A Wagon Trail and One Girl's Tale

Katherine Dunby trudged along beside the wagon just like she had for the last thousand miles or so. The wagon master said they'd only traveled about two hundred miles of the trip to Oregon, but it felt like a thousand to Katherine.

Katherine was the only child of Horace and Genelle Dunby. Katherine's mother had given up hope of having a family, but when she was thirty-five, she thought she might be with child. Katherine was that child, and both her father and mother were overjoyed. They tried to have another child but weren't successful.

Her father owned and was farming about thirty acres near Sedville, Missouri at the time, and his livestock and grain crops had allowed him and his wife to live a comfortable life. Her father wasn't satisfied with comfortable once he had a daughter. He'd dreamed about a big farm in Oregon since the first land grants had been announced in 1843.

The winter of 1861, Katherine turned eighteen and her father made a decision. He'd sell his farm and use the profits to take him, Katherine's mother, and Katherine to Oregon.

A man could get a hundred and sixty acres free and clear in Oregon. If he was married, he'd get a hundred and sixty acres and his wife would get another hundred and sixty acres. All he had to do was build a house and farm the land for five years.

Her father said he couldn't farm that much ground by himself, but when Katherine found a husband, the two of them could expand the farm. He said Katherine was pretty enough it wouldn't take long before she found a man to marry. He also said once she had a couple sons and they were old enough to work, they could handle three hundred and twenty acres.

Katherine didn't care for the way her father seemed to have planned out her life, but she didn't say anything. That wasn't because she planned to be an obedient daughter and do what her father wanted. In addition to her mother's caring nature and quiet manners, Katherine had inherited her father's strong will. She felt no obligation to do something just because that's what her father or anybody else wanted her to do. She didn't say anything because her own plan hadn't worked out very well.

Katherine already had her heart set on Jacob Brown, the son of the Baptist minister in Sedville. They'd grown up seeing each other every Sunday at church and Katherine thought Jacob felt something for her. Jacob's goal was to follow in his father's footsteps and become a preacher. They hadn't had any serious talks about marriage yet, but Katherine was hoping they would as soon as Jacob found a church that needed a preacher.

When Katherine's father told her about going to Oregon, Katherine's heart broke. Her father was taking her away from Jacob, away from a life as a preacher's wife. She didn't start to cry. Grown women didn't cry in front of their fathers. She did cry that night, but did so silently so her parents wouldn't hear her.

The next Sunday, she told Jacob of her father's plans. Jacob didn't seem upset at all. He just wished her well on the journey. Katherine decided then that Jacob wasn't as interested in her as she thought, and maybe going to Oregon would be a good thing. At least she wouldn't have to look at Jacob every Sunday and remember that she'd thought he'd make a good husband.

}|{

Katherine's father had bought a book called "The Prairie Traveler -- A Handbook For Overland Expeditions", written by Randolph B. Marcy, and he studied it every night from November through December of 1861. By January of 1862, he'd made a list of everything they needed to take with them, how much it would cost, and how much it would weigh.

Both were important. Cost was important because Katherine's father wasn't sure how much he would get when he sold the farm and anything they couldn't take with them. The book said he'd need to have some cash money to pay for ferries across rivers and to buy more food and supplies along the way if they were needed.

Weight was important because a horse can only pull it's own weight if in bad country or mountains. The book said the food and supplies should add no more than two thousand pounds to the empty weight of the wagon. Katherine's father's two horses, Jake and Jim, weighed about fifteen hundred pounds each. That meant the total load on the horses couldn't be over three thousand pounds. Jake and Jim could pull that load for about ten hours, but would need some rest stops.

When Katherine's father added up the weights of the food they'd need to take with them, the total came to a little over two thousand pounds. That was too much weight if they wanted to take anything else with them. Katherine's father talked to her mother and finally whittled the weight down to about twelve hundred pounds. They'd have to make do without bread and they couldn't take much in the way of meat, but Katherine's father said the book said he should hunt for meat along the trail. After thinking about hunting, her father added fifty pounds of canned corned beef to his list. That would be their meat if he didn't kill anything.

They also needed clothing, and while clothing didn't weigh much, it was bulky. So were the blankets they'd need for sleeping. Katherine's father estimated the weight would be about fifty pounds. He asked Katherine's mother to begin sewing extra clothes for all of them, and he asked Katherine to start making quilts from her mother's sewing scraps.

Katherine's father was going to sell all his equipment except for his plow. It was a John Deere steel moldboard plow that he'd bought five years earlier. He said he could make everything else he needed to farm with once they got to Oregon, but he needed his plow. The plow weighed just shy of two hundred pounds.

Katherine's mother said she needed at least a pot for stews, a frying pan, a dutch

oven, some spoons, knives, and a spatula, and tableware for the three of them. Katherine's father estimated that would add about fifty pounds.

At her mother's insistence, her father added three kitchen chairs to the list. They weighed only about ten pounds each and like Katherine's mother said, it would be better to have chairs than to sit on the ground.

To complete the list, Katherine's father took a few tools -- a hammer, a saw, an axe, a hatchet, a drawknife, and a sharpening stone -- that he said according to the book he'd probably need. He also added some rope in two different sizes and several pounds of nails.

When Katherine's father added all that up, the total was a little over three thousand pounds. He figured that was about as much as the horses could pull and still stay in good condition. The first part of the trip would be over relatively flat ground, so the pulling would be easier. As the trip progressed, the load would get lighter. The horses wouldn't have to work hard until they got into the mountains and by then, half the food would be gone.

}|{

Katherine's father spent the next month making rough wood boxes to put inside the wagon. Those boxes would hold everything they were taking with them. The boxes were pretty small, but that let them put every thing of one type into its own box so it would be easier to find.

The boxes also had another use. They would be placed on each side of the wagon bed leaving a narrow walkway between them. The wagon bed was ten and a half feet long so on the right side of the wagon, the boxes would make two beds, one for Katherine's mother and one for Katherine. On the left side of the wagon was a bed for Katherine's father in the front. The plow took up the rest of the space in back on the left side.

The last thing Katherine's father built was a cage that hung off the back of the wagon for a rooster and six hens. They would ride to Oregon. Their milk cow, Jess would walk behind the wagon.

The cost of everything was a hundred dollars for the food and twenty dollars for material for extra clothing to replace what they would wear out along the way.

