Chapter 17

My other wives were all rolling around on the ground laughing when we came out of the tent. They told us, "Star's aunt said that at least you didn't wait until the middle of the night to make that much noise."

I laughed and told Fawn the story of our first trip here and how Star's aunt had complained about us keeping her awake at night.

"I hope we wake her up again tonight," Fawn said.

"I love it when Burr makes me scream," Star said dreamily.

They all started talking together, so I went for a walk. I took Trey, Little Antelope and Little Cloud with me. We had a good time looking at things and talking about things. We watered the horses and mules and rubbed them down. The kids mostly held the stock and visited, but Little Antelope wanted to brush the horses, so I let her brush their legs.

When we got back home, I heard Little Antelope tell Fawn, "I love Burr."

Fawn said, "So do I."

We had a good supper in celebration of Fawn and my marriage and Little Antelope's adoption into our family.

That night all of my wives wanted to be loved, so I did my best for them and slept hard afterward.

I was glad Jack was watching over our campsite.

We left the next morning after bidding our friends and relatives good bye.

We had a nice if a bit chilly trip to Young Bear's camp. Sunshine and Fawn both killed a couple of grouse. They made for a good meal or two.

I talked to Sunshine and Swan about teaching our children to be good hunters. I knew that they were both much better hunters than I was. They said they would begin teaching

Trey to hunt next year and they would teach the other children as they got old enough to be able to pay attention.

We arrived at Young Bear's camp. I went to see him and told him of my mission to the Apache and Comanche.

He complimented me on my success, and said he would arrange for the tribal warriors to be available for the training.

"Go home and enjoy your family until I send for you," Young Bear said.

We stayed one more night, and headed for Wildcat Branch.

After we got home, I had a huge list of work I needed to get done. I worked on preparing the soil in the garden. I fixed up the fence and checked on the stock. After a few disagreements the stallions were functioning in an uneasy peace. Red had given us a beautiful sorrel filly with three white stockings. War Bonnet and Scout had indeed given us a beautiful colt, splotched and spotted. Mouse had given us a steel dust filly.

Our Hereford bull had bred back the cows and our herd was looking good. One of the cows did not breed back, so I penned her up and fed her. I planned to kill her at the end of the winter.

All in all I was very blessed in my family life. We ate well, had a warm house and good outbuildings.

I wanted to drill a well and get a pump to make life easier for my wives.

We went to Smith's the next month, picked up some supplies and visited. I placed and order for a well drilling rig and some pipe and a pump. Galvanized, no lead I didn't want any psycho people in my family. I paid Mr. Smith in advance.

I visited Mr. Weiss. He had built another shed for manufacturing ammunition, and had two storage bunkers; one for caps, and one for powder.

Our pistols were still selling very well. The Spanish government had placed an additional order for 200 units. Germany had also placed an order for 100 units.

The police model was the official sidearm of most major cities in the United States, and the pocket model was the gentleman's favorite.

Arnold had built and stored about 40 of the Gatling guns, and several hundred of the long range rifles and was making ammunition runs every so often for the specialty weapons as well as the normal pistols and rifles.

I shot some of our ammunition and was very pleased with its quality. Arnold said, "I think our ammunition is every bit as good as UMC and our tolerances for cases are better."

"Do we have any money left?" I asked Arnold with a smile.

"You are richer than before." He answered.

"Good, I want to buy our production of Gatling guns and long range rifles and move them to a storage facility near Young Bear's camp. I also want to purchase a large portion of our ammunition supply for the tribe."

Arnold nodded, and said "You will even have some money left over to buy your wives a present."

"That reminds me, Arnold, will you build my new wife, Fawn, a .32 carbine. I also want to get two pocket models for her."

He went out and got the pocket models off the assembly line and gave them to me.

I was very pleased with the quality control on the assembly line. These guns looked and functioned perfectly.

I went a bought each of my wives several new dresses each and bought the children clothes.

My diligent wives had taken care of the family's need for winter coats with heavy leather coats with the fur side turned in.

I saw a saddle in the store that was small enough for a child, so I bought it and a scabbard and saddle bags.

We visited several of our friends while we were there. My wives were acting a little smug about what a good husband I was.

After we left our friend's camp, we had a little talk. I explained that just because we were fortunate enough to be blessed with many healthy children, and many material things, we shouldn't brag about our situation.