Chapter 34

Sunday, March 19, 1848

Ed: Day 24 of the Dayton to Boston trip

It seemed almost sinful to sleep late, then wander down for a leisurely breakfast. We didn't let that bother us, though. Kate had never been to Boston and she had never seen the ocean, so we decided to do a little exploring.

We wandered around the city for a while. Since it was Sunday, all of the stores were closed, but there wasn't anything we wanted to buy anyway. I had always been fascinated by sailing ships, so I asked the ladies if they'd mind walking down to the harbor.

I told Kate about the Boston Tea Party and she got a big laugh about brewing a harbor full of tea for King George. There were half a dozen ships in the harbor. There were a couple of whalers, something I recognized as a sloop and another that I believed to be a three masted schooner.

Looking at the maze of ropes and spars, I realized you'd almost have to be born to the sea to understand them all. We were standing there looking at the ships and the men working on their decks when two scruffy looking men wandered by.

They were dressed in white pants and blue and white shirts in horizontal stripes. When they came abreast of us, they stopped and one of them said to the other, "What have we here? Two pretty laaadiiees."

"Two pretty ladies dressed like men," the other one said.

"Good morning, ladies," the first one said. "Would you like to dump this guy and take a walk with a couple of sailing men?"

Cassie had moved around behind me, but now she stepped to my side. She had her revolver in her hand. "I'd suggest you gentlemen move along," she said.

"A lady with a gun," the first man said. "Now, that's not polite, ma'am. I'd hate to have to take your toy away from you."

"Don't kill him unless you have to," I said.

"I think I'll just shoot him in the knee," Cassie said calmly.

"I don't think you'd do that, ma'am," the more aggressive of the two said. He took a step toward us and Cassie's revolver went off. I looked down at his leg and I could see that there was a hole in the sole of his boot that went in about a quarter of an inch.

The other man grabbed the one who had stepped forward by the shoulder and said, "Let's get out of here, George."

George was as white as a ghost as he turned and they made their way rapidly away from us. "That was some fine shooting, Cassie," I said.

"Fine, hell. I was aiming about an inch in front of his boot," Cassie said. "I need to practice some more."

All three of us cracked up.

.oO~Oo. We didn't have any more problems while we were out exploring. Kate was fascinated by the big city and really enjoyed herself. To Cassie and me, we could see the primitive conditions.

We had clam chowder for lunch at a different tavern and it was great. It made what we called clam chowder in the twenty-first century seem pathetic. We wandered around for much of the afternoon, then went back to our tavern and all of us had a good bath.

The Green Dragon was jumping when we went down for supper. We ended up having to share a table with three men. They didn't say much to us when we sat down and we were more into each other. We talked about what all we had seen today until the serving girl brought our meal.

As we were eating, I kept hearing remarks from one of the men about the dirty Micks and the filthy Irish. I was determined they weren't going to interrupt our meal, so we went on eating. I could see Kate starting to boil, but I told her to finish her meal and she did, reluctantly.

Finally, as we were sipping our coffee, Kate asked, "Sure, and what do you have against the Irish?"

The man looked at her and said, "They come over here and work for nearly nothing. They take our jobs and eat our food. My brother lost his job on the railroad when they brought in a bunch of Micks to lay track."

"Well, my father never took a job from anyone. He was a farmer and he fed a lot of non-Irish as well as his family. I don't appreciate your comments."

"I don't care if you like my comments or not," the man said. "I'll say what I want to say."

"No, sir," I said. "You'll not offend my wife with your comments, or I'll pull your tongue out and feed it to you."

He looked like he was going to make a fuss, but one of the other men told him they should get out of there. After they were gone, I said, "I wonder why they left without a fight."

"Sure, and I think they may have seen Cassie and me pull our guns out," Kate grinned.

"I'm glad the two of you love me," I said.

Sam: Day 14 of the Dayton to St Joseph trip

Well, yesterday proved to be a bust when it came to finding a place to layover. We ended up camping in a narrow little valley that had enough grass for one night, but not much more.

Today we came out of the hills. Andy said that one of the men told him we would go a hundred miles before we got into the hills again. By late afternoon, we found a good sized creek that had grassy fields all around. We decided this would be a great place to spend the next day.

Monday, March 20, 1848

Ed: Day 1 of the Boston to St Joseph trip

I was sitting outside the bank when it opened. I carried four pairs of saddlebags inside and asked to speak to Mortimer Goodman. Mr. Goodman remembered me and even greeted me by name.

"So, I expect you've come for the balance of your account, Mr. Hill," he said.

"Yes, sir. We got delayed a bit because my wife was having a baby. I hope you have the gold for me now."

