, ready to draw. His reins lay draped loosely across his saddle horn.

“I know that sergeant, Eli. He was a friend when I was at Fort Supply,” Moses spoke as they rode slowly toward the column of twenty men.

“Sergeant Willis! Moses Kidd here, Deputy United States Marshal riding in with United States Marshal Eli Crow. We are not hostile,” Moses said loudly as they continued to ride closer.

“Moses Kidd, you son-of-a-gun. I heard you was a U. S. Marshal now. What are you doing down here?” The sergeant said loudly as he raised his hand, stopping his column.