Chapter 20: The Village of Janesville is Born

Early in the morning Hild woke and the first thing she saw was the pair of us sitting by her cot. She just burst out crying, and sobbing. "Chally our baby is dead, I'm sorry."

"Please don't worry sweetheart, as long as you are OK that is what matters. We want you to rest and get better soon," I reassured her.

She sobbed herself back to sleep.

We were that tired that we just lay on top of the bed with all our clothes on, and threw the other opened sleeping-bag over ourselves. Sleep slowly came, and I was soon in a deep sleep for the remainder of that day and night.

"Come on you lazy bones, get up. I have prepared breakfast," Hild said shaking us.

I shot straight up. "What are you doing up you should be resting?"

"Why, what good will lying in bed do?" Came back the reply.

What could I answer to that? We got up off the bed, went outside, splashed some cold water on our faces, cleaned out teeth, and returned into the cabin.

Hild had tidied up the living area, returned the sleeping-bag to the bedroom and was sitting at the table eating her breakfast of porridge. It looked like the Hild of old had returned.

"Please, if you are going to get up, take it easy for the next few days, I don't want you to hurt yourself," I said and went over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"I will, but please don't fuss over me," she said.

With that the matter was closed, and we continued to eat our breakfast. The other three entered and they didn't seem too concerned when they saw Hild sitting at the table, they just helped themselves to the porridge and ate it.

After breakfast and everything was tidied up, we went outside and near where the clay pit was we built a bonfire with all the timber that was lying around. Placed the small body on it and cremated it. No weeping, no tears were shed by the others, only by Marjorie and me.

It was decided on two things. We would drag to the centre of the clearing, all the useless limbs and loose branches lying around our new village site, and burn the lot. Also I was going to move the van over near to where the ammunition dump had been. (Already checked there was no munitions left lying around) This was to be the site that Northhelm had decided on. We were going to build the houses around the clearing leaving the centre as a traditional English common.

So for the rest of the day, until midafternoon we created a huge bonfire with the fallen branches and any other flammable item we didn't want.

The bison had been completely forgotten, but when I went to get the truck to tow the van I remembered it. We pulled it off the back and the women started to skin and butcher the carcass.

Then using the truck and Marjorie steering the van, we towed the van to its temporary site at the other side of the clearing. This took little time even after emptying the cab into the trailer with all the items we had stored there.

While skirmishing for the bonfire, we found our old 44-gallon hot water system. It was a little out of shape but we battered it into shape again mounted it on to its old base. We moved it closer to the cabin, and lit a fire under it, first of course, checking that it would hold water. This would save putting all the pots on the fire in the cabin and allow more heat to radiate into the cabin from the cabin fire.

At dusk we lit the big bonfire, and by dark it lit up the whole clearing making the surrounding wood seem even darker. The snow began melting from the branches of the trees and in a huge circle surrounding the fire. It was if we had created our own sun. The grass, which had been covered with snow, seemed to be growing in front of our eyes as the snow melted.

To the south I saw the dying embers of the fire we had lit in the morning. I went down to it and pushed all the branches that had not burnt into the fire, which immediately burst into life. I could see no signs of the babies' remains. I returned to the cabin.

That night in bed, we just lay and hugged one another. All Hild said was we will have another baby soon, and this time it had to be a boy. She seemed to get over the loss far better than Marjorie and I had.

The next morning Northhelm and I grabbed the saws and axes and walked to the pine tree outcrop. We had decided that we would spend the morning felling as many as we could and then the afternoon trimming the felled timber.

During the early afternoon I heard distinct gunfire, twice I heard two shots being fired in close formation. The only person I could think of whom would be shooting was Marjorie. She never mentioned that she was going to use her weapons, but then they were after all her guns anyway.

While we were at it, we stacked all the branches we cut off that were of no practical use to us, and set them on fire as we left the clearing. To day we had felled about thirty trees, there were many more there. But it did open a bit more of this clearing, and exposed a lot more loose rocks.

On returning to the main clearing, the women greeted us. Hanging on the roof of the cabin were two pheasants, and two fat grouse. So it had been Marjorie I heard.

"I was getting fed up of bison and deer meat, and thought a piece of game would go down fine," she told me, when she saw me looking at the birds.

"I want you to make me an oven, can you do that," she asked.

"I don't know! How about a barbecue? I can build one of those," I replied.

Then I remembered the old metal ammunition box that was about fifteen inches square. This ammunition box didn't have a hinge so to speak; it had two square rings that allowed the box to close and open without loosing the lid.

"Yes I think I can, now that I think of it," I told her. "But it will be a small one," I added.

I then went and picked up the ammunition box, where I had placed the items we had skirmished and brought the box to Marjorie.

"If I knock a couple of small holes in the side it would allow the steam to escape when you are cooking something, when the lid is closed. With a piece of wire, connecting to the two catches, it could be used as handles to lift open the lid. It would be functional until I got the range installed, which has four ovens and four cooking rings with lids. The oven could sit on the fire grill and work from there," I told her.

"Yes, try that and I will give it a try." She answered.

