Chapter 6

After our celebration and cleanup following the attack on the cabin, Mary and I had a serious discussion in whispers in an effort to keep our conversation away from David and Alice. Mary said, “Jack, what happened today was so close to what happened just before I met you that I am still shaking. I keep thinking of what could have happened if you and David had not shown up when you did. I do not know if I can go to sleep even after that great fuck you just gave me.

“I know that logically I do not have to worry. Last time, we were both outside of the cabin and had no weapons close at hand, not that they would have done us much good. This time, Alice and I were working inside the cabin when the Redsticks showed up, and all we had to do was to slam and lock the door and the window shutters. Now we never go outside unless one of us is armed and keeping watch.

“The problem with that is that it puts a big restriction on what we can accomplish.

The garden has been neglected, and I am not sure how much food we can get from it next year under the present circumstances. Oh, hell, I have to admit it: I am just plain scared every time you and David go off hunting. I am afraid that something will happen to you or to us that will mess up the great life we have together.

“Please tell me how I can escape these feelings!”

“Honey, I do not have a simple answer. There is no way I can make a living if I spend all of my time guarding you from the Redsticks, much as I would love to be able to do that. Sure, we could live off of what David can do as a hunter, but I do not have it in my conscience to send him out alone. He is just not old enough to have the judgment required to take care of himself without supervision. He is still sure that he will live forever and does not give enough thought to the chances he might be taking. Absolutely, David cannot go out alone!

“I am in complete sympathy with your fears. I worry about that, too. The only solution I can think of is for us to move into Bob’s Knob so that you and Alice can have the protection of other people around you whenever David and I are not there.

“Let us talk about that with Alice and David tomorrow morning. Maybe one of them will have an idea.” That was the end of the conversation that night. Mary was finally able to drop off to sleep. I guess that just talking about the problem was enough to let her relax.

The next morning at breakfast, Alice started the conversation. “I know that you were just trying to save our feelings by whispering last night, but I heard what you both said. I agree with Mary. I try not to show it, but I cannot help being afraid whenever the men go away from the cabin, even if it is only for a few minutes.

“I have to agree with Pa that the only sure solution is for us to move into town. The Redsticks are not likely to attack if there are enough people living close by. Yes, I understand that it will make hunting difficult for Pa and David, but I think that it can be done. A lot of that depends on what kind of house we move into and where it is in relation to other houses. I propose that we take a day to go to Bob’s Knob and look around to see what is available. If we find a place we like, we can talk to the neighbors about how they feel living close our operation. For one thing, I think that most of the people in Bob’s Knob would be customers for hogs and deer.”

David did no contribute anything to Alice’s words, but he made it apparent that he did agree with her.

That was such a logical argument that Mary and I looked at each other and nodded. I said, “Okay, we will cancel everything else we planned for today and make a trip into Bob’s Knob to see what there is available in existing houses. If there is nothing we like, we can look into building our own house. Let us hurry and get on our way. This search may take a long time.”

We were in Bob’s Knob so quickly that it was hard to believe. On the way, I made a point of seeing how quickly we could commute to hunt around here. It looked like a 90-minute trip to me if we did not want to tire Ned too much. I figured that we could use the lighter wagon, which was what we were using for this trip.

There was not much turnover in houses in Bob’s Knob. Once people moved in, they tended to stay, but there were two empty houses that I knew about just in passing. We could look at those two first. Eventually, we would have to talk to Bob Smith since he functioned as the mayor of the little community. He might know of other houses that we should look at, so it dawned on me that we should talk to him first.

David was driving, so I directed him to head for Bob’s tavern. It was mid-morning, so things were quiet in the tavern, and Bob had time to talk to us. After the usual greetings, I explained what we were looking for and why. Bob was indignant about the attack, and he could readily see why Mary and Alice wanted to move to where they would feel safer.

He listened to Mary describe what we were looking for, and Bob had a suggestion. It was a place that was recently emptied because the family had moved to Atlanta. The man was a budding politician, and he was looking for a way to break into state politics. They had left the house fully furnished, so it would be easy for us to move in. The man swore that they were never coming back to Bob’s Knob to live, so the house was available to anybody who wanted it.

That sounded good to Mary, so we headed out to take a look. The house was not in the center of town; that is, near Bob’s tavern, but it was not isolated either. That sounded like a good compromise to us. Bob said that the house was in good condition as far as he knew, so it sounded promising to us.

When we got to the house, we were astonished. The house was so much larger than our cabin that it looked like a palatial estate compared to what we were used to. The house had a living room, three bedrooms, a bathroom with a tub and running water from an artesian well, and a combination of kitchen and dining room. From that point of view, we could not ask for anything better. Each room was nearly as large as our one-room cabin, so we could add partitions to make more rooms if we wanted to.

Each room had its own fireplace, so that meant that we were going to use a lot more firewood than we were used to, but we could handle that. There was a large combination barn and carriage house so that we could store both wagons inside, and there was room for Ned and a milk cow if we wanted one. There was the usual privy and smokehouse, plus a chicken coop. This house was perfect for our use, and nobody else had claimed it. We quit looking with that site and dashed back to Bob Smith to tell him that we would take it. We would move in over the next few days.

There was a large empty shed on the property that we could use for a butcher shop and a tannery. All we had to do was to meet the neighbors and tell them what we would be doing at our new home. It turned out that three of the neighboring families wanted to be put on the list as customers for pork and venison. One of them was even interested in rabbits.

As luck would have it, Edward Molsen was one of those neighbors, and he had a large family. He had been buying meat wherever he could find a source, and having it delivered to his house was a real boon. Thus ended the last bit of resentment that Molsen had for me. I would start the deliveries next week. He wanted one deer, one hog, and six rabbits delivered on Fridays. He would pay seven copper pennies for the adult hog, five copper pennies for the adult deer, and one ha’penny for each pair of rabbits. That assured 15 copper pennies from Molsen and 16 from Colbert for the skins each week.

The other two families each wanted one hog each week on Wednesday. That was another 14 copper pennies per week, and I had hardly started the business. Just that income of 30 copper pennies per week was enough to justify hiring Ephraim as a hunter. I paid him two copper pennies per week for five days work as a hunter per week. Ephraim and his father were aghast that I would pay such a high salary for a man Ephraim’s age, but I thought that employee loyalty was worth the extravagance. Ephraim’s wife certainly appreciated the money. That was easily enough money to support them, and they could move into their own home and out of his parents’ house. For convenience, they moved into one of those vacant houses in Bob’s Knob. That made it very easy for Ephraim to commute to work.