"We sure do, Mr. Hill. Do you have your certificate of deposit?"

I handed it to him and he called in his chief teller. He gave the certificate to the teller and told him I'd like the balance in gold. We talked a bit about not having a central bank and he expressed his view that we'd be much better off when those idiots in Washington realized just how screwed up everything was and got things back to the way they'd been set up originally.

The teller brought the gold into Goodman's office and I watched as he counted it out. They helped me divide it up among the four pairs of saddlebags and the teller carried two of them out for me while I carried the other two.

I had two mules with me and I tied two of the bags onto each mule. Then, I thanked the teller and headed out to the general store where the women were supposed to meet me.

I tied Hawk and the mules outside and went in. I stayed close to the door, where I could see the mules, and motioned for Cassie to come to me.

"Do you need any money for what you're getting here?" I asked her.

"No, we've got it covered."

"I'm going to stay outside while you finish up then. Yell if you need any help carrying anything out."

Cassie gave me a big smile and went back to shopping. I went outside and sat on a bench in front of the store. I had always been a people watcher and these people were even more interesting than the people in the time I was born in.

There were cowboys and sailors and farmers and woodsmen and city folks. You could tell what most of them did from their clothes. I think Boston in that era was a true melting pot. I heard every kind of accent imaginable as well. Irish, English and German were predominant, but there were also Scandinavians and some Chinese, although the Chinese didn't say much.

In the half hour or so I sat there, I saw all of these peoples. The farm women were dressed in homespun, with bonnets. The city women were dressed in their finery with ridiculous hats. Men were dressed in anything from tailored suits to buckskins.

Kate and Cassie came out carrying bundles. They were followed by the proprietor who had a load that looked like it was making his knees weak. He sat everything down on the boardwalk and thanked the women for their purchases.

We took a few minutes to load the mules and get everything secured, then we hit the road. It felt good to be going west and knowing we were going toward the rest of our family.

Even though it was after ten o'clock when we started out, we probably made around thirty-five miles for the day. The two mules carrying the gold didn't seem to mind the load at all. It was only about thirty pounds each.

Sam: Day 15 of the Dayton to St Joseph trip

Sweet relief. We slept late, at least as late as Becky would let me sleep, got up and had a leisurely breakfast, then just lazed around. We were just outside Decatur, Illinois, so right after breakfast, Andy said he was going into town to see if they could hire some cooks. Rawhide decided he was going to go with him.

Andy and Rawhide were gone most of the day. Stu had a couple of riders circling the herd and making sure they didn't stray too far, but everyone else just relaxed. Stu rotated his men every two hours, so everyone got a chance to rest up.

It was late afternoon when Andy and Rawhide came back with two young men. Both of them looked to be sixteen or seventeen years old. Andy introduced them as Walt and Ray Wagoner.

"These are our new cooks?" I asked.

"No, I don't think I'd trust their cooking," Andy grinned and both boys grinned as well. "Chaps Lawson and Ward Bender have said they wouldn't mind cooking though and these boys claim to be cowboys."

"Our pa has a ranch, ma'am," Walt said. "We grew up working cattle."

"Is your pa okay with you going to Oregon?" I asked them.

"He fought it a mite," Walt said. "He finally gave in when we told him we were going anyway. Ray and me have been talking about going for a couple of years now."

Andy took them off to introduce them to Stu while Rawhide went to tell Chaps and Ward what their new duties were. I hoped the men liked their new cooks. I was sure Mina and Maddy were going to like having fewer people to cook for.

Tuesday, March 21, 1848

Ed: Day 2 of the Boston to St Joseph trip

We stayed in an ordinary last night and we were up early this morning. We had finished breakfast and were on the road before it was completely light outside. The country we were traveling through was fairly mountainous, but we managed to keep to the valleys and we made good time.

We stopped for the night at a tavern on the eastern shore of the Connecticut River. Carrying the gold in saddlebags wasn't that bad at all. Before we left on our trip last year, thirty pounds of gold would have just about brought me to my knees. Now, I carried it like it was five pounds of sugar. Neither of the women had any problem with their fifteen pound loads.

We had Brunswick Stew for supper. I had never had it before and it was wonderful. We spent the entire meal trying to figure out everything that was in it, but I'm sure we missed a lot.

The bed we shared was one of the best we'd been in since we came back to this time. There was a corn shuck mattress on a rope bed. On top of that was a feather bed. It was a little soft for my taste, but Cassie and Kate were thrilled.

Sam: Day 16 of the Dayton to St Joseph trip

Back on the road again. Actually I felt very good this morning. I know I was smiling as Becky nursed at my breast. Delia sat and watched. "I think I'll be happy having a baby if nursing it is as good as you think it is," she said.