Katherine's father put his farm up for sale on the twenty-seventh of March, 1862. Along with the farm, he sold all his farm equipment and livestock except for his wagon and horses, his milk cow, the chickens, and his plow. In addition, he sold everything in the house, all the furniture and what cooking things Katherine's mother said she could do without. After the sale ended, Katherine's father had a hundred and eighty dollars for the farm, another fifty for all his farming equipment, and another twenty for the rest. After buying their food and clothing, that would leave a hundred dollars for tolls, ferries, and anything they needed along the way.

That Wednesday, they took the wagon to Sedville and bought all the food Katherine's father said they'd take with them. He also bought ten pounds of gunpowder, ten pounds of bird shot, ten pounds of lead for balls for his rifle, and five hundred caps that would fit both the shotgun and the rifle.

Thursday and Friday, they loaded the wagon. It took Katherine's father and two neighbors to load the plow into the wagon, and once it was in place, Katherine's father tied it to the wagon so it wouldn't move around. After the plow was in place, they loaded the boxes that lined each side of the wagon bed. Then, Katherine's mother cut the feather tick from their bed in half to make a mattress on the boxes for her and Katherine's father. Katherine cut down the size of the feather tick on her own bed to fit on her boxes.

Saturday was spent making sure that everything they needed was packed. Sunday was church. After church, the congregation had a potluck dinner to wish them on their way. Katherine and her parents went back to the farm, and this time, slept in the wagon to make sure that was going to work as planned.

On Monday, the third of April, 1862, Katherine's father hitched Jake and Jim to the wagon. He, Katherine's mother, and Katherine took a last look at the farm that had been their home. Then, Katherine's father said it was time to leave. He helped Katherine and her mother into the wagon, then took the seat on the right side, unwrapped the lines from the brake lever, and clucked to Jake and Jim.

}|{

It took three days for Katherine's father to drive their wagon into Independence, Missouri. Those three days were sort of a practice run to determine how well the horses did with the heavy wagon, how cooking had to change once Katherine's mother had to cook over an open fire, and how their beds were going to work out.

Katherine's father was satisfied with the horses, though it was obvious they were working pretty hard. He had to stop and let them rest from time to time. He assumed the other wagons in the wagon train would have to do the same, so he wasn't too worried.

Katherine's mother and Katherine didn't have a lot of trouble with cooking over an open fire because Katherine's mother had learned to cook over the fire in a fireplace. She taught Katherine how things had to be done differently, including how to use the dutch oven she'd brought.

Their beds were the biggest problem of all. Since the bed of the wagon was only three feet wide and there had to be a narrow aisle between the boxes, Katherine's father had built the boxes only fourteen inches wide. That left an aisle about eight inches wide between them. Sleeping on a bed fourteen inches wide was possible, but Katherine discovered that she couldn't roll over during the night or she'd fall off the bed and onto the plow.

}|{

Once they were in Independence, they took a ferry across the river and into Kansas. There, they asked for directions and found the spot where a wagon train was being organized. Clark Mason, the man who was to guide the wagon train, said they were lucky. He said wouldn't take more than fifty wagons with him, and they were the last wagon he'd sign on.

That afternoon, Mr. Mason called a meeting of all the people in the wagon train. He explained what they'd face and how they'd face it, and a lot of things that Katherine's father had read in his book.

"Folks, I'm Clark Mason, and I'm goin' to be your guide to Oregon. This is my third trip, so you don't need to worry about gettin' lost. It'll take us about six months, and those six months will be pretty hard on us and pretty hard on the animals.

"First, we need to get some organization goin'. I'm your guide, but I'm not the leader of the wagon train. That leader will be elected by you. You'll also need to elect a second for him in case he gets laid up for some reason. What they'll do is hold meetings any time there's somethin' that needs to be talked about, like maybe somebody who does somethin' he shouldn't. If'n you're church goin' people you know the Ten Commandments and that's what I'm talkin' about.

"If somebody does somethin' like that, the leader will hold a trial and if you folks find that person guilty you will decide the punishment for that person. I hope that don't happen because we're all goin' to have to work together to get to Oregon, but if it does, don't be bashful about the punishment. I won't let you kill another member of the wagon train, but about any other punishment is all right by me. This is tough country we're goin' to be goin' through, and we don't need no nobody makin' it harder than it's already gonna be.

"Now, because this is goin' to be a tough time, those of you who maybe think you're a little better than the others, jest get that outta your head. You're all different, but every one of you can do something none of the others can. We need all of what you know and can do, an' we need everyone to agree on what gets done.

"One of those things we need to agree on right now is what you're pulling your wagon with. I see some of you plan to use your horses, but I'd recommend against that. Horses need good feed every day to stay in good pullin' condition and we ain't goin' to find any corn fields along the way. Horses also have to stop and rest once in a while. I ain't goin' to stop fifty wagons so a handful of horses can rest. We'll drive for twelve hours every day except for Sunday with a short stop for a noon meal. Sunday, we'll hold a church service if you want, but we'll be on the trail by ten that morning. If you can't keep up, we'll leave you behind.

"I can tell you that horses won't survive that, but oxen will. Oxen can stay in pullin' shape with just grass and we'll have plenty of grass. By now, the grass will be up higher than your head and there'll be more than enough for oxen. Oxen are slower than horses, but we'll be settin' our pace by the oxen anyways. Your horses will do all right on jest grass if'n they ain't pullin' a load. I'll be ridin' a horse, but I'm leadin' two packhorses loaded with horse feed and food for me.

"What I'd say you should do is keep your horses if you want, but go buy some oxen and yokes to hitch 'em. There's a man down by the river who sells oxen and I've done business with him before. He gets twenty dollars for a span -- that's two oxen - and five for a yolk. His oxen are a little green, but they're young and healthy. You'll need six oxen and three yokes. Four oxen will pull as much as four horses and pull it longer. The other two oxen and the extra yoke are your spares because we'll lose a few along the way.

"When we stop for the night, the men will unhitch the animals and drive them and all the loose stock a ways from camp. We'll have to set up a watch all night to keep 'em together and to ward off any wolves or cougars. Jest a man or two walking around will keep 'em away. Once we're in Indian territory, we might lose an ox or a horse to them as well because they won't be afraid of a man. If they get one, jest let 'em go. You shoot an Indian and they're sure to take revenge, and you don't want to have them do that.

