Part 48 (1/2)
Ellis said, ”We never reached Laramie. The snow caught us close to that cabin under the knoll.” Joe remembered the cabin; they'd seen buffalo near it. Ellis finished, ”We had to spend the night there.”
An iron band tightened around Joe's heart. He gulped and wondered how he would tell this to Emma.
”No fireplace thar.” Snedeker a.s.serted. ”No wood nuther. How'd you keep warm?”
Ellis said, ”We spread buffalo robes on the floor, covered ourselves with others and lay together to keep each other warm.” He looked squarely at Joe. ”It was the only way.”
Their faces were weary. But somehow they were s.h.i.+ning and happy and there was only innocence written upon them. Joe's heart sank again.
Barbara edged very close to Ellis, took his arm, and laughed.
”We ate the rest of mother's lunch for breakfast. Daddy! Ham sandwiches for breakfast are wonderful if you're hungry enough!”
Joe said sympathetically, ”It must have been a terrible night.”
”Best night of my life.” Ellis smiled with his whole face. ”I asked Barbara again and this time she said yes.”
”Lordy, lordy,” breathed Jim Snedeker.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Spring
Spring was heralded by a soft and gentle south wind. It ruffled the pines and stooped to caress the s...o...b..nks. Crusted snow softened and water gathered in every little ditch and depression. Ice melted from Joe's log slide, leaving last year's dead gra.s.s brown and forlorn between s...o...b..nks. Walked on all winter, and getting the sun's full force for half a day, the snow in the cabin yard melted and the younger children could play there.
Inside the cabin, the door of which swung open so they could watch the children, Emma and Barbara were mending clothes. A pair of Joe's trousers in her lap, Emma's needle flew as she st.i.tched a patch over a torn knee. She had had some forebodings concerning worn-out clothing and the availability of new cloth, but she needn't have worried. There had been bolts of cloth at Laramie. Even Snedeker had some in stock and he had a.s.sured her that most trading posts carried it.
Across the table, Barbara was mending one of Tad's s.h.i.+rts. Emma looked at her daughter and smiled.
”It's almost the last one, isn't it?”
”It is the last.”
”Good.” Emma breathed her fill of the balmy air that came in a gentle stream through the door. ”Isn't this weather wonderful?”
”It's heavenly!” Barbara sighed.
Emma hid a smile. Barbara had walked light-footed and light hearted for most of the winter, and nothing had worn a plain face since the night of the storm. She saw beauty in everything, even the cabin's rough-hewn rafters, and Emma had done nothing to mar her joy. Hurt would come to Barbara as it came to everyone, but hurt, work and struggling were some of the catalysts that fused a marriage. Emma worked busily on.
She was happy for Barbara and Ellis, but she knew that Ellis retained a streak of wildness. That was not extraordinary; no young man worth his salt is contented to plod along like an ox or a cow. Emma had been pretty much satisfied with her son-in-law-to-be since Christmas Eve when she'd talked to him and she felt reasonably sure he'd outgrow his wildness, but she did not discount the possibility that Ellis's temper and impulsiveness might lead him astray, or cause the engagement to be broken before he'd had time to outgrow it. She laid the mended trousers on the table and thrust her threaded needle into her ap.r.o.n front.
Barbara finished Tad's s.h.i.+rt and hung it on a peg.
”That's all, Mother.”
”We do seem to be caught up.” Emma glanced critically at Barbara's mending and found it good. ”But let me show you something.”
She went to her trunk and from it took three partial bolts of gingham, one blue, one brown and one tan, and unfolded a strip of each one as she laid them on the table.
”What do you think of it?”