Chapter 14

There's no accounting for taste I guess. A man and his wife who were with us thought Ft Kearny was a wonderful place to live. Somehow they made a deal for an empty not quite shanty that came with a homestead's hundred and sixty acres and damned if the fellow wasn't already plowing his new lower forty. His place was pretty handy since his land was right on the edge of town and stretched close enough so his house could still be near others. He was probably going to do a bang up business with garden truck if he had sense enough to raise mostly that.

He was back talking to Jack this afternoon though, explaining why he wasn't going the rest of the way and also trying to see if Jack knew anyone with gold that might be interested in another wagon. Since Jack had figured out that I had the most gold around he came to me first.

"I don't know Jack, I've got a lot of wagons to look after now and if I take on another one I'll have to hire a driver for it. I can afford that but damned if I can think of who it would be or what I need another wagon for," I said.

"I already know of a good driver you can hire cheap, in fact you know him pretty well. He's been minding his manners lately though since the dust up he got into with the Brown's."

"You ain't talking about that other Jimmy are you? The one that I tied naked to the wagon wheel?"

"Yep. Young Jimmy finally got him some pussy, and damned if Cara Brown's daddy didn't catch him at it. They're married now and Jimmy needs a job awfully bad. It might not be the best hire you could make, but the nighttime wandering is over with. Cara is providing his pussy now and they do seem to get along fine. He'd probably work for little or nothing," Jack said.

"Well that ain't what bothers me Jack. I don't work folks cheap just because I can. If I need them and can pay them I don't try to get 'em to do something for nothing. If I ain't got the money to pay them right I just don't hire them. I either do it myself or it goes without doing.

"I got the money though and I'd hate to start holding it against boys that came up with hard dicks. If I make a deal for the wagon I'll give him a try. He'd better be hitched good to his new wife though, because his bride could end up a widow fast if he gets up to his old tricks after dark," I said.

"I ain't speaking up for him about that, but I don't think it'll come up. Cara Brown is a good-looking young girl and she's got plenty of the right equipment to do the job he wants done. Hell, she's even a good cook," Jack said.

About an hour later I made a deal with John Joseph. He'd had two wagons and two teams plus six extra mules. He only sold me one wagon though, and twelve of the mules. The wagon he sold me was a little bigger than normal and he'd used it to bring a lot of his farming equipment. It would work out fine for the purpose Jack had mentioned though, more than fine. That was if things worked out right. At least he sold it all dirt-cheap. It only cost me five hundred dollars, but there wasn't one speck of anything in it.

Helen and Mary wondered why I wanted to buy and empty wagon but Charlie and Nadine figured it out right away.

"You plannin' on pickin' up a few of the leavings along the way?" Charlie asked, and grinned.

"I don't see where it would hurt any and if there's nothing I want I can just leave it where it is. The wagons might not be worth much when we get where we're going, but they didn't cost much either. I'm pretty sure we can find a use for the mules no matter how many we come up with."

"You ain't got to worry about nothing to pick up along the way. There'll be plenty and some of it will be good stuff. People that take this trip only do it once, so just about everybody that heads out here brings too much along with 'em. The things they have to leave are usually some of their nicest but if it's a choice between food and water or furniture and clothes and dishes they almost always leave the furniture.

"This train ain't as bad as most because Jack just didn't let 'em leave out with stuff he knew already wouldn't make the whole trip. That ain't always the case though and I'm bettin' you'll be proud of that big wagon before much longer. You'll probably wish you had two or three.

"Hell, iffen you can read you'll find more books than you'd ever be able to get done with. Some of 'em bring a pretty penny on the other end of the line too, least they did last time I was out there, but it was a long time ago," Charlie said.

"I just hope the rest of the trip don't turn into day after day of shopping for what's been left behind. Still, free stuff is free stuff and there ain't no doubt somebody wanted every bit of it at one time. I'm gonna go see about hiring us another Jimmy. The one that I had to tie naked to the wagon wheel that time."

"Good boy now. Wife he got cured his worries. He drive wagon good too," Nadine said.

It didn't take long to find the young Romeo and I met his wife too. She was a looker with nice big titties and a sweetly rounded ass. Jimmy looked as if he thought I was coming to kick his ass again but when I told him what I'd pay it was hard to get him to stop thanking and promising.

"You'll need to take care of and drive a wagon that's empty now. I feed my hands and their women too, and if you want you can live in the wagon, but I'm buying it for a reason and if it gets full along the way you might have to sleep under it to make room," I said.

Since he and his young bride were sleeping under his parent's wagon now it didn't slow them down a bit, or if it did they didn't let on. They rushed off to gather what little they had and move it into their new temporary home.

Charlie had been hanging around while I made the deal with Jimmy the poon-tang boy and his new wife and he ambled over when they went off to gather whatever they'd be bringing.

"You're gathering up a young train of your own now ain't'che?"

"Well, they all seemed like good ideas at the time."

"If your pocket book cans stand the strain of the extra drivers it is a good idea. Hell, it wouldn't hurt none if you come up on another wagon. T'wouldn't even need no more mules, hell we gots thirty spares by now to go along with the forty-eight we use ever day."

"If there's as much stuff throwed off by the side of the road as you say I don't guess it would hurt. Hell, even Honey and Helen have learned to drive by now and I've seen Rebecca, Elizabeth, and even Mary trying to catch on too. I'm just wondering if the things we might find can really be worth the effort. I'm sure a lot of it has been ruined by the weather by now."