"While the men are takin' care of the livestock, you women need to be building fires and starting supper. There won't be much wood around for a while, but there's plenty of buffalo chips. As you walk beside the wagon, you need to pick them up and take them with you so you'll have enough. Put 'em in a burlap sack tied to your wagon. You'll need a couple bushels to cook much of a meal.

"Now, I said you'd be walkin' and I'll bet most of you do after the first day. This ain't no road we're goin' to be followin'. What there is, is the ruts of the wagons that went before us and the ground is rough. You'll jar your teeth out ridin' on a wagon seat. We ain't goin' to be goin' very fast, so you can keep up easy by walkin'. Leave your shoes in your wagon for when you get to Oregon though. If you wear 'em in this country, they'll wear through in a month. Feet don't never wear out.

"We'll be leavin' at daylight Monday next. That'll give you time to get your oxen, drive 'em back here, and ask them in the group who has oxen how to hitch 'em and drive 'em. I don't wait on nobody, so be ready."

}|{

As Katherine trudged along on her bare feet and picking up flat slabs of dried buffalo manure, she remembered those first days. Her father had taken Mr. Mason at his word, and had bought six oxen and three yokes for seventy-five dollars. Her father was now worried that he didn't have enough money left for tolls and ferries.

Katherine wasn't as worried about that as she was about the young men who seemed to have found her. There were five men about her age in the wagon train. She guessed what her father had said was true. She was pretty enough to attract most of the young men in the wagon train, but that hadn't turned out to be a good thing. Two were really odd, one was pretty pathetic, one seemed to be a nice man but he didn't know much about anything. The young man in the wagon ahead of the Dunby wagon was scary.

James Conroy was the first, and came up to her one day after they'd crossed the Big Blue River and were waiting for the rest of the wagon train to cross. He was traveling to Oregon with his mother and father. Katherine thought it odd that a man who was twenty years old wouldn't be going by himself. Most young women continued to live with their parents until they married, but young men were expected to strike out on their own. Once he introduced himself and they had a few conversations, she understood. She didn't like it but she understood. It seemed to her as if every other word out of his mouth was Mother.

"Mother watched you when we crossed the river. She said you looked afraid, but still did what you needed to do. She said that's the mark of a woman who would be a good wife."

"Mother says Oregon will be a really nice place to raise a family."

"Mother says I should look for a wife along the way, but not to worry if I don't find one. She says there will be plenty of women in Oregon who want to get married."

"I told Mother about meeting you and she said you look like a very nice woman and a woman who could have a lot of grandchildren for her."

Everything James said seemed to Katherine to be just telling her what his mother said. Katherine knew being married to James would essentially be her competing with his mother. She didn't want any part of that. Still, they had a long way to go and as Mr. Mason had said, it was important that they all try to get along. Katherine didn't say anything to James that might tell him she was interested, but neither did she try to get him to stop talking with her.

Two other young men, both a couple years older than Katherine, were traveling to Oregon together. They talked to her sometimes, but Katherine got the feeling that they weren't really interested in her. It was the way that they both seemed to go everywhere together. They walked side by side as William drove the oxen. William and Jacob did separate at times though. William took care of the oxen while Jacob fixed their meals.

Katherine thought it a little odd that Jacob seemed to be upset if William wasn't sitting by the wagon at the same time their meal was ready to eat. Jacob reminded her of her mother when Katherine was about ten and didn't come in for supper on time. Jacob's words were nearly the same words her mother had used.

"William, you're late. Now, the stew is just mush and the corn bread is almost burnt. I want us to eat when everything is perfect."

William would put his hand on Jacob's shoulder and say he was sorry and that he'd try to get done with the animals faster.

There was also one night when Katherine went a ways from the wagons to relieve herself. She climbed out the back of the wagon and was walking away from the camp when she saw William's and Jason's wagon rocking a little. At first, she thought one of them had just rolled over or something so she went on and did what she had to do. When she came back, the wagon was still rocking, and she thought she heard a quiet groan. She smiled when she realized she probably didn't have to concern herself about either William or Jacob. She didn't understand it, but it wasn't her place to criticize others.

}|{

By the end of April, the wagon train had reached Chimney Rock and James' mother had apparently decided Katherine wouldn't be as good a wife for James as she'd first thought. James would wave at her and smile, but had stopped walking down to her father's wagon to talk to her. That was one less thing Katherine had to be concerned about and she was happy.

The fourth young man in the wagon train was frightening, and thankfully, he hadn't approached her. The reason he frightened Katherine was because of his size. The man was taller than Katherine by over a foot, and he looked like he could crush almost any other man with just his bare hands.

He was traveling alone, and Katherine figured that was because he was big enough to scare the wits out of any woman. She could imagine lying under him when they had sex, and in her imagination, she always ended up being crushed. Katherine was careful to avoid him, though she didn't think he'd do anything to her. Although his wagon was just ahead of the Dunby wagon, he'd never said a word to her, her mother, or her father. In fact, he seemed to keep to himself all the time. Katherine was happy that he did.

That happiness lasted for another week.

}|{

The fifth young man about her age hadn't said anything to her until one day when she was helping her mother fix their supper. He walked up and smiled.

"Hello there, Ma'am. I'm Wade Sprite. I couldn't help but walk over and say hello because you're such a striking woman. I think beautiful women should be told they're beautiful and they should be told often."

Katherine felt her face grow warmer and knew she was blushing. His voice resonated in her chest and his smile forced her to smile back. She managed to say, "Well, thank you, Mr. Sprite."

Katherine started to walk away then, but his words stopped her.

"Ma'am, call me Wade, and if it pleases you, I'd like to call you by your name. What is it?"

Katherine turned back to face Wade.

"My name is Katherine Dunby, and you may call me Katherine if you wish."

"I'll do just that, Katherine." Then he smiled and walked back toward the front of the wagon train.

When he'd left, Katherine's mother said, "Katherine, don't get too worked up over that man. From what the other women tell me, his father is a rich banker and intends to make a fortune by lending money to the settlers in Oregon. His wife is still in St. Louis because she didn't want to give up what she has there until he gets her a mansion built. It's just the banker and his son, and from what I hear from the other women, the son is a spoiled brat who always gets what he wants.

