Part 13 (2/2)

”He can if he wants to walk all the way.”

Tad breathed, ”I'm goin' to walk, too! Can I shoot a buffalo, Pa? Can I?”

Joe said good humoredly, ”For pete's sake, we're not out of Missouri yet--we haven't even started--and you talk of buffalo! Can't you wait until we see some?”

”Do you think we'll have Indian fights, Pa?” Tad asked breathlessly.

”We won't if I can help it.” Joe was suddenly sober. ”Tad, you and I have to be the men on this trip. You know that?”

”I know it, Pa! I know it and I'll do everything I can to help! Honest!

Can I go tell Buster Trevelyan?”

”Sure.”

With a wild whoop, Mike racing beside him, Tad was away. Joe picked up the mule bridle and glanced at the mules. They were standing together, nibbling each other with their lips. The mules usually quarreled over which was going to get the most of the choicest food, but they were genuinely fond of each other and Joe supposed that was a good thing too.

Mules, hybrids that had no future because they were incapable of reproducing their own kind, must feel desperately frustrated at times.

A meadow lark sang from the top of the fence and Joe answered it, imitating almost perfectly the bird's sweet call. The meadow lark called again and Joe talked back to it. He wondered if there would be meadow larks in Oregon and hoped wistfully that he would find them there for they were a totem bird, a symbol of good luck. Nothing could be too bad as long as there was a meadow lark about. Joe had always fought against killing them for any reason, though now and again some of his neighbors shot or snared some to eat.

Joe answered a bobwhite that called from a corner of brush, and a red-winged blackbird that perched on a swaying reed down near the creek.

He had always cherished a secret desire to play a fiddle, or almost any kind of musical instrument, but he'd never been able to do it. His one talent, besides farming, was imitating bird calls and he enjoyed himself with those. Yancey Garrow, who could play the fiddle, had even said he'd trade that for Joe's ability.

A pang a.s.sailed Joe when he looked again at his raided fields, but it was the ache any good farmer would feel when good crops are destroyed.

He no longer felt completely in tune with these fields; they'd lost their power to hold him and make him do their bidding. Joe's thoughts remained on Oregon, and the constant urge to be doing something must be devoted to making that trip a success.

He took the bridle to the barn and carefully hung it on its proper peg.

When his eyes strayed over the harness, which was kept in the barn except when the mules were working every day, he noted a frayed tug strap and knew that he would have to replace or repair it before they started. There'd be few leather shops on the Oregon Trail and they'd be far apart. Because it was part of his nature to want everything the way it should be, he cleaned acc.u.mulated litter out of the mules' stalls.

All summer long, night and day, the mules were in the pasture, and it never occurred to Joe that he'd done a useless bit of work because the mules wouldn't be in their stalls this winter.

The younger children were playing in the yard, and Joe entered the house to find Emma alone. Lost in thought, she was standing at the stove, touching it here and there as though to memorize the feeling of it. She swung around guiltily when she heard Joe behind her.

”You gave me a start,” she said.

”You won't like leaving the stove behind?”

”It's a good stove,” she said defiantly. ”But my grandmother didn't have one, and she got along just fine. I guess I can, too.”

Joe sighed, and his eyes moved around the room to other things that would be left behind.

Seeing him Emma stamped her foot. ”One thing I know, Joe Tower. I'm not going to eat myself up regretting all the things we can't take with us.

Those are _things_, not people. The people we love best, our own children, are going to be right with us. So let's not get all in a fuss about any old stove.”

He chuckled. Then, seeing the slight quiver of her lips, he spoke softly. ”But also let's not do too much pretending that things don't bother us when they really do. It's a good stove, and you'll miss it.”

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