Chapter 5

I decided that Betty, Sonny, and I would hire rooms in town Monday, stay over night and leave Tuesday morning to get to Mountain Gap for the 11:30 appointment with Judge Black. I wanted to collect the letters that Deputy Sims was going to gather from a few of the townspeople, showing that Betty and I would be good guardians of Sonny.

We went first to see Pete Pritchard in the feed store. Betty went into the house to see Alma. “Buck, don’t get rooms. Betty can stay here in the room upstairs. There are three empty bunks here for my men, so take your pick. What’s this trip you are taking? Ron Sims was around asking what I knew about you and your background. He didn’t say why.”

“Betty and I want Sonny to live with us. He has no other relatives. Sims has talked to the Judge about it some. Maybe Alma can put in a good word for Betty.”

“I’ll get her to write something up. I’ll enclose a note about her as well. Get one from the general store owner. He liked her singing and she has always paid her bill. Alma may know someone who knows a little about her. The people still talk about that night she sang. Anyone who can sing like she does has to be good.”

“Thanks, Pete.”

“Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“Maybe, do you know anyone who has laying hens they would sell? Eggs traveling in the buckboard don’t always make it home so I thought I’d buy hens.”

“I’ll ask Borden Custer. He supplies most of the eggs for the town. They’ll be expensive knowing him though. How many do you want?”

“I need a dozen hens, anyway. Twenty if I can get them.”

“I’ll dicker for you if you want me too. I sell him grain. Where are you going to keep them?”

“For the winter, I’ll block off part of the barn floor. In the spring I’ll have a hen house built.”

“You could put in an order for chicks from Custer. He has a big incubator and sells baby chicks, I think that’s in April or May.”

“Good idea. I wouldn’t want to be in competition with him, but see how many he will sell me.”

“I can do that. Are you taking the buckboard to Mountain Gap?”

“No, Sims was going to arrange to have Betty ride with her attorney. Can I leave the buckboard here?” I’ll take the horses over to the livery stable.”

“Hell, turn them into the corral out back. They’ll be fine.”

Alma and Betty came out saying they were walking up the street to see Betty’s lawyer. I asked her to go see Sims because he might have some letters for the Judge. I reminded her to ask the attorney what time we were heading out tomorrow morning.

I found out myself for the attorney came into the feed store to see me. “Mr. Harrison, I’d like to leave here before daylight about six. I’ll walk my horses until it gets light and then I trot them for awhile. We’ll be a couple of miles short of the town about ten. There is a farmhouse where I stop, especially if I have a woman with me. We’ll lay over for a half hour and you all can freshen up, have a donut and coffee and then we’ll go directly to the Courthouse. Is that satisfactory?”

“It is. Tell me your name, we haven’t met.”

“John, Johnson. Don’t laugh, my Pa was very proud of the Johnson name. He named me John, saying it was enough different so people would remember it and of course me.”

“You think that’s strange, my family had four boys. I was the youngest and I got my father’s name of Buck. Trouble is, they all called me Little Buck, me being the youngest. Of course, in grade school the kids have to have their own nickname for me. I ended up with Bit-of-a-Buck. When I got old enough, I had to straighten people out before they would stop calling me that.” I turned to Pete. “Isn’t that right, Pete?”

“I can verify what Buck says. Why do you think he slapped me to the ground a few weeks ago?” This brought us to laughter. Pete then proceeded to tell John about growing up near my family. We made plans, and John was to pick the three of us up at six tomorrow morning.

Pete and Alma had us in, including Sonny for supper. He and I did sleep in the bunkhouse Pete kept for those who worked for him. Alma and Pete had two children, a boy, and a girl. They tried to get Sunny to play games, but he would just shake his head that he didn’t want to. Alma had them to the kitchen and clue them in that Sonny was a bit different and not to push him if he didn’t want to play. For himself, he did watch the two interact with their mother and father and seemed to enjoy being in the same room.

Pete and I were discussing business. Betty and Alma were across the room. I saw Alma say something to Betty. Betty giggled and her face got red. Both were looking at me, and I knew they were speaking about me. Betty stood up, “Buck, I think I’ll go to bed. We have a long trip tomorrow. Will you and Sonny be okay?”

“Yeah, we will. You go to sleep and dream a little. Before you know it will be time to get up.”

Alma was the one to answer, “I told her she could dream about anything she wanted to and I hoped the dreams would come true. What do you think?”

“I think maybe someday her dreams will come true.”

Alma turned to Betty and said, “See. You know, I’ll bet he dreams the same kind of dreams as you.” Betty waved and left the room.

“You two need to get married. Don’t you think so Pete?”

“Yeah, but stop pushing, Alma. Christ, they’ve only known each other for a few weeks. They’ll know when the time is right.”