"He doesn't help with anything. He just walks up and down the wagon train looking to see what he can see. Any young man who would let his father do all the work is no man you want. I don't trust him, not at all. You're old enough to make up your own mind, but I wouldn't get too close to him. He's liable to be more than you can handle."

Like with her father planning out her life, Katherine nodded to her mother but had decided she'd do what felt right to her. She wasn't sure how she felt about Wade, but she knew he'd given her a thrill she'd never felt before.

}|{

As the days went by and the miles of country passed under her bare feet, Katherine saw more and more of Wade. She also saw more and more of the man he truly was, and she was starting to not like what she was seeing.

The way the trail had been laid out by the fur trappers and explorers led it through open country and close to water. That was so they had water to drink, but more importantly, so their livestock had water and grass. As a result, the trail crossed a few large rivers and several smaller rivers and streams.

Crossing the larger rivers was a major undertaking because several were too deep for the oxen to pull the wagons across. The answer to this problem was to unhitch the oxen, swim them across the river, and then rig ropes from one bank to the other. While the younger men took the oxen across the river, the remaining men caulked all the seams in the wagons and essentially turned them into boats. Since there was usually just one man per wagon, when the men who remained to caulk the wagons had finished with their wagon, they'd move down the wagon train and help prepare the other wagons.

Once the wagons were caulked, each wagon would be attached to a rope, and at the end across the river the same rope was attached to a span of oxen. The oxen pulled the rope and if everything went according to plan, the wagon was floated across the river to the other side.

Once all the wagons were across the river, the younger men came back and drove the rest of the livestock -- the extra oxen, the horses, and the milk cows - across the river. The men who remained with the wagons went about hitching the oxen back to the wagons and when a man had finished with his oxen, he'd go help hitch the oxen to rest of the wagons.

As Katherine helped her mother and father caulk the seams in their wagon, she usually saw Wade sitting beside his father's wagon while his father caulked it. He usually just sat there and watched, though occasionally he'd walk around and watch the other families getting ready for the crossing.

When it was his father's turn to cross, Wade would climb up on the wagon seat and cross, then get back down and watch the other wagon's cross while his father caught their oxen from the herd, put them into the yokes, and then fastened the yoke chains to the wagon. It looked to Katherine like Wade believed he was above doing much of anything to help his father, let alone help the rest of the people in the wagon train.

There were several smaller rivers and streams the wagons had to cross, but those were shallow enough and the current slow enough the oxen could pull the wagons across. Just like crossing the large rivers, the men driving the oxen had to walk through the water as well. Since it was still spring, the rivers and streams were cold and once across, the wagon train would usually stop for the night so the men could dry out, warm up, and get something to eat.

Katherine never saw Wade set even a toe into the water during any of these crossings. He'd make the crossing sitting in his father's wagon and once the wagon was back on solid ground, he'd get down and meander around the rest.

Often at these crossings, Wade would walk to where Katherine was helping her mother build a fire and begin to fix dinner. He always was smiling and always told her she was beautiful, but after a while, she realized he was just saying those things. She didn't know why he would, but she didn't think he was being honest and she was beginning to wonder if she should trust Wade.

Katherine found out the reason after they'd crossed a small river Mr. Mason called "Cheyenne Creek". They'd made the crossing shortly after the noon meal and Mr. Mason said they'd take the rest of the day to get some rest for both the people and the livestock.

Katherine was thankful for the rest and was sitting on one of the chairs her mother had insisted on bringing when Wade walked up and smiled.

"I'm glad we have some time to relax a little. Would it be asking too much to take a walk with you? I think I saw some wildflowers down the river a bit. We could walk down there and pick some. You could put them in your hair and make yourself even more beautiful."

Katherine's father was tired from driving the oxen across the river in the cold water and had decided to take a nap. Her mother was two wagons down taking to Mrs. Withers about the new baby Mrs. Withers was expecting. Katherine thought for a few seconds. Mr. Mason had said they all had to get along if they were going to successfully reach Oregon. While she still didn't know if she trusted Wade or not, it wouldn't be inappropriate to take a walk with him.

"I don't think flowers in my hair are going to do anything for me, but I'd like to see them. Let's take that walk."

Katherine had thought they'd stay within sight of the wagons, but Wade kept leading her farther and farther from the wagons. When he followed a bend in the river, Katherine looked back and couldn't see the wagons. She asked Wade to stop.

"Wade, I didn't realize it would be this far. My mother will need me to help her with supper so I think we should go back."

Katherine didn't like the grin on Wade's face and she liked what he said even less.

"Well, Katherine, I just thought since it's just you and me out here we could get to know each other a lot better."

Wade walked close enough he could put his hand on Katherine's shoulder. She flinched at that first touch. She pulled away when she felt Wade's other hand on her breast. She saw the frown on Wade's face then and decided she had to run.

"I'm going back. If you try to stop me, I'll tell everyone what you did."

Wade sneered.

"My father is a banker who will lend the people the money to get started in Oregon. They'll never believe the daughter of a common farmer."

Katherine turned to start running, fully expecting Wade to stop her. It was clear to her now what he wanted from her and she wasn't about to give it to him.

She felt Wade's hand on her arm, but jerked it away and didn't stop running until she got to the wagons. Once there, she woke her father and told him what had happened. Her father rubbed the sleep from his eyes and then stood up.

"He touched you? Where?"

Katherine pointed to her left breast. Her father frowned. I'm going to go have a talk with Mr. Ellison and tell him we need to have a trial.

}|{

Adam Ellison, the former general store owner who'd been elected as leader of the wagon train listened to Katherine's father, then stroked his chin.

"This man, Wade Sprite, took your daughter away from the wagon train and then tried to... force her to..."

When Katherine's father nodded, Adam shook his head.

"I can't tolerate that conduct towards a woman. I doubt the rest of the people would either. I'll call a meeting and Katherine and Wade can each tell their side of the story. Then, the people will decide who is telling the truth. If Mr. Sprite did this, I'll talk to Mr. Simmons, the assistant leader about a fitting punishment. The people will have to agree of course, but they'll need a place to start."

It took only a quarter of an hour for Mr. Ellison to walk to each wagon and tell the people to gather beside his wagon. Once the people were there, Mr. Ellison stood up.