I made the alterations I mentioned and returned with the box.

She took the box off me and went to try it out. For the first twenty minutes, the smell of burnt paint was strong, and the box was all blistered. We took it off the fire to the outside the cabin, and let it cool. The box was given a good scrubbing with sand to remove all signs of the paint. Once put on the fire this time, there was only the smell of heated metal.

The evening meal that night consisted of oven roasted meat. I was surprised at the amount that they had cooked in that small makeshift oven. This had only been an experimental attempt, but as far as I was concerned it was a success.

After the meal, we sat around and discussed the building of Northhelm's home and how he wanted it built.

He didn't want it sunk but just built like the water-tower, but the planks horizontal, not full thickness as the cabin was built. With two rooms and the fireplace built like this one. I told him we had no more wire mesh like this but there were iron tie rods on the wrecked vehicles we could use instead. So tomorrow we would take the truck and get the foundation stones and then get started on his home.

So with these plans in mind, we dispersed for the night.

We were able to take our sponge baths and there was enough warm water from our makeshift water heater. I poured the soiled water into the buckets from the bath sink and poured it down our old soak well. Then washed the buckets out, and refilled them.

The next morning everyone except Hild jumped on to the truck and we went and collected a load of flat slate rocks and took them back to the clearing.

The previous night we had sat and discussed what we would call our little village and we came up with the name of 'Janesville' in memory of Jane who we voted was the co-founder. We were to erect a sign to state the fact. Even though! Marjorie and I would be the only ones able to read the name.

This time we had a ball of string and we marked out the dimensions of Northhelm's new home. He was most modest and it wasn't quite as large as the cabin. The slate was laid as the foundation to about 6 inches high. I left sufficient slate I estimated we would need to build the fireplace. The surplus we dumped by the old site of the van.

We then drove back to the wood and brought a load of the timber we had cut the previous day to the lengths that Northhelm wanted and returned to the village. While Northhelm was using the adze and axe, trimming the posts to his requirement, I started splitting the logs.

When we had cut up the oak I had cut lengths of sufficient length that with the aid of the axe had shaped about two-dozen wedges. These were to be used to split the pine logs.

Once the log started to split by using an axe, a wedge was inserted and using the sledge-hammer to drive them in increased the split. As the log started to split further wedges were driven in and soon the whole log split. Ninety per cent of all the logs we split this way split neatly down the middle; it was then an easy matter with the aid of the adze to smooth the flat side more even. The edges were then taken off with adze or axe so the boards butted together more evenly.

I had done about ten logs this way when we heard someone call our names; the voices were coming from the Druids highway. We stopped what we were doing and looked in that direction.

Then up the slight incline rode Wiferth leading a pony and Eastorhyld following also leading a pony, both rode bareback and a single rope halter on the horses.

Has a week passed so quickly? They dismounted and advanced towards us, but I could see that they were curious about Eadburg, Sae and Northhelm.

"As you can see our village has grown since you left. This is the mother of Hild," I said as I pointed to Eadburg. "And this is Northhelm her husband, and Sae his other wife. I brought them here to help Hild have her baby, as you know she was sick when you left. She lost her child in childbirth. I have asked them to stay, to help build the village."

"I have told my people that I am now a member of your village, I have brought you a present of two horses, but with Eastorhyld's and mine we have a small herd. As you can see mine is a stallion and the others are mares," Wiferth told us all.

"We have given this village a name and from hence forth will be known as 'Janesville' in honour to Jane," I told them.

"What a wonderful honour to Jane!" They both replied.

"Unpack your things and put them in the cabin," I told them.

"We will hobble the horses; they are used to them and will not wander far," he told me.

We got on with the work we were doing, and soon Wiferth and Eastorhyld joined us. Northhelm didn't want any help, so Wiferth came and helped me. Soon we had the pile finished. We got into the truck and collected another load of the precut lengths. Unloaded them at the village and set about splitting these. Soon we had finished and waited for Northhelm.

"Northhelm is very good with the wood tools, I think that he will be a very good asset for the village. If he continues like this he will be making all our wooden appliances and furniture," I told Wiferth.

"My skill with wood is none existent. I was being trained in metalwork," he replied.

"There is plenty of metal lying around here," I said with a sweeping hand.

"It was bronze I worked with, but I will try to work with the grey metal. I will need a furnace to do this," he continued.

"We must try to make one for you but first we need to build you a home for yourself and Eastorhyld."

I had shaped a flat plank from a short length of wood and made it about one and a half inches thick, which I was going to burn our villages name on once we got near the fire.

We called it a day and made our way back to the cabin, me with the name board tucked under my arm, and carrying the tools in the other.

It was crowded in the cabin now with eight people and the sooner we got the homes built for the others the better it will be. So for the next ten days we cut timber and managed to get a home for our new members of the village. We also erected fencing to form a coral for the horses with a shelter. The fireplaces were built the same as the cabin but instead of the grid we managed to install two metal rods about six inches apart that spanned the fire to place pots on.

I burnt the name on to the board and it now stands proudly in the clearing.