John Johnson had a good team. The first hour before it was light, John kept the horses at a fast walk. When light enough he chirped and they speeded up. We didn’t meet any traffic for the next couple of hours. When we reached the farm where John had promised coffee and doughnuts we were right on time.

We spent a half hour and then we mounted up and rode into Mountain Gap. It was a bigger town than where we lived. This was a town that had been platted, rather than just growing up willy-nilly, for there was a main street and shops, all in an orderly row. Homes were in lines, some going up the sides of the hills.

There was even a newspaper office on Main Street. The Sheriff was just coming from his office and he waved to Johnson as we went by. The Courthouse was at the end of the street with a small park on one side. There was a small cannon of iron with the carriage sitting on a stone base. It looked ready to fire and you could still see the ordinance grey still intact, so some one was proud of it enough to care for it.

Sonny had become very nervous when we came into town and he recognized where he was. He kept slowing his horse down. Finally, we came up to the hitching rail before the court. I stepped down and grabbed the bridal to his horse. He did obey me to step off his horse, but very reluctantly. Betty immediately got out of the buggy and came to hold Sonny’s hand. He soon calmed down and we all turned to mount the steps to the courthouse.

The Judge must have been watching for us. He had evidently watched as we approached from the doorway. “Hello, Sonny I haven’t seen you for quite some time. We won’t be going into court but to my rooms in the back.”

He stuck out his hand. Sunny didn’t put his out. Betty guided him, “Put your hand out, Sunny. The Judge is your friend. To show respect, when a friend puts their hand out, you do the same.” Sunny did as directed and Sunny had his first handshake. It didn’t hurt a bit.

Sheriff Carlson came in behind us. Attorney Johnson was familiar with both the Judge and the sheriff. We all went into a large heated room. It had several comfortable chairs in it. “Sonny, I’d like to talk to you like I have before. You do remember me, don’t you?”

“Yah.”

“Good, you sit here. I’ll have the others in the room sit over there to listen what I have to say. First, you remember the sheriff. He has talked to you before. You know that man you call Buck and the Lady you call Betty. I guess you don’t know Mr. Johnson that well, do you.”

“I see him where we go to stay in town. He okay.”

“That’s fine. You do know that your uncle, Tommy Johns has died, don’t you?”

“Yah, good. He try to kill deputy. Buck shoot so he can’t. They load Buddy and Tommy onto wagon take to town. Buck say Tommy try to kill Buck. Deputy kill Tommy. He dead now.”

“Yes, that is what happened. How come you stay at Betty and Buck’s ranch?”

“Deputy say, Buck keep Sonny. Betty bake Sonny cake. Give big piece. Me happy.”

Would you like to stay with them?”

“Yah.”

“Okay you go sit over there and I’ll talk to them. Buck Harrison and Betty Turner, come sit up here and I’m going to use first names here. Betty, I understand you are most recently became a widow. Will you tell me a little about your life? Why I’m doing this is because I must find a permanent home for Sonny.

“That is what we want to happen, sir”

“Continue, please.”

“Sir, I was a mail order bride, marrying Mr. Turner some little over two years ago. I believe I fulfilled my duties as his wife. There was no love in the marriage at all. I found him abusive and extremely penny pinching. It was difficult to provide meals for him and his men with what he allowed me for household expenses. A little more than two months ago, he didn’t come in from chopping wood. I took a lantern and discovered him under a downed tree. I was two months pregnant at the time and now going into my fourth month.”

“This must be very difficult for you?”

“Not now it isn’t. One day Buck Harrison came by the ranch and was there when I came home from town. It was a cold day and he had built a fire and had begun a meal. I was distressed and sad up until he came. At the time, I had a ranch, but no crew, no money, and my horses needed hay for the winter. Immediately my life turned around. Buck bought into the ranch and he had funds with him. He found men to help work the cattle.”

“What’s next for you?”

“I need to gain sure title to the ranch and cattle so Buck can claim being full partner as I have agreed to. There are other things that need doing, also.”

“Have you done anything about getting title? You are your husband’s widow so it shouldn’t be difficult.”

“Attorney Johnson has the paper work with him today.”

“Good, may I see them?”

John brought them forward and handed them to the judge. He looked over the forms. “John, Turner had no other relatives or heirs?”

“Not that I could determine. He was born on the ranch and his parents are both deceased. Just to hurry this along, there are no bills outstanding against the estate either.”

“Good. I’ll have my clerk file this here in the courthouse. As far as I can see, you are sole owner. Do you have a written agreement that Buck is to become your partner?”

“We do, sir.”

“Let me see it.” It was a simple deed change with the amounts given and a full description. “You sold Buck half of about 2500 head of cattle and half the ranch property for $500. That’s pretty cheap.”