"Folks, as your elected leader, it is my duty to tell you that we have a situation that needs to be dealt with. According to Mr. Dunby here, Mr. Wade Sprite led his daughter, Katherine, away from the wagon train and then attempted to physically accost her. I called you all together so that each of them can tell their version of the story. When they finish, you can ask them questions. When there are no more questions, I'll ask you to vote for if you believe Mr. Sprite or Miss Dunby.

"If you believe Mr. Sprite, we will have to vote on an appropriate punishment for Miss Dunby for tarnishing the name of one of the members of the wagon train. If you believe Miss Dunby, we will vote on an appropriate punishment for Mr. Sprite.

"Now, Mr. Sprite, will you step forward and tell your side of the story."

Wade gave the assembled people his usual smile and then began speaking.

"Folks, I admit to asking Katherine to take a walk with me. I'm not the first man to ask a beautiful young woman to take a walk. Most of you men have done the same and most of you women have accepted the invitation at least once.

"I did nothing to Katherine except catch her when she tripped. I caught her before she could fall and when I caught her, it is possible I touched her in an intimate place. I promise you that I had no intention of doing anything but save her from a nasty fall."

Wade smiled again, and then sat down on the ground. Mr. Ellison then turned to Katherine.

"Miss Dunby, would you relate to the people the story you told your father."

Katherine walked up beside Mr. Ellison. She was nervous and shaking, but knew she had to tell the people the truth.

"Wade did ask me to take a walk and I agreed. I did not agree to go far enough from the wagons that nobody could see us, but that's where he took me. When I said I needed to go back, he put his hand on my shoulder and then put his other hand on my... on my bosom. I pulled away and started to run back to the wagons but he caught my arm to stop me. I was able to pull away and keep running. When I got back to our wagon, I told my father what had happened."

The first question came from Wade's father.

"Miss Dunby, that is a terrifying story, but do you have any proof that it happened as you say it did? I won't have my son's and my good name sullied by a lie."

Katherine had expected as much after what Wade had said to her when he caught her arm. He was probably right. Most of the people on the wagon train were just church-going people trying to get to a better life just as her father and mother were. They'd need the money Wade's father would lend them and would think twice about condemning his son. Little did Wade know she had the proof.

Katherine stood up again, and pulled up the right sleeve of her dress. There, a little down from her elbow was a wide, purplish bruise, the bruise Wade had left when he grabbed her arm.

"This is my proof. I didn't start to fall down, and even if I had, Wade wouldn't have had to grab me so hard he made a bruise on my arm."

Wade's father didn't answer. He just frowned and sat down.

The next question came from Mr. Simmons, the assistant to Mr. Ellison.

"Mr. Sprite, you say you caught Miss Dunby to keep her from falling. Did you grab her arm?"

Wade stood up and smiled again.

"Well, I might have. I wasn't really thinking about where I grabbed her. I was just thinking about keeping her from falling."

Mr. Simmons wasn't finished.

"Well, if it's true that you did grab her arm, why would you need to grab it hard enough to leave a bruise?"

Wade frowned.

"I didn't grab her that hard."

Wade looked out at the people and smiled then.

"I don't know why Katherine has a bruise. Maybe she bruises easily."

Mr. Ellison asked if there were any more questions and when no one stood up, he asked the people to vote.

"All those who believe Mr. Sprite, please raise your hand. Mr. Simmons will you make a count? I will make a count as well and then we'll compare numbers."

There was no need to make a count. Only two hands were raised, the hands of Wade and his father, Harold.

Mr. Ellison then asked the people to raise their hand if they believed Miss Dunby. All but two hands were raised. Mr. Ellison then said, "The votes say you believe Miss Dunby is telling the truth. We can not tolerate such behavior. That means we must punish Mr. Sprite for his actions.

"Mr. Simmons and I have talked over the possible punishments in order to make your choice simpler. We believe that it is not safe for Mr. Sprite to remain with the wagon train. I put it to you now. Should we banish Mr. Sprite and his father?"

There were murmurs in the crowd of people until Mrs. Rankin spoke up.

"You mean we should force him to leave the wagon train? Doesn't that mean he'll die?"

Mr. Ellison cleared his throat.

"It could mean that, but if he dies, it will be because he didn't try to live. I know he has a horse to ride. There is game for food and he can follow the trail until he reaches Fort Laramie. Mr. Mason says it's only about a week from here."

Mr. Sprite stood up then.

"I won't let my son be cast out because of the lies of a young girl. If you force him to leave, I'll go with him and you'll lose the money I was going to loan you in Oregon. We'll see how well you do when you can't buy the supplies and seed you need to build a house and plant your fields."

Mrs. Rankin spoke up again.

"Mr. Sprite, I do not believe your son, but I can't bring myself to send him out with nothing. If you go with him, it will most likely mean you'll die too. As a good Christian, I can not sentence either one of you to death.

"Mr. Ellison, a few of us have talked this over and we would recommend that Mr. Sprite and his son be moved to the end of the wagon train and half a mile back from the last wagon. They should be banned from approaching any of the rest of the wagon train, but if something should happen to them, we'll know and can help them."

Mr. Ellison appeared to sigh in relief.

"All right, folks. A recommendation for punishment has been made. Mr. Sprite and his father will remain with the wagon train, but stay half a mile behind the last wagon. Raise your hand if you agree. Mr. Simmons, if you would count the hands again."

As before, all hands went up except for two. Once Mr. Ellison and Mr. Simmons had compared counts, Mr. Ellison stood up again.

"Mr. Sprite, it is the judgement of this wagon train that you and your son take a place half a mile behind the last wagon and stay at that distance until we reach Oregon or you until you decide to stop. You will not speak to any member of the wagon train and will not attempt to do anything in revenge. If you fail to obey this punishment, it will result in another trial and I doubt the punishment will be quite so lenient. Do you understand?"

Mr. Sprite stood up and began walking to his wagon.

"You people have made a mistake. You'll not get one penny from me in Oregon. I'll watch your children starve and die before I help even one of you."

}|{

As Katherine helped her mother fix their supper, she asked her mother if she'd done the right thing. Her mother frowned.

"Yes, Katherine, you did what you should have done. If you hadn't run away, Lord knows what he'd have done with you. I told you once not to trust him, but you didn't listen, so you're partly to blame too.

"Katherine, I'm not judging what you did. I know you have a mind of your own, but you need to learn from those who have already lived some of life. I don't tell you things to scare or shame you into acting right like I did when you were a child. I tell you things to guide you through life."

