Chapter 2

day 18

As soon as we woke and finished the stew from the night before. We prepared for the trail and left. I made certain to not forget the coins. We carried little food, enough for two days. We barred the door behind us.

Two days downstream brought us to the shore. A halfday North along the shore saw us overlooking New Portsmouth. Inside the door of the rooming house was a pair of tanned ears on a plaque. I traded grins with my sisters. We took a single room for the night, scandalizing the hostess until I mentioned "We sleep together". Her eyes lit a little, I think. We bathed and went to the ordinary for dinner Small Ear did not wish to come in with us. Mary and I called out "We Eat Together!" and reached out for her hands. She smiled and walked in with us. Every eye in the house was looking at us. I looked around the room, finding the keeper. I nodded at him and we took a table near the fire. We ordered chicken pies and small beer. After a day without food it was grand. We complimented the keeper on his board and asked about breakfast. It was served an hour after daylight. I paid our till and we left.

I had to find the scow before we could fill it. We scoured the docks. We had no luck. A carpenter said that he could bang one together in two days if we could pay for it. I agreed and left him half of the four gold he asked. It would be twenty feet long and five wide, with three foot sides. We retired for the night.

day 22

We dressed and went lightly armed. We breakfasted at the ordinary and made our way through down the street.

We wandered around the mercantile and redrew our lists in our heads. I knew our family had part interest in the store. I wondered if we could get credit for our goods rather than use all our gold at once. I talked it over with my sisters. We decided it would not hurt to try.

I asked to speak with the owner. A young man came out from the back and looked at me curiously. I said that I was the son of Katherine and Duncan Stuart, and my sisters Mary and Samantha were with me. He looked away at nothing for a moment, then asked who else was with us. I said Small Ear and he smiled and nodded. I asked if we could have credit on the family. He appeared fearful for a flash, then asked how much. I said perhaps a hundred pounds worth with ease. The poor man flinched and said yes, if I would write a letter to my mother which he would have delivered. I agreed.

I wrote the requested letter, stating what we saw and why we left, and requested that father not be told, nor Clancy. I told her of the coin we found in the larder and explained why we requested credit. I wrote that we would see her after freeze out and to please watch father. We each signed the letter and sealed it. The factor appeared much happier. Something was amiss.

"You know, do you not, that if any except my mother receives that letter we shall be very unhappy with you. If you tell us that we cannot trust you, we shall simply go away. If you seek to deceive us your skin shall decorate the wall."

He sighed and looked to all of us.

"No-one else would I believe of that but your family. You have my word."

We relaxed and began filling lists. We had all but the anvil. In its exchange we arranged for a barrel of hams and a barrel of bacon, as well as fifty pounds of salt. We also purchased twenty pounds of wax, a twenty gallon barrel of dried apples and twenty gallons of lamp oil. All in all nearly 160 pounds worth. We were lucky to find four good hooded oilskin capes which would wrap about us and tie off to keep off the weather. Those we took with us.

All else would be delivered under canvas to the docks the next morning.

We walked into the ordinary only to find disaster. A large man was horse-whipping a red-haired girl. She was bleeding copiously from her back which was bare to his blows. She was crying out and scrabbling to get away from him as he lashed her. Two other men, equally large sat back in chairs, goading him on. The keeper was no-wheres to be found. This was not acceptable. The man with the lash caught my hatchet in the center of his chest. The edge of the steel on my staff caught him low across the belly, pouring his guts out upon the floor.

While I dealt with the one, my three sisters walked up behind the seated pair. My sisters cut the throats of the pair like hogs. The lurched to their feet and fell over, gasping and choking. It soon was quiet except for the girl weeping amid the gore beneath the table. We soon had her atop the table and were washing her back with clean water. She would be sick for days with a fever after such a terrible whipping. I called for my sisters to run and get the proprietress of the rooming house while I stayed with the girl. They soon returned, armed to the teeth and bearing my arms as well. Soon the widow followed with two men in tow. She brought cloths and linament. The men brought a stretcher. We all returned to her rooming house. From there I had a man sent to inform the owner of the mercantile that we would be delayed a week and not to risk the supplies upon the dock until called for.

day 30

We nursed the girl until we thought her able to travel. Lillian had no where else to go and wished to be with us. I arranged for the supplies to be loaded into the scow along with four good bear skins to keep everyone warm and comfortable, four pints of laudanum and five gallons of sweet oil to dress her back.

