Chapter 3

Carolyn and Jennifer stepped out of the General Store then and waved me over. I figured they had some things that needed loading so I drove the wagons over there and pulled along side the hitching racks.

I was right as rain and they had plenty to be put into the wagons. I was just happy I had tied them together because they had bought enough stuff to nearly fill both of them. What the hell, it was mostly food or things to cook with and I couldn't think of anything better to spend money on.

While I was stepping and fetching our stuff out to the wagon I noticed the two of them standing around near a gun case and talking. When I was through I asked them," Do you see anything else you can use?"

Suddenly they got shy and reluctant to talk and so I knew I was going to have to pry it out of them.

"Go ahead and speak up if you see something you want. It'll be too late after we're miles down the road," I said.

Carolyn finally bucked up her nerve and pointed out two pepperbox pistols in the display case. She said if I could teach the two of them how to load and shoot them they might just come in handy down the road.

Hell, they'd come in handy from the start since I was sue it would make them feel safer. I paid the forty dollars each for two of them and I even bought a black powder flask for each. Of course the bullet moulds came with them and I bought five pounds of lead which would be enough to make bullets for a small battle in a young war.

The girls didn't think of the next thing they needed to go around armed and dangerous, but I did right away. The store didn't have any holsters to fit the pistols, but after asking around they told us about a leather working shop in a store across the street.

We headed that was next and the old man in it said he could fix them a nice holster each to tie on just above their knees. I figured he just wanted a look at their legs, but it was mostly harmless so I had them lift their skirts so he could make a measurement.

After he had them measured we left and found a cafe for supper. It was crowded and a little rowdy inside but we took a table and when the girl came around we ordered steaks, beans, and mashed potatoes. It was good when it came and they even had some kind of apple cobler to finish it off with coffee.

After eating we went out and boarded our silly looking minature wagon train and I drove it to a liver stable where the owner said we could park the wagons beside his fence and he'd put the mules and horses up for two dollars a day. Since we had so many I figured it was a deal and took him up on it.

We were a;readu fed and ready to go to bed. We weren't quite ready for sleep yet, but after I rocked them both to two comes we naturally drifted right off to sleep.

It was just lucky as hell I had a good sized chamber pot in the wagon because the girls both needed to pee when we woke up of course. I dragged on my clothes and went outside to water a wagon wheel while they did their business.

They were dressed and ready to go soon enough and so we took off walking and found a cafe serving breakfast. As we ate out sausage and eggs it reminded the girls they needed to buy some eggs and sausage to take with us and after we paid our way out we took a walk down the street and found a place selling just what we needed.

They bought a basket of eggs, ten pounds of flour, five pounds of ground sausage, a sack of coffee, and some other fixins and we loaded it up in the wagons, I fetched the mules and hitched us up, hooking the tongue of one wagon to the back of the other again, and then we headed out.

Just as we were leaving town Carolyn called for me to stop at a bakery. The two of them went inside and came out with four loaves of freshly baked bread and then we headed on toward Kansas City.

The bakery wasn't our last stop though. Right on the edge of town there was a blacksmith shop and I could see the smith standing around looking like he needed something to do.

I pulled our rig up to stop in front of his shop and bailed off to see if he could help me out. We talked about it for ten minutesa nd he thought he could fix me up.

He heated up his forge and put in a three quarter in rod and when it was red hot he pulled it out and stated beating hell out of it on his anvil. He made a loop out of it and then attached it to the rear of the lead wagon and then he made a hook and attached it to the tongue of the second wagon. Once we had the two put together I paid the man and pulled out. It worked great and it was a lot better than trying to tie the two wagons together.

When I finally asked about the four loaves of bread Carolyn told me the tale. They'd bought a big ham at the general store and they were going to slice slabs off it and make sandwiches with the bread. We could just eat while driving down the road and it would save us a lot of time and bother

It's just what we did too and that night, when we pulled off to camp, they fried up all the bacon and all the eggs and what we didn't eat for breakfast the next morning they saved in a pie safe and fixed into sandwiches the next day. It was the best I'd ever eaten while traveling down the road and that ain't even mentioning the bixcuits they baked the next night and stuffed with ham and sausage the next day while we just rolled along watching the mules' asses.

We made it to Kansas City, found a hotel to stay in and a livery stable to park our wagons, mules, and horses and then we went to the school for the rest of us to meet Marilyn. She was the cutest little thing and I'd been right in my speculation. Her titties were catching her momma's fast and no doubt they would be bigger later.

No matter, they sat up high and proud on her chest already and I already knew I was the kind of step-father who'd be wanting to sample his younguns before long.

School was nearly out for the summer already and we decided to stay around a week and let her finish this year. She would be coming to the end of the tenth grad and she was already two years past my highest education.