Katherine's mother looked up from the pot of stew she was stirring.

"Besides, Wade isn't being punished as much as he would back in Sedville. In Sedville, he'd have been put in jail for a while. Now, all he's going to have to do is drive through the dust of the wagon train or if it rains, through the mud we leave behind us. Maybe he'll think twice about doing anything like this again. I doubt it, but he might."

}|{

The next morning just after daylight, the wagon train started moving again. Katherine took her normal place on the right side of the wagon and scanned the ground for buffalo chips. Since their wagon was about in the middle of the wagon train, she had to range quite a ways to find any.

She looked back a few times and saw the Sprite wagon following in the distance. Wade had changed a little. He didn't seem to be helping any more than before, but now, instead of walking, he was riding a horse. Katherine shuddered a little, but then realized she could run back to the wagon train before Wade could ride the half-mile and catch her.

She wondered how they were going to cook anything since Wade's father was driving the oxen. Neither of them was picking up buffalo chips. It took most of what she and her mother could collect just to cook two meals a day. Their noon meal was always cold food from the night before or some thin slices of ham and cheese.

}|{

Things didn't change much for the next few weeks. They began to see more trees and if it was a clear day, they could see mountains in the distance. Mr. Mason said they were about half way now. Katherine's father went hunting about every other day and usually brought back a few rabbits. Her mother walked beside the oxen then, but the oxen had fallen into the habit of following the wagon in front of them so they didn't need much guiding.

}|{

It was the tenth of July that Katherine feared that they wouldn't make it to Oregon. Her father, like most of the men on the wagon train, had taken advantage of trees growing along the river they were following. When the wagon train stopped for the night, half the men drove the oxen to the grazing area while the rest took up their axes and cut firewood for the cookfires.

Katherine's father was working with Mr. Hodges to cut up a small oak tree and split it into firewood. The wood would be green but would still burn if added to a buffalo chip fire and it would burn most of the night.

Mr. Hodges was cutting the trunk into sections about two feet long while Katherine's father worked his way up the trunk cutting off the branches. Mr. Hodges heard Katherine's father cry out and then saw him fall down clutching his leg. He ran to where Katherine's father had fallen and saw blood spurting from his leg.

Kenneth Mayes, a doctor from St. Louis who had heard from a relative that there were no doctors in Oregon had also been cutting firewood and ran to where Mr. Hodges stood. He looked down and said, "One of you go get my bag from my wagon while I keep this cut closed."

Dr. Mays raised Katherine's father's pant leg up to bare the wound and then chuckled.

"Horace, you're suppose to cut the tree, not your leg. It's not bad though. You'll be walking around in a couple weeks or so."

A man ran up with Dr. Mays' black doctor's bag. Dr. Mays opened it and took out a bottle that had "Old Log Cabin Bourbon Whiskey" on the label.

"Horace you get to be the first man I've tried this on. When I was in school the professors told me there was no way to keep a cut from developing gangrene. They thought some people were just lucky when they didn't.

As a boy, I got a lot of cuts like all boys do. My father kept a jug of bourbon for what he called warding off the grippe. My mother wasn't a drinking woman, but she'd use his bourbon to wash out the cut. She said it was to teach us to be more careful because it hurt just as bad as the cut. The thing is, I never got even a little sick because of even a deep cut. I think the bourbon had something to do with that. I don't know what it was, but I know it didn't hurt anything.

"Now, hold still while I wash the dirt out of that cut and put a bandage on it."

}|{

Katherine didn't know anything had happened until the men carried her father back to their wagon. They sat him on the ground as Dr. Mayes walked up to Katherine and her mother.

"Mrs. Dunby, your husband has a bad cut on his leg. I'll be by every day to check on him, but I don't want him trying to walk on it for at least two weeks."

As Dr. Hayes walked away, Katherine turned to her mother.

"What does that mean for us? You can drive the oxen, but neither of us knows how to yoke them and we're not strong enough to even lift the yoke. Will we have to stay here for two weeks and then try to catch up with the wagon train?"

Katherine's mother frowned.

"I don't know Katherine. Maybe one of those men your age would -"

Katherine's mother was interrupted by a deep voice.

"Mrs. Dunby, we haven't met. My name is Jasper Moore, and if you'll let me I can help you."

Katherine turned toward the voice and felt a chill run down her spine. It was the young man who scared her by his size. She hadn't looked all that closely at him because of her fear, but now she did.

The man was taller than she by more than a foot, but Katherine already knew that. What she hadn't seen before were the muscular arms with huge biceps and the broad shoulders. As he breathed, she saw the muscles in his chest rise and fall.

Katherine's mother smiled.

"Mr. Moore, I appreciate the thought, but I don't know how you can help. You're traveling alone. Who would drive your wagon?"

Jasper smiled.

"Ma'am, I'm a blacksmith and what I can do is hitch your wagon to mine. When I made my wagon, I put a drawbar on my front axle, a horn and a bumper on the back axle and I made a pelican hook and chain in case I needed it someday. Looks like I need it now. All I have to do is make a loop on your wagon tongue to the horn on my back axle and put a chain between your wagon tongue and my pelican hook. I'll take your oxen and hitch them with mine, so I'll just be driving eight instead of four. It won't be any harder driving eight. The other four will just follow along."

Katherine's mother looked skeptical.

"Why would you do such a thing? You don't know us at all."

Jasper smiled again.

"Mr. Mason said that each of us could do something the others couldn't, and that we had to work together. I can fix it so your husband can ride instead and your family can stay with the wagon train. That's all I'm trying to do. I won't bother your family."

Katherine said she had to talk with her husband and walked to where he still lay on the ground. A few minutes later she came back.

"Horace says he appreciates your offer and he would like your help. Is there anything Katherine and I can do to help you?"

Jasper shook his head.

"The only help I'll need is help pushing your wagon up to mine so I can hook your wagon tongue on my horn and bumper. I'll get some other men to help with that. You look after Mr. Dunby. I'll go get started."

}|{

Katherine had expected whatever Jasper was going to do would take a long time. She left her mother with her father and started building the fire they'd need for supper. She had just gotten a good flame going in the pile of buffalo chips when Jasper came back.

He walked to the tongue of their wagon and she heard the clinking of metal against metal for a while and then Jasper walked away again. A few minutes later he came back with five men.