We made good on our accounts and left.

It took a single day to travel to the mouth of the stream, yet a full three days later we finally hove to near the cabin. It was sleeting and snowing off and on during the entire trip. I feared that the weather had turned for the season It stayed below freezing thruout the trip. We left the load covered and slept warm for the first night in a while.

day 31

We made Lillian as comfortable as possible and unloaded the scow. It took two days of steady work to move the barrels and other goods to the spare room. It being unheated the food should last.

day 33

I feel ready to crawl into a hole and drag in the dirt behind me. I never knew cutting wood was so hard. I have cut three trees today and dragged them to camp with the aid of Small Ear. Enough for now.

day 40

It gets no better. This shall be a very, very long winter.

day 45

The spots before my eyes are leaving. It is hard work, yet I do not still wish to die at the end of the day. Mary looks concerned whenever she looks at me. Samantha just keeps busy. Lillian talks little and rests much. The snow falls thickly.

day 56

We have guests! A hunting party of Pottawatomie have shown up at our door. They are tall and strong. I shall ask if they would trade tree-chopping for gold. As I am not come into my growth it is murderous work for me.

day 57

There is a merciful God. They agreed to fill the manger with cut wood for a gold. Samantha has earned a camp name from them. They call her little bee for the way she flits about doing things, never resting. They are tired from their labors. I do not feel so bad about dropping in my tracks now. We eat quickly and sleep.

day 61

The manger is full. I pay the warriors with a great gold coin, large enough to cover a grown man's palm. They promise to return in two moons and cut more. Life is now not so urgent. I can go out and cut wood at a gentler pace.

day 62

We have been sitting upon the cabin floor long enough. I can now take the time to build benches and tables. We have benches two boards wide about the room by dusk. One or two could easily sleep upon each of them.

day 63

I am about to take on building a table. We built it upside-down. I measured the nails so that they would not go through the surface and twist them between pliers so that they would hold. We glued the spreaders and nailed them firm. We had a top. For the supports we fashioned X's at each end. Then we tied them together with boards high and low. It swayed as a ship at sea until we affixed slanted boards to block the sway. We took it all apart, glued it up and hammered it together. It too all of us to lift the top into place. The cross-ties holding the top together fit within the frame so that the top would not move about even under duress. The women commenced smoothing the top with stones. The planks were two inches thick. I do not think that they would rub through them any time soon.

day 65

Boxes looked simple. They would provide seats as well as storage. We talked over what size to make them. Shoulder's width wide and knee high, yet how deep? Our boards were almost two feet wide. I used that as my measure. If I worked within the size of the boards I had then there would be less work ahead of me.

Cutting the wood was the hardest part. It had been sitting dry for nearly ten years. We managed, though. The final gluing and nailing was simple. A simple hide hinge sufficed. We finished one box for each of us.

day 68

I sit before the lamp filing edges upon the axes. Once they are properly shaped I shall stone them smooth so that they bite the wood easily and cleanly. Simple work now eases rough work later. We sit and talk, my sisters and I. All four are my sisters. I am too young to claim mates as I cannot satisfy a woman. We have had much good fortune that I may provide for them in my way. Even though we live from the fortune of our family I believe it says much that we are alive this day to speak of it. I am quietly thankful in my labors.

day 74

Another guest arrived, much unexpected. Our Aunt Caroline somehow found her way to our cabin. She was white with cold and heavily burdened. We took her in and chafed her warm again. She bore a letter from our mother and news herself of the village. She agreed with us that something was wrong with the actions of our father.

He would sit staring at nothing for hours, his hands trembling, then jerk out of his fit and be normal again. None wished to be near him as his actions were unpredictable. Mother had sat with several of the grandmothers to ask if such behavior was known to them. Someone was poisoning father with jimson weed and mushrooms. It could go on for years yet it would sap his body and destroy his liver. He was strong, being a blacksmith and did not drink. This was for the best to aid the length of life.

