Chapter 35

Willa and Bobbi Yancey were working in the barn, cleaning out the stalls with pitchforks, piling the manure and hay mix into the wagon their Pa had parked there earlier. They heard the horses coming into the barnyard and ran to the front door of the big barn.

Bobbi beat her sister to the door and looked out, then she fell to her knees and started praying

“Oh Lord, thank you for the prayers you have answered.”

Willa looked at her sister with a curious look, and looked out the door too. She fell to her knees and joined her sister as she prayed and gave thanks their prayers had been answered.

“Hello the house, anyone around?” Tom said loudly.

The sisters jumped up and started brushing the hay and manure off their pants and combing their fingers down through their long straight hair to get the tangles out before they went out to meet the visitors.

Mrs. Yancey was on the back porch of the house and heard the shout of company in the front yard. She came around the house to see the five riders, Lo and Behold, there was the five that had been in Bonner’s Store yesterday.

“Hello to you strangers, step down and water your horses at the trough over there, then come on over to the shade,” she said.

Tom stepped from his horse and patted him on the neck, then turned to walk over to the woman standing at the end of the stone walk that led to the front door of the house.

“I’m Tom Cooper Ma’am and that is Cal Randal over there and those young fellers are Cole, Ray and Tag Hanks.”

“You sure don’t talk like you’re part Indian, but I can tell by your dress and the way you look that you are. We saw you and the others at Bonner’s Store yesterday when you were buying the young’uns some new clothes.”

“Yes Ma’am, I remember seeinn you there with two young girls.”

Willa and Bobbi Yancey came walking out of the barn, they weren’t sure whether to kneel down or watch out for a lightning strike from above.

“Bobbi, Willa, this is Tom Cooper and his friends that we saw yesterday while we were in town shopping.”

“Yes Momma we see, what brings these strangers way out here, we don’t get that many visitors.”

“Well, Mr. Clyde Yancey made a deal with me the other day to hire on these young ranch hands and keep them out of trouble while he works the kinks out of ‘em,” Tom said.

Willa and Bobbi Yancey fell down to the ground, at the same time, as if they had been tripped by some unknown foot.

They jumped up with tears in their eyes and smiles on their young faces, as they dusted off their britches and hands.

Their Momma, Tom and Cal, and the three brothers stood looking at them as if they were having fits of some kind.

“Mr. Cooper, do you mean to tell me that these are the three ranch hands Clyde told us he had hired?”

“Well, he hired these three, I don’t know if he hired any more or not.”

“Now I know why he had such a big smile on his face last night as he was telling us he hired three new hands.”

“Ma’am, meet the Hanks brothers, your new hired hands. This is Cole, he’s the oldest at fifteen, this is Ray, he is twelve, and this is Tag, he is eleven,” Tom introduced them, and the three brothers stepped up like grown folks and shook the woman’s hand.

“Well, I’m Roberta Yancey and this is my oldest daughter Willa, she is almost thirteen, and this is my youngest, Bobbi who is almost twelve.”

“You young folks say hi to each other and make yourselves acquainted, since you’ll be spending a lot of time together for a long spell it looks like,” Mrs. Yancey told them proudly.

Bobbi stepped right up to Tag and stuck out her hand, Tag shook hands with her and she turned to Cole and Ray and shook theirs too. Willa shook hands with each of the young boys and they all spoke and grinned at each other.

Bobbi looked at Tag and poked him on his arm.

“C’mon and we’ll show you around the place.”

The two girls and the three boys walked off, all of them trying to talk at the same time, the boys asking questions and the girls laughing and telling them all about their ranch. Cal could hear the whistle of the new britches until they were across the barnyard.

Tom and Cal looked at one another and exchanged another silent look, along with a slight nod from each of them. Mrs. Yancey noticed the look between the two young men, saw the nod they exchanged, but never said a word about it.

“Come on over to the shade and I’ll get you some water if you like,” She offered.

“Ma’am I reckon we don’t need a drink, we were just riding and stretchin out our horses when we come up on your place here. We had planned to bring the boys out here tomorrow, but I reckon this worked out to the good,” Tom said.

Mrs. Yancey stepped out and looked down past the front entrance toward the trail.