Katherine fed her buffalo chip fire with some slender oak splits the men had brought back after her father was injured. As they bubbled when the heat boiled the moisture from them until they began to char, she watched what the men were doing.

Jasper lay on his back and then worked himself under the rear axle of his wagon. Katherine heard the clink of metal again and then Jasper said, "Lift the tongue and start the wagon coming towards me."

One man lifted the wagon tongue and the other four took up positions, one at each wagon wheel. When the man holding the wagon tongue said, "I got her up. Start her rolling" the four men began turning the wagon wheels. Slowly, the Dunby wagon rolled toward Jasper's wagon.

Katherine heard Jasper say, "Hold up" and then the clink of metal again. There was another clink or two, and then Jasper crawled out from under the wagon. He stood up, brushed the dust from his trousers and then thanked the five men.

"Thanks, folks. I couldn'ta got 'em hooked up by myself. You need anything fixed I can fix, you just ask. I don't forget people who help me."

With that, Jasper walked over to where Katherine's father lay.

"Mr. Dunby, I got your wagon hooked to mine. It isn't what I'd like, but it'll do until we stop for a couple hours. I got your wagon tongue hooked to my horn and bumper with an axle clip I had. It'll last until I can make a proper clevis for your wagon and hook it up right. My chain is hooked to where your double tree was bolted and it'll work just fine. Once thing though, I'm not sure about stopping with the tongue just rigged to my horn and bumper. Might be best if your missus used the brake if we're goin' down a hill."

Katherine added a few more splits to the fire, but stopped when she heard her mother say, "Mr. Moore, I am fifty-four years old. I'm not sure I'm strong enough and I need to look after my husband. Our daughter, Katherine, can do it though. She's young and strong. All you'll have to do is show her what to do. She's a fast learner."

Jasper said he'd be back when he was hitched up in the morning, and then asked if she needed any help getting Mr. Dunby into bed. Katherine's mother shocked Katherine when she chuckled.

"If I have any trouble getting Horace into bed, it'll be the first time in forty years."

She smiled then.

"Mr. Moore, can I invite you to supper tonight? With just you, you probably don't eat like you should and it would be our way of paying you back for your help."

Jasper smiled back.

"Ma'am, I thank you for inviting me, but I do just fine and I don't want paid back for just doing what I can do to help out someone who needs help."

Katherine waited until Jasper climbed up into his wagon and then waved at her mother. After her mother walked over to the fire, Katherine whispered, "Mother, why did you tell him I'd help him? He's big and he's scary and he's never said a word to me."

Katherine's mother smiled.

"Well, from what I've seen of the young men in this wagon train, the pickin's are mighty slim. I didn't think it would hurt to get you and Mr. Moore acquainted. If you don't like him, that's up to you, but to me, he seems like a very nice young man even if he does look as big as one of his oxen.

"Now, we need to make some bean soup and some cornbread so your father has something to eat. You tend the fire and soak the beans. I'll get the cornbread started."

}|{

The next morning, Katherine stirred the coals from the night before until they glowed red and then added some buffalo chips to get the fire going again. Her mother was helping her father from the bed to the wagon seat, and as soon as he was sitting down, she climbed down from the wagon with a coffeepot and a side of bacon.

"We still have half the cornbread from last night, so I thought we'd have some bacon and coffee for breakfast."

She chuckled then.

"Think I should go ask Mr. Moore if he'd like to join us?"

When Katherine gasped out, "No, don't you dare", her mother smiled to herself as she walked back to the wagon for a frying pan and a knife.

She had intentionally teased Katherine because she wanted Katherine to think about her future. Her daughter was pretty enough to have any man she wanted. The problem was her daughter didn't seem to be very smart about the men she picked.

The preacher's son back in Sedville would have probably treated her well, but Katherine's mother didn't think he'd be a proper husband to her daughter. If Jacob's father was any measure, a preacher was married to his church first and to his wife second. That wasn't what the Bible said or what Pastor Brown told the congregation every time he married a couple, but his wife had confided in Mrs. Dunby that she always felt as if she was just the woman who cooked and did the washing for Pastor Brown.

So far, Katherine had used her head about James Conroy, but had been wrong about Wade Sprite. Katherine's mother hadn't trusted Wade because he never seemed to do any work. That probably meant he wouldn't be interested in doing anything to take care of Katherine. She was sure Katherine had seen that as well, but had ignored it because of the words Wade used when he spoke to her and she'd almost paid a dear price for that.

The two young men traveling together, the men she knew only as William and Jacob, hadn't made any advances to Katherine, and she thought she knew why. Back in Sedville, there were two women who lived in the same house and claimed to be sisters, but there was no resemblance between them. The rumor in Sedville was that they were seen embracing and kissing in their garden and everybody knew what that meant. Katherine's mother had never heard of men who were like that, but she figured if there were women like that, there were also men like that. William and Jacob sure did act like it.

That left Mr. Moore as a potential husband for Katherine. Maybe she was pushing Katherine a bit hard, but the girl was already nineteen and so far no men had tried to court Katherine except for Wade. It was obvious that Wade wasn't looking for a wife. All he was looking for was a woman to give him some pleasure from time to time, married or not.

Mr. Moore didn't seem interested in courting Katherine because he hadn't even spoken to anyone, much less Katherine. Katherine's mother hoped that if Mr. Moore and her daughter had to talk, she'd at least see that Mr. Moore was a good man.

}|{

Katherine was finishing washing the skillet after breakfast when Jasper walked back the Dunby wagon. He smiled at Katherine.

"Ma'am, you must be Katherine."

Katherine nodded.

"Well, the front of the wagon train has started moving. I have the oxen all hitched and ready to go. We probably have about half an hour before we can start. If you'll climb up in the seat, I'll show you what you need to do when we start down a slope."

Katherine had expected Jasper to climb into the seat with her, but he didn't. He offered his hand when she put her right foot on the wagon hub, but didn't really hold her hand. As Katherine stepped up and into the wagon, he just let her use his hand to steady herself.

Once she was in the wagon, Jasper walked around the back of the wagon to the right side, and then looked up.

"Ma'am, this here lever is the brake lever. When you push on it, it pushes the brake blocks against the back wheels and slows down the wagon. Your father probably hasn't used it much because with the oxen hitched to the wagon, the wheel span of oxen are heavy enough they can hold it back. Since your wagon is hitched to mine, I don't know if my one wheel span can do that. If the slope is very steep, they might get run over by both wagons hitched together.