“It is, sir, but I had to consider that I was pregnant, no funds at all, and most of all just free of an abusive marriage. So, I had heard, the townspeople were going to take up a collection to get me back where I had come from. That would have been charity.”

“So what is your relationship with Buck Harrison at present?”

“We are not in a relationship in the physical sense. When my mourning period is over, we will begin walking out together. Within days of now, he has professed his love for me. I feel the same about him.”

“I should think you would. Buck, why don’t you come up and talk to me now. What are your thoughts about being a partner to Betty and the ranch?”

“Sir, my mother died a few months ago. She had her estate divided up among us four brothers. I am the youngest. My older brothers are all married with families. There isn’t room for another ranch nearby and no one would have won if Mother had divided things so we all got a piece of range and some money. It was her suggestion that I have the liquid assets and leave to find my own place. My brother’s ranges are adequate but would be diminished if I took a third of their range.”

“I can understand that. Why didn’t you buy the widow out?”

“Because I could see she may not have loved her husband but she did love the ranch. I didn’t have to spend a lot of money to acquire it and she didn’t have to move. I found three men to work for us and we all live in the bunkhouse. Betty is left to occupy the house. Sonny lives with us now too. He seems very happy. When I left the home place, I wasn’t particularly happy. I had money yes, but I was pretty much pushed out. I do believe being partner with Betty will make me a lot happier than I ever would be some place else.”

“That’s fine for both of you. Now tell what would you be doing for Sonny if you should gain the guardianship of him?”

“We have talked about him and we would treat him as the ten year old he will be forever. He is very physically able enough and can do most any chore if it explained to him. He is the most happy when given something to work at. Right now, he has been sawing on the winter’s supply of wood with the other men. I would never let him chop wood, because I don’t think he would realize how much damage he can do to himself.”

Betty broke in, “Buck is trying to buy some chickens because Sonny loves scrambled eggs and he knows they go into the cakes I bake. Hopefully, we can pick them up on our way home. For the winter, they will be on the barn floor, but we have enough funds to build a good-sized hen house come spring. I expect I will have a baby in May sometime, so it will be on the men to keep him happy.”

“You’d trust Sonny around a baby?’

“Yes I would. He has been abused and I know how that feels. You can’t hurt someone when you have been hurt so much yourself.”

“This all sounds good to me. One question: Of the two of you, who keeps track of your money and decides on the expenditures you decide to make?”

“We’ll make them together because we both have money.”

“Oh, I thought Buck said you were broke when he arrived at your ranch.”

“I was as far as I knew then. But we both thought it odd that I only found $200 at my husband’s death. I knew he had sold cattle sometime in September. I searched everywhere I could think of. Buck found a loose board under a big chest and we did find a lot of money.”

“Have you counted it? To find out how much it was?”

“We didn’t have to. Buck found an account book and a journal. Jim Turner apparently had plans to sell the cattle, and the ranch without telling me. My husband intended to leave. I wasn’t to be asked to go with him.”

“That must have made you terribly mad?”

“It didn’t because he was already dead before I found out about his plans. Buck, you have those books with you, don’t you?”

“They are in my saddle bags. Judge, do you want to see them? There are some other things in them, I wish to point out to you. Betty and I believe that her husband was rustling yearling heifers from our two neighbors. It even tells how many from each. When Deputy Sims was here last week, he verified that Tommy Johns had bought a large herd of heifers.”

The sheriff spoke: “We discussed this. Deputy Sims and Buck, came to the conclusion that Turner had the help of the Turner crew to accomplish this. Deputy Sims inspected some of the small branding fires and Buck found where a small herd had been held out of sight for some length of time.”

“Sheriff, leave that for now. I need to get a permanent home for Sonny Sanders. It is time for dinner. Let’s go over to the hotel and eat. I’ll make my decision when we get back and continue this. I have been Sonny’s trustee ever since his mother died and I guess his guardian since informed that Tommy Johns was deceased. It is a position I do not want. Hopefully by the end of the day, I’ll have the position filled.”

It was Sheriff Carlson, Attorney Johnson, Judge Black, Betty, Sonny, and me who sat down for dinner in the hotel dining room. Sonny sat between us. Betty had been working on his table manners. Actually, we were working on all of our crew’s manners at the same time.

The choices for dinner were, liver and onions, fried steak, and chicken potpie. Sonny and I had the liver, still pink in the center. Betty ordered the pie and the rest had steak.

The Judge asked, “Does Sonny like that or is he saying what he wants because you ordered it?”

“He likes it. Betty eats it too, but will go with chicken if available.” All drank coffee and ate rolls that came in a serving pan at the same time. Sonny looked at Betty and she put a roll on the table in front of him. There was real butter and Sonny slathered the roll with this. He then set about picking the roll apart in small pieces and chewing it slowly. He consumed my roll after his own before our meal came.