“Here comes Clyde now, I bet he saw your horses and come to see who it is.”

Clyde Yancey rode into the barnyard and dismounted, then walked straight to Tom and Cal with a big grin on his face.

“Tom, I see you ‘n Cal decided to bring my new hired hands on out early, reckon my Missus got a surprise outta all this,” he said then turned to his wife after shaking their hands.

“Clyde if I wasn’t so happy to see them young’uns come to this ranch, I’d be chasin’ you with that broom over there,” Roberta Yancey told her husband and laughed as she hugged him.

“I don’t know when I’ve ever been as happy as I am right now, we finally got us not one boy, but three,” She said proudly as she wiped her eyes on her apron.

“I reckon the girls have already throwed a saddle on ‘em and started breakin’em in, huh?” Clyde said and laughed.

“Yep, they nearly jerked their arms outta the socket when they led them out to show them around the place.”

Tom and Cal were feeling pleased that these people were gonna be lookin out for the brothers now. There was a lot of things that needed to be taken care of, but getting the brothers settled in with a good family was the most important to them.

“Mr. Clyde, Ma’am, there’s some things Cal and I need to speak to you about while the young’uns are busy. We’re not sure about the details and how all of this will play out in the days to come, but we’ll tell you what we do know and you can help with the rest, that is if you all are still willing to put up with them three ya-hoos.”

Tom and Cal walked over to the porch with the Yancey’s and explained all they were told this morning, what was being planned and what all they would have to do to get the boys to fully understand just what all this would mean to them.

The Yancey’s listened with wide eyed interest as well as shock at all they were hearing. They never said a word until they heard all Tom and Cal had told them.

“Well Tom, I reckon that’s not gonna help my hired hand shortage much then, since them boys will be owning their own land and cattle.”

“Mr. Clyde, the way Cal and I see it, is that them boys don’t even know how to accept the fact that they’re now ranch owners, let alone be able to run one. We were kinda hopin that you’n Mrs. Yancey would still take them in as hired hands and kinda work it into them that one day they’ll have their own spread.

“Cal and I’ll find them a man that is schooled in the law well enough that he can fix it where they can’t be beat out of what they got and they can’t waste their money before they even know what money is. They’ve never had more’n a few cents between them at any time in their life.”

“Berty, what do you make of all this, do you think maybe this has made a difference in what we were hopin for?”

“Clyde, the way I see it, when them boys grew up, they’d be on their own anyway, the least we can do is make sure they’re raised in a God loving home and teach them the rights and wrongs in life.”

“Berty, I was hopin you’d see it that way too, I’d be honored to help them boys, they’ve been kicked around too much now as it is.

“Tom you n Cal got a deal. We’ll take them boys in as hired hands, pay them wages that we’d pay anyone else and make sure that they get the schooling they’ll need later and all the preaching they can stand about right from wrong.”

“Well I reckon we weren’t that lost when we stumbled in here awhile ago after all,” Cal said and they all laughed at his meaning.

“Mr. Clyde, I reckon we’ll leave it to the boys if they wanna stay here or ride in and come back with all their belongings.”

“That’s fine with us Tom, of course we do hope they’ll wanna stay, I’ve waited long enough to have another man around here to help keep these women folks in line, now that I’ve got three a helping me, we might just stand a chance.”

They looked up to see the two girls and the three Hanks brothers coming across the yard, they were all slow walkin and talkin and laughing like old friends.

Clyde Yancey saw this and knew that he’d remember this moment for the rest of his life, seeing his girls walking across the yard with his boys.

Berty Yancey’s heart swelled with pride and love for all her brood, her daughters for accepting the boys, the boys for just walkin right in and becoming a part of them.

“Well cowhands, I reckon you three have come to a fork in the road. Do you want to ride back into town and come back later with the rest of your duds, or do you wanna stay and let me ‘n Cal bring’em out tomorrow after we get some of the things done up we need to do?”

“Tom, we was just gonna ask you ‘n Cal if we could maybe stay. Will ‘n Bob are gonna take us on a ride around the working part of the spread, then they want us to get up early tomorrow and ride all day to show us the whole layout, that is if Mr. Clyde says we can,” Cole said.