"What I need you to do is watch me and when I wave my arm, you push on this lever. I'll be walking on the right side of the oxen so you'll be able to see me. When we're past the place where we need to slow down, I'll wave again and you can let go of the lever. Go ahead and push the lever so you'll know how it feels. All you need to do is push hard enough that you feel the wagon start to slow down."

Katherine pushed on the lever until it stopped. It didn't seem to be that hard. She moved the lever back to its original position and then asked Jasper if that was all she had to do.

"Yes, Ma'am, that's all. Well, it looks like the wagon ahead of us is starting to move. I'd best be getting back to the oxen."

With that he walked away.

All that day, Katherine sat on the wagon seat waiting for Jasper to wave at her to push the brake handle, but it only happened once. He'd waved at her and she pushed the lever hard enough she heard the wood brake blocks screeching against the iron tires on the wagon wheels. As soon as the wagons were on level ground again, Jasper waved at her and Katherine moved the lever back.

When they stopped for the noon meal, Katherine got down off the wagon to help her mother. Jasper didn't walk back to say anything until the rest of the wagons started moving again. Then, he walked back to help Katherine into the wagon seat again. As soon as she stepped over the side of the wagon and into the seat, Jasper went back to drive the oxen.

}|{

Every day that week was about the same. Katherine and her mother would fix a light breakfast and while her mother took food to her father, Katherine would wash up the pot or pans they'd used and put out the fire. Jasper would walk back to help her into the wagon and then go back to the oxen.

At the stop for the noon meal, Dr. Mayes would look at Katherine's father's cut and then change the bandage. After the first week, Dr. Mayes said Katherine's father still couldn't walk, but he could ride in the wagon seat instead of lying on his bed. Since her father could work the wagon brake, that freed up Katherine to collect buffalo chips and what firewood she could find. It also freed her up to think about Jasper Moore.

After the second day of working the wagon brake, Katherine had realized she wasn't afraid of Jasper anymore. He was just a really big man who was quiet and kept to himself. That's what she told herself until Dr. Mayes said her father could ride in the wagon seat.

The first day Katherine was back on the ground and walking her way to Oregon, she had another realization that was more of a question than anything else. Why hadn't Jasper tried to be friendly to her? He seemed to have relaxed around her mother and father. Why was he so indifferent to her?

By the second day, that question occupied her mind as she trudged along the rough, rutted path that both guided the wagon train and caused her to occasionally stumble. Was there something wrong with her? All the other young men on the wagon train had seemed eager to meet her except for William and Jacob, but Katherine understood the probable reason for that. Why was Jasper different?

On the morning of the third day, Katherine's strong will overpowered her mother's teaching about what a woman should and should not do relative to a man. Katherine increased her pace until she was walking beside Jasper. Maybe if she could get him to talk to her, she'd find out what seemed to be wrong.

When he looked at her, she smiled.

"Mr. Moore, how far from Oregon do you think we are?"

}|{

Jasper was a little surprised that Katherine had suddenly taken an interest in him and he couldn't figure out why she would. It wasn't that he didn't want to meet her because he'd often thought about what he'd say to her. He'd never tried to actually talk with her though, and that was because of his past. He didn't talk much to anyone because of that past. Nobody on the wagon train knew who he was and unless he told somebody, nobody in Oregon would either.

If he tried to talk to people, he would eventually have to answer the questions he'd heard in most conversations between the other people on the wagon train. Those questions would be why was he going to Oregon, what did he hope to find in Oregon, and why was a young man of twenty-two years traveling without a wife?

Jasper had worked out answers for the first two questions. He was going to Oregon because he thought the people in Oregon would need a blacksmith. What he hoped to find in Oregon was his own blacksmith shop in a town where he could become successful.

The last question Jasper couldn't answer because the truth would have been too painful for him. Jasper had decided the best way to avoid answering that last question was to not give anyone the chance to ask him the other two.

Now, Katherine seemed to want to talk. Did she suspect he was hiding something? No, she probably just wanted to get to get to know him. After all, it was because of him that her family wasn't stopped in the middle of nowhere until her father recovered.

Jasper made what he hoped was a friendly smile.

"Well, Mr. Mason said it would take about six months and we've been traveling for a little over three so we're probably about three months away."

That answer was short and Jasper had turned away to lightly touch one of the oxen on the shoulder with the long whip he always carried. It seemed to Katherine like he was done talking. She couldn't let him just stop talking to her, so she tried again.

"I wish we could go faster. I can hardly wait until we get to Oregon. My father is going to build us a house first and then start farming. What are you going to do in Oregon?"

Well, there it was, one of the questions Jasper had tried to avoid answering.

He shrugged.

"Well, I'm a blacksmith and I figured on setting up a shop where farmers can get their horses shod and get their farm things fixed when they break."

Katherine smiled. At least he hadn't turned away this time.

"I never went to the blacksmith back in Sedville. My father always did that. What does a blacksmith do?"

Well, that was a question Jasper wasn't afraid of answering.

"Most people think a blacksmith just shoes horses, forges iron and steel into plowshares and welds broken iron parts back together. A blacksmith does that, but he does other things too. He builds wagons and carriages. I built my wagon. I forged and welded all the iron parts, but I also sawed out all the wood parts and fastened the iron to them. I made the wheels too.

"That's what I want to do in Oregon. I want to make things the farmers need and then fix them when they need fixing."

"Like you fixed our wagon so you could pull it behind yours?"

Jasper nodded.

"Yes, like that. Farmers need things like new plowshares and coulter blades and I can make those. I can make about anything a farmer would need. I can make about anything a woman would need for her garden and house too. I expect some women in Oregon will want a new hoe sometimes and unless they brought a cookstove with them, they'll probably need irons for their fireplace too."

Katherine was happy that she finally had Jasper talking to her. Maybe he was just shy and had needed her to get him started.

"When I get a house of my own, I'll come to you to make those things for me, that is, if they don't cost too much. I don't know how people in Oregon will make money to pay you for your work. From what my father says, the people in Oregon will mostly just live on what they can raise. That's what he plans to do anyway. If people can't pay money to have you do things for them, how will you get along?"

Jasper was surprised that he found Katherine pretty easy to talk to. He hadn't felt that