While waiting, I asked about Tommy Johns. The sheriff answered, “Quite the old pirate. He wasn’t well liked, mostly because he never washed and was always dirty, He was never caught doing anything illegal, but everyone wondered. He did furnish beef for places and people here in town and had a small slaughtering operation he has had for some years. I told him as long as the beef was legal and the place was kept clean I wouldn’t hassle him. He had a butcher that did all of his work and his place was under the butchers direction.

“The first indication that he might be crooked was when Deputy Sims was asking about some heifers. You tell me that Turner was part of that.”

Betty spoke. “Most assured that he was rustling from his neighbors.”

“Okay, I’ll let Sims handle it.” Just then, our meal came and we ate. We had coached Sonny well and we had no trouble with him. No one wanted dessert but Betty said when I went pay the bill to have a piece of cake wrapped up to take with us. Sonny’s eyes widened and he smiled when he heard this.

When we got back to the courthouse, Judge Black said, “Okay, I think you two are good people and I’m going to name you Guardian’s of Sonny. I’d like it if you were a married couple. Is that going to happen and if so will it be soon?”

“Judge, Buck, and I do have an understanding to marry. The only thing holding us up is the convention of me being a widow and it is less than four months since that happened.”

The Judge smiled, “You know I could order you to marry to give you cover. Would you object to that happening?”

Both of us smiled and shook our heads. “Okay. It is so ordered by the court. Would you be fine with it if I married you right now?”

“Please.” It did happen with the attorney and sheriff as witnesses. Twenty minutes later, I kissed Betty for the first time as my wife.

“Okay, that done with, there are papers to be filled out concerning Sonny becoming your ward. You are not only responsible for him but there are considerable amount of assets that come with him. Remember, I am still going to be the trustee to oversee that you are treating him correctly. What he has for assets must last him the rest of his life if even after you two are gone. But you can spend any amount to make him have a comfortable life as long as he is with you. Is this understood?”

We both said yes. “If we treat him just as we will our children when they come along, is that good enough?”

“Yes, exactly. Now, to the assets, and they are considerable. Remember Johns was the boy’s uncle and his only heir. So, there is money in a bank account that Sonny now owns and money in a separate account that was Johns. There is the slaughterhouse, and the ranch operation that Johns set up less than a year ago. That probably is the most valuable. It will take awhile to get the ownership changed and put you in charge as guardian. That can’t all be done today.

“Right now, the sheriff is overseeing the assets that aren’t in the bank. You can operate both businesses if you so chose.”

“Is that question?”

“Yes.”

“Betty, what do you think?”

“Buck we are happy in our own place, Do, we really want to take on more that is at this distance from our home?”

“I don’t, I just want to know your feelings.”

“Those are my feelings.”

“Judge, I think the best for us and Sonny would be to have those assets sold.”

“Your call and sensible. Do you want to look at both places before they are sold?”

“No, not at all. I would like to retain in our name the price of 107 yearling heifer cows so I can return that amount to the original owners of the heifers. In other words that is a debt that is owed and I intend to satisfy it.”

“That will be no problem. I’ll have Sheriff Carlson do that when the property and cattle are sold. It may be some time, though.”

“Understood.” The judge then passed the two bank accounts to look at.

Betty exclaimed. “Wow, for a crook, Johns was well off.”

“Yes, Mrs. Harrison, remember he wasn’t caught until it killed him. Think what he would have been worth if he hadn’t gone that day to steal three steers that were worth $20 or $30 each. He made the wrong decision on that one, and might have lived twenty years longer than he did if he did make a different one.”

It looked like our business was finished here for the day. What to do? I wanted to sleep with Betty, my wife, but we had to look to Sonny’s needs. We could live with it though, for we were married at least four months earlier than our original plan.

We decided that Betty should have a new hat to replace the shawl of black that she had been using to cover her head. There wasn’t much choice in wedding rings, but Betty found a plain gold band and I put it on her finger. She was marveling, while looking at it when crossing the street, stumbled, and almost fell. She would have, except I caught, and held her upright. She giggled happily.

We finally ended up in the hotel. Johnson was staying in one room, which we would be billed for. The hotel said that they had a room with a bed for a servant located in an anteroom. We engaged that for the night.

Sonny came into the room with us. I showed him where he was to be sleeping. He was tired and went to bed immediately. We made sure he was asleep and then we began to disrobe ourselves.

“Buck, I wish I had the figure I had before I became pregnant. I never considered myself pretty, but I did have a good shape.”

“Betty, you still have a beautiful body for carrying a baby four months. You are so beautiful. I know you aren’t a vain person and I’m pleased at that. Vanity only suits the person who is that way and you keep yourself well and clean. The only time I saw your hair in disarray was the night at the ranch when you pulled your team up and asked who was in your house.”