He was rational yet. We resolved that a letter to him may trigger his natural suspicions and dig out the poisoner.

We labored long over the text of that letter. We said little of love but much of lessons learned. We spoke of new faces in the kitchen and a wish for things to return to the way they were. We wrote that we were but children yet and asked if it were truly his wish to abandon us.

We listed his observed symptoms and the list of ingredients that the grandmothers thought might be used to cause them. We closed with a prayer for his health and sanity. We signed under "We Suffer Together".

Our aunt left after leaving us with fifty more coin--all that she could secret from the village. All in all, we were thunderstruck. Our aunt was not such an old may apple after all.

Day 78

Lillian was up and about, though weak from her bed rest. A twice daily application of sweet oil upon her scars kept them soft and flexible so her motions were little hindered.

She was sixteen and had been sold into servitude for the debts of her family, now dead. She refused to open her legs to the animal that bought her claim. He promised to whip her to death if she would not satisfy him.

I thought it odd that none would stop such grevious treatment in all of New Portstown. Much would be accounted for come spring.

We went hunting as a team. Mary had sewn blanket wool into long over shirts and canvas into over shirts to cover the wool. Small Ear knew the tricks to stitching warm boots from heavy hide and hanks of wool. We went out to find deer. We found elk. The thing was huge! Three steel cutting heads driven ahead of maple flights did the monster in. It took all five of us and the use of another tree as a cinch block to lift the carcass high enough to bleed it. We would be working at tanning that hide the rest of the winter. It was tent-sized on its own.

Butchering the carcass was messy, bloody work. I stripped down and dove in with my belt axe, gutting the body and severing the spine. When I finished they gave me a snow bath to clean me of the blood. They had much too much fun freezing me alive with handsfulls of snow. We drug the meat back to the cabin a quarter at a time, leaving Small Ear behind to guard the rest of the carcass from the predations of hunting animals. It drug easily upon the crusty snow.

We knew that we could not eat it all nor preserve it before the meat went sour. It would keep as well as we could in the cold if we kept it away from the heated portion of the cabin. We hung three of the quarters high in a tree.

day 83

Elk stew with potatoes and carrot is a savory dish, yet any food palls after a few days. My sisters chided me, reminding me of my rounded belly and the snow outside. Many were less fortunate and not a great distance away. This reminded me of the Pottawatomie. I would seek them out the next day and offer them half the elk. If mother could cast bread upon the waters the so could we.

day 84

Mary insisted on coming with me. I could not refuse as she had little opportunity to leave the cabin and was slowly going mad within its walls.

It was nearly half a day's travel away yet the trail was clear and open. If not for the snow we could have run it at full speed. We came upon their camp near midday. We smiled, remembering the tales of our mother and father, describing the old shaman and his actions. I prepared myself and howled out my best Scottish war cry that my young butt could bring forth. The camp went silent and heads popped up from everywhere. We were surrounded in smiling faces in no time.

The tribe had shrunk back to something like its original numbers after ours had left the area. Some thirty to forty people lived here now. Our offer of meat would not feed them all, but with so many mouths to feed any was a help. They grew much squash and corn to eat and sent out groups to fish with nets. We sat and talked with the old chief for the rest of the day. We were not alarmed near these people. They were friends.

The group that had come and cut our wood came to visit. We slapped backs and greeted each other warmly. We compared arms with the warriors and laughed with the chief that we could probably chew thru a tree faster with arms like ours. I said that the Iroquois had already named me Jawbreaker. He whooped and said that my sister must be little beaver. She turned red and smacked him in the arm with a fist. I just laughed. We knew that little beaver had more than one meaning.

We ate with them and slept in the chief's wickiup that night. We left in the morning with the warriors behind us to get the meat. The chief gave us bags of garlic and pepper for the meat. I think that if he could he would make us his grandchildren.

day 85

again near noon, we found the cabin. Our home looked good to us. Then I knew why our mother and father loved the place as they did. My sister agreed.

Our friends took the meat and refusing dinner started back the trail to their camp, promising to return in a moon to cut more wood. I promised that the axes would be sharp and ready.

