Chapter Fifteen

Together Again!

Shortly before daybreak, the passenger train pulled into the small town of Winner. The children scrambled down and raced across the platform. Frances, Manda, and Polly stepped off the train and looked around expectantly.

There was no one in sight.

Manda and Polly stood gazing up and down the railway track as the train from which they had just alighted now disappeared from sight. There were no freight cars on the siding, nor was there a heavily loaded wagon sitting beside the small station house. Manda wasn’t ready to believe her eyes.

“They have to be here. They all left before we did. Chad figured the time and even allowed for delays. Where are they?”

“We know where they ain’t.” Polly grabbed Will as he raced by. “Don’t you get out of sight now,” she warned the little boy. “We’re already missin’ more folks than we can spare.”

“Maybe they got here last night and went to the hotel,” Frances suggested.

“And took the freight cars? I think we’d better check with the stationmaster.”

“Nope,” was his reply to their inquiry. “Ain’t been no freight left here this month. Ain’t seen no wagon with two fellas on it neither. You sure this is where they was supposed to come?”

“From what I saw comin’ through this wilderness, they didn’t have a whole lot of choice,” Polly told him. “There ain’t no other town around, is there?”

“Nope.”

“Lot of help he is,” Polly said, sniffing, as they went back out to the platform. “Looks to me like we got to solve our own problems.”

“Beg pardon, ma’am.” Major Emory approached Manda. “May I suggest that you and your family go to the hotel until the train arrives? Your wagon driver will be able to locate you if they should arrive later.”

Manda agreed that this seemed a sensible plan, and they retired to the hotel.

“There can’t be two Winners in this world and us at the wrong one,” Polly declared. “You’d think at least one bunch would be here by now.”

“They’ll be here,” Manda said aloud. But inside she was trying to convince herself. Anything could have happened to Ethan or Henry on the trail … or Chad or Luke with the freight cars, for that matter. She mouthed a silent prayer. Please, God, let them get here.

The next day Frances stayed at the hotel and entertained the children while Manda and Polly took up their posts at the station. The morning train brought no extra freight cars, but the stationmaster reported that the train due that afternoon had picked up two cars thirty miles back in Burke.

“I don’t recall seein’ any town thirty miles back,” Polly said.

“Never said it was a town. Folks name the fence posts out here.” The man trudged back into the station, leaving the two ladies to ponder the mysteries of prairie life.

Frances and the children arrived to announce that they were hungry.

“I suppose we might as well go back to the hotel for lunch,” Manda said. “The train won’t be here for several hours. My, I’ll be glad to get us all together again.”

“Look!” Simon shouted. “A wagon! I see our wagon!”

The family raced to the end of the platform to watch a small object in the distance.

Polly shielded her eyes from the sun. “There’s somethin’ on the trail, all right. Could be buffalo for all I can tell, but it’s likely enough a wagon.”

They chattered excitedly as they waited for the object to draw nearer. When it was determined indeed to be a wagon, they fell silent.

“It can’t be ours,” Frances said finally. “There’s only one person in it.”

In the time it took the wagon to cover the distance, many thoughts had occurred to Manda. Ethan had gotten lost. Ethan had become ill and died. Henry had buried him on the prairie. They had been stopped by the Indians, and Ethan had been kidnapped.

“Oh,” she moaned. “We never should have let the boy go with Henry. I should have kept him with me where I’d know he was safe. I wish I’d insisted—”

“Don’t waste your wishes,” Polly interrupted. “Ethan’s drivin’ the wagon. Start worryin’ about where Henry is, if you need somethin’ to keep you busy.”

At last the wagon halted, and Ethan jumped down. When Henry emerged slowly from the back of the wagon, Manda sighed in relief. His leg was bandaged, and he was pale, weak, and thinner than he had been when they had all left home, but he assured them that he was fine. A day or two of rest, he said, and he’d be back to himself.

“You can thank Ethan for gettin’ us here.” Henry put an arm around the boy’s shoulders. “We wouldn’t have made it without him.”

Ethan beamed at the praise. After a hug from everyone, he and Henry told the astonished family the story of their trip. The younger ones insisted that Ethan tell them again about the Indian and his daughter, Gray Dawn.

“Were you scared, Ethan?”

“I was at first. I didn’t even hear him coming. All of a sudden, there he was. But when he helped Henry get better, I wasn’t afraid anymore. He and Gray Dawn ate Polly’s stew, cornbread, and pie and said it was good.”

“Well, I should hope so,” Polly declared, but she looked pleased. “I’ll fix ’em some more if they come to visit us.”

“Now if only Chad and Luke would get here, I’d feel easy in my mind.” Manda continued to peer down the track.

In the late afternoon, the train appeared. To everyone’s relief, the freight cars with the two men and the rest of the goods were attached to it. The cars were put on a siding to await the transfer to a dray.

Mr. Rush looked surprised when he heard that Henry and Ethan had arrived only hours ahead of them, and their story had to be repeated.

“I’m proud of you, boy,” Mr. Rush told Ethan when they had finished. “You can work right alongside the men on this homestead. You’ve proven that you can handle hard times.”

Ethan felt as though he had grown a foot and aged a year since they left Willow Creek. He wished Bert were there to share his happiness with him.

“Now we’d like to know where you two have been,” Mrs. Rush demanded. “How could it possibly take that many days, even for a freight train?”

“Well, if we’d come straight north the way we were supposed to, it wouldn’t have,” Luke said.

“What do you mean?” Polly demanded. “North is the only way you could go.”

“That shows how much you know about it,” Luke retorted, then proceeded to tell what had happened when they took a surprise trip south.

“The southbound freight picked us up,” Luke concluded, “and we went a hundred miles back the way we came. All the freight master would say was that we should’ve waited till we got to where we were going before we went huntin’.”

“All I can say is, I hope if we ever get to that homestead, we can stay put,” Polly declared. “Nothin’ worse could happen than what we’ve already gone through travelin’ to it.”

The following morning everyone turned out to watch the transfer of the furniture from the freight car to the dray that Chad hired. The dray was a vehicle that the children weren’t familiar with, and they watched closely as it was loaded.

“That wagon only has two wheels,” Simon commented. “And it’s awful close to the ground. Will it really hold all of the furniture?”

“Yes, it will,” Luke assured him. “It’s built to carry heavy loads and to be hauled by one ox. Everything will get there fine. You’ll see.”

Manda’s heart dropped as she looked at “everything” that was loaded onto the dray. How would she manage with so little furniture? Only the most essential items had been moved. The large kitchen table, chairs, cupboard, and small cookstove were loaded. Manda’s sewing machine was strapped on top. She had wanted to bring the parlor sofa, but Chad said there wouldn’t be room for it.

“As soon as the house is built, we’ll have George ship the rest of the things,” he had promised. “We’ll have to make do with beds built against the walls until then.”

The last leg of the trip was uneventful, but it was a weary group of travelers who finally came in sight of the cottonwood trees and the creek flowing behind them. There wasn’t much daylight left, and they were all content to eat a cold supper and roll out their blankets wherever they found room.