Chapter 21

The following morning I awoke, still feeling tired and lazy, thinking I would just lay there and cuddle with my wives.

Suddenly, I heard the front door slam open, and what seemed like a stampede to the front of the house awaking all of my wives. Immediately, they all turned pale, and rushed out of the house to be sick.

I thought, 'Well, there goes my idea of some early morning playtime.'

Getting dressed, I went out to see what all the racket was.

I found the boys out in the front room watching my wives be sick among the bushes. The boys were looking very concerned.

I said, "It's nothing to be real worried about. The girls aren't really sick. They have what is called 'morning sickness', because they're all going to have babies.

Standing Bear looked at his mother and said, "Mom, are you okay? Are you really going to have another baby?"

"Yes, Standing Bear, we should all have babies in the coming spring."

I then checked, "Are all of you ladies okay?"

"We will be okay. Just give the few minutes to get over the nausea than we should be okay to make breakfast soon because you have a long day ahead of you."

"Is that so? Just what plans do you ladies have for me, today?"

"Winter will soon be here. You, and other men need to hunt. You should help stockpile meat and other foods for the winter, when it is hard to hunt. You should also get with Red Cloud, to make sure everything is okay at the Indian camp for winter. Red Cloud may also want to send out hunting parties, to make sure everything is ready for winter," Dawn said.

"You're probably right. After breakfast, I'll go up to the Main House, and talk with uncle Henry to find out how things have been. We have been gone most of the last couple of months, so there's bound to be a lot of things to do. I'm just dreading the ribbing he's going to give me about all you ladies being pregnant at the same time."

She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, "You're not happy to have babies in the spring?"

Quickly pulling her into a hug I said, "No! I'm very happy that you're all going to have babies. The thing I will not been happy about, is the teasing I'll receive from Uncle Henry. He keeps telling me about wanting to have a lot of kids running around the place."

Giggling she said, "Then you need to tease him right back. I'm not sure she's told him yet, but Morning Dove is also going to have another baby in the spring."

I couldn't help it! I just started laughing thinking that this was a chance to get a little payback on Grandpa. Pretty soon all the girls were looking at me with puzzled expressions, so I stopped and explained how much he had laughed at me each time I had gotten married, and how he thought it was up to me to repopulate the ranch. Now it was time for me to give him a dose of his own medicine.

I was still chuckling as we left the cabin, and walked toward the Main House. After going inside, we discovered the family was just finishing breakfast, so we stayed to have a cup of coffee with them.

I decided to bait Grandpa a bit so I said, "Guess what, Uncle Henry? Come spring, I am about to become a father!"

He started laughing and said, "That's great, which one is the lucky mother?"

I looked at him and said, "All of them!"

This started him laughing so hard that he fell off his chair. I turned to my grandmother and said, "Aunt Dove, don't you have something you want to tell him?"

She looked at me and smiled and said, "Stop laughing, you old fool! Clay's not the only one is going to become a father in the spring."

This sobered Grandpa right up. His laughter suddenly stopped.

He looked at Morning Dove and said, "You mean ... you're going to have another baby?"

"Yup. Sometime in April, little Jacob will no longer be the baby of the family. I think he'll probably have a little brother."

Right after she said this Rose, Sally and my wives all gathered around her and started making plans for the new babies.

So I turned to Grandpa and said, "Congratulations! I see I'm not the only one who is going to be populating the ranch."

He chuckled and said, "She really surprised me, this time. I thought Jake would be my last one. I'm getting up there in age, you know."

"Oh, you're not so old. What are you now fifty-three, fifty-four? And Aunt Dove, she's only in her late thirties, right?"

"I'm a little older than you thought. I'll be sixty in May, and Dove just turned forty-two last month."

"Wow! Neither of you look it. It must be all that good food, and all the exercise you get from working on the ranch."

Then I told him that instead of going out on another circuit through the towns the girls had told me that I needed to go do some hunting for the winter. Furthermore, that I should check to see how Red Cloud's coming along and make sure they had no problems there.

"You know, I hadn't thought of that? The Indians don't really care that much for beef. They would much rather have wild game. I know that Red Cloud hasn't sent out many hunting parties, due to the trouble after Custer. I just thought I would help supplement them with a few steers. It might be a good idea to see if Red Cloud might want to come with us, with a few of his braves, hunting."

Seeing that all the women were still talking excitedly, we let them know where we were going, and left them do their planning.

Shortly after riding into the Indian camp, we found Red Cloud sitting around the fire with several of the other older braves, discussing things. After we greeted him. He invited us to sit and join the discussion. We sat and listened for a few minutes, not wanting to just raise the suggestion about hunting right away. We knew how the Indians hated to be rushed, and that any decision should be discussed in detail first. Finally, after things calmed down, we told him that we were going to go hunting for a few days. We invited him, and some of his braves, to come along.