The scent of garlic soon spiced the elk stew. It was marvelous after the cold. Mary was in good spirits again and we all were better for it.

day 87

We strove for things to do to keep busy. we cleared the floor and practiced our sword work. Samantha was coming into some growth and was a bit clumsy. We went back to sticks for a while both for strength and quickness. Lillian expressed an interest, as did Little Ear. Soon we had daily practices. Our arms and wrists grew thick and strong.

We practiced throwing the belt axe as mother had asked. We set up a stump before the cabin and made a game of it. Throwing from different distances at a mark soon became a game we enjoyed, though the first few times of searching out a blade hidden beneath the snow became very old very fast. We learned to stamp down the snow behind the target after every snow before throwing.

We started Lillian learning the throwing stick as well. We did not laugh at her blunders, remembering full well our difficulties learning this skill. Instead we held her up to a goal of taking her first deer.

day 100

The elk was gone, thank the very God. Please never tell my sisters but if I ever eat elk again it will be too soon. There are only so many things one can do to elk meat. Giving it away is one of them.

The belt axes were bouncing off of the target. It was time to bring out the file again and work them into proper shape. It seemed a signal, for soon all were sitting about the table polishing and sharpening knives and anything else that needed an edge. Our conversation made a --dull-- task enjoyable.

•day 103

For want of anything else to do, I suggested exploring the old smithy. The old bath house had fallen to ruin. With the goal of getting clean I proposed that if we could sweep out the smithy and build a quick fire we could scrape clean. Soon we were shoveling and brooming away, brushing down the rafters and walls. I heard a rough noise as I was digging out the ash pile. Samantha dug in with a vengeance to see what I had found. There were four small axe heads that had been dropped in the ash to cool and forgotten. We also found a set of blacksmith's tongs. The heads were rough yet and needed much file work, yet it gave us each a belt axe and three spares.

After cleaning the room from top to bottom we laid a large fire in the pit and set it alight. Soon we were sweating so we stripped and scraped each other with wooden splits. It worked surprisingly well. Small Ear described using hot stones in this manner and quenching them in water to give steam, yet the pit must be clean. Such a fire pit as we had at the time would cover us with ash and cinders unless dug out and relined with stone. We would attempt it at first thaw when the stone became available. For now we had a place for our woodcutters to ease their muscles after their labors.

day 104

We went out to cut small bush willow switches to string into mats for the floor of the old smithy. We could use cordage to tie them into flat mats. They would keep naked feet from the ice-cold stone and dirt.

day 107

The mats were done. We also cut spare flights when we were out. Before laying the mats we needed to dig a second fire pit within the smithy to heat the rocks. A shovel could be used to move the hot stone and the light of the fire should fend off any accidents with them. We dug out the fire pit as well as the larger pit to take a stone lining.

day 115

The days were short and the skies were bleak. Samantha was pacing and grumbling. It was time to make her happy. I remembered the whitewash! We had a painting party. we used canvas to cover everything and brushed down the walls to bring down everything that would come down. Then we slapped the oily white mess over the ceiling and walls. Lillian whispered into Mary's ears and she smiled wide. She asked that we save a bit of the whitewash and slipped out the door with our hand saw. She soon returned with red cheeks and a double handful of disks sawn from a young tree, some inch and a half across. She asked that half of them be painted white. My eyes opened wide. Checkers. We could play checkers! After the canvas came off the furniture we scribed an 8 X 8 grid of 2 X 2 squares into one end of the tabletop. A little ink within the lines gave us a serviceable checkerboard. Soon we were off to the races in our newly brightened cabin. It was quite fun.

Little Ear was very interested. She had never seen checkers before. We had fun teaching her. Now I knew what to give the chief at our next meeting.

day 120

Our woodcutting party came again. We greeted them fondly and welcomed them within. They were surprised at the changes in the cabin. It was bright and cheery and had high wide benches about the walls to sleep upon. We saw lots of teeth in their faces. We began a good stew in a large kettle while they went out to cut down trees. We stacked a huge pile of dry wood inside beside the fireplace, as much as would fit in the corner of the cabin, so that we could use dry, seasoned wood to start the winter-dry, unseasoned wood which still had some water in it.

After a long day of tree-chopping and hauling they came in dragging their butts. We had the smithy fire warmed up for them and got them well-fed. They dropped right off.

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