Before Tom could even answer, Clyde Yancey spoke up.

“You better believe you can. Bob ‘n Will, that’s a good idea to show’em all the boundary lines and the working parts of the ranch first.

“Men, you’ll have about four days to get used to the place, we’ll be in church on Sunday and in the saddle at daylight on Monday.

“You’ll take your meals with us in the house, but since we don’t have that much room, you’ll have sleepin quarters in the bunkhouse all to yourselves.

“Bob ‘n Will can help you fix that up, but you’ll have to watch’em, they’ll have it looking all frilly if you don’t.” He smiled as his daughters scowled at him.

Tom and Cal said their goodbyes with the promise that they’d be back out sometime the next day with the rest of the brother’s duds and left for Hays City once more.

The Hanks brothers helped the girls finish cleaning the barn out, then they all saddled up and rode out to look over the main part of the ranch. Clyde and Roberta Yancey stood on the front porch and watched them ride off, both had smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes once more.

“God has blessed us Berty, He knew what He was doing, making us wait for this to come about. It just took a while for Him to put it all together didn’t it?”

“Yes Clyde, I couldn’t be more happy if I had carried them boys in my own belly, have you ever seen any more well mannered boys than the ones we just got?”

When Tom and Cal got back to town, the first stop they made was to Bonners’ Store. Tom knew this was where people went to find out about other people and find out about all that has happened lately.

Tom was talking to Malcolm Bonner about an attorney while Cal went over to the next room and got his new made boots from Oliver Bonner. Tom was still talking to Malcolm Bonner about law attorneys so Cal started looking over the paperback books that Cole had asked about.

Cal gathered up ten of the books and laid them on the counter as Tom and Mr. Bonner talked.

Mr. Bonner counted the paperbacks and took Cal’s dollar as he and Tom still talked about the only two attorney’s that Hays City had.

“I’ve used Jameson Bollinger before on some store business and he done me a right good enough job. I’ve heard some folks say that they’ve been in Arthur Creighton’s office and smelled whiskey kinda strong, now I’m not saying I know he drinks, I’m just repeating what I’ve heard.

“I do know that Mr. Creighton was schooled in St. Louis School of Law, because he has a diploma on the wall, or that’s what I was told, I’ve never been in his office. He’s only been here about six months and doesn’t have a lot of customers since he’s so young.”

Tom had what he wanted, the names of the attorney’s in Hays. Now he and Cal could go visit them to see if maybe one could help with the matter of the Hanks brothers pending inheritance.

Mr. Bonner took Cal’s books and tied a string around the sides and then around the ends of the double stack and handed the bundle to him as they started out the door.

“By the way Tom, why were you needing an attorney on such short notice?”

“I’ll have to explain it to you when I have more information Mr. Bonner, but we’ll be sure to come back and let you know after we’ve hired an attorney.”

Malcolm Bonner was pleased with this answer, he was as good as his wife at getting information from his customers. It sure didn’t hurt none to keep up with the news that was being passed around town.

This was especially true since so many people came in here to ask questions anyway. It was almost like a service to his customers, to have all the answers.

Tom and Cal walked down the wooden board walk to the courthouse, they wanted to talk to Mr. Weldon once more and maybe even ask his opinion on attorney’s while there.

“Tom, Cal come in. I’m glad you came by. I’ve gotten all the papers filed and posted in the court records, as soon as you hire an attorney, they can start the search for heirs and claims against the estates of McDonnough, Willamacher and Hanks. You may want to keep up with these deeds and keep this last will and testament in your possession just in case something comes up. I’m sure that your attorney will want to read these documents at length also.”

“Mr. Weldon, we sure thank you for your help, we don’t know either of the law attorney’s here in town, and we’d like your opinion.”

“Well, I’ve never had any personal dealings with either man but have had both in and out of my office for different reasons. They both seem capable, and though he’s awful young, Mr. Creighton does seem to be more up on the law. Now don’t take that as a recommendation, it’s just an opinion like you asked for.”

“Thanks Mr. Weldon for all your help, it may be we can get this taken care of soon and Cal and I can get them boy’s future put together so it’ll all be legal.”