| |
While waiting to see if they got any replies to their farm ad, they began to pack carefully. Molly wanted certain things she had managed to keep from the bank’s greedy eyes when they sold her parents’ farm. This included a complete set of china and other things that held great sentimental value to her. Erin carefully packed them in a trunk, using quilts that Erin’s and Molly’s mothers and grandmothers had made to cushion them for the journey. They debated and then decided to bring the clothes they had worn as children: dresses, shoes, and other garments, which would be sold in a second-hand store. At the last minute, Erin included her brothers’ and father’s things, all packed tightly in one big trunk they lifted into the back of the wagon. If they could make money on something, they’d take it.
“How far is it again?” Molly asked as they lifted another trunk into the wagon, which was half full and lined with canvas. She intended to put all the seeds she had been collecting on top of the keepsakes she had already packed so carefully.
“From St. Louis, they say it’s over two thousand miles,” Erin answered as she dragged the trunk across the wooden floor of the wagon. Below those boards she had placed sheets of iron to protect them. There would be no sawmill to cut boards on the way, and these would come in handy.
“How far is St. Louis from here?” She helped Erin place this trunk next to the seat, leaving it open to pack more things in it. Under the seat there were more boxes and bags that Erin had carefully packed with foodstuffs and tools.
“I don’t rightly know, but we aren’t going to St. Louis. We are supposed to go to some place called Independence. That’s the jumping-off point.”
“Nowhere closer than Missouri?” she asked, making it sound like, “Misery.”
“Waaall,” she exaggerated the word with a smile. “Missoura is just one of the places. I hear there are places in Ioway and other points.”
They teased and chatted their way through the heavy work as they took time out from their chores every day to pack a little something into the wagon.
“I want to leave this area for bags of seed to sleep on. We can put mattresses over it,” she explained, gesturing over the tops of the trunks and the bags already stored in the box of the wagon to show where she meant.
“How much can we take?” Molly asked, wondering at the little of her parents’ furniture she had salvaged.
Erin managed some of it, but things like a heavy dresser or bedstead were just impractical to haul across the country. Some things would be sold. They could remake them when they arrived. If they were rich, they could have shipped things back east to a boat, then down around ‘the horn’ of South America to be taken to Oregon, but they worried over the weight and the logistics of it all.
“I want to keep one or two boxes for the things we would use every day, like pans and our coffeepot that could be loaded quickly if we needed to go,” she indicated the spot in the wagon.
“Have you decided which of the animals we’re taking?” Molly asked as they sat quietly after dinner that evening before bed.
“Well, both dogs. I think Queenie’s got pups in her again,” she smiled with that news, although they’d have to let Queenie ride some of the trip if that was the case and selling the pups would be harder on the trail. “The four oxen, of course. We could probably sell two of them at a profit now,” she stated excitedly at the idea.
“We don’t know what kind of ground we are going to have to break. Isn’t that why you have that plow in pieces in the wagon?” She was talking about the sod-breaking plow Erin had dismantled.
Erin nodded, realizing that was her original argument being thrown back at her. “Then you must decide how many ducks, geese, and chickens. I’ll have to finish up the cages and make sure they fit.” They exchanged nods on that item.
“The four milk cows should be more than enough along with Billy,” she mentioned their bull she had raised since he was a baby. He was mean and ornery looking but sweeter than sugar. He would follow her around like a puppy if she let him. He answered her whistle with a happy look on his face, almost silly in his eagerness to please. Still, he threw splendid calves, and several local farmers had bred their cows to him for a fee.
“Any of the cattle?”
She nodded. “I’m not sure how many I can handle. It’s not like I can drive and herd them.”
“Can’t we tie them to the back of the wagon?”
Erin shook her head. “No, we’d spend too much time untangling ropes; cows are pretty stupid.”
“How about the horses?”
“I think four is about all we can manage.”
“You gonna hook them up to the wagon too?”
“Now, wouldn’t that look fine with four horses and four oxen hooked up?” They shared a laugh and then sobered, thinking perhaps the idea had merit.
Erin had been getting rid of the extra cattle and horses on the farm for years now. People in Stouten thought it was because she couldn’t manage the farm and needed the money. Once they had decided on their plan, it didn’t make sense to keep the larger herds that her father and brothers had cultivated. She didn’t have the time, and she didn’t need them. She had been disappointed when one of the horses she originally wanted to keep had been struck down by lightening.
“You know, I can drive the wagon,” Molly pointed out as Erin rubbed oil into the leather traces, getting them ready for the long trip. She found an old saddle that probably belonged to one of her brothers and oiled that up too. In fact, anything made of leather that was going with them, she was going to make sure it was in good shape, clean and repaired.
“It’s not like the regular wagon, and oxen are dumb. You will have to learn to use the whip better.” She quickly added when she saw Molly’s expression, “Not on them, just above or beside them to get them going.” She mentally made a note to find the leather whip and make sure it was in good order for the trip.
“What if the place we find is as stony as this farm?” Molly remembered the field where Erin had gotten two whole acres plowed with lots of back-breaking labor.
“Then I learn to build you a stone house!” They both would be sad to leave this old farmhouse. It was settled, snug, and well-built, and they had fallen in love in this house...first as friends, then later as lovers.
There were simply too many things they didn’t know yet. They were taking a tremendous leap of faith, and with that thought in mind, they packed the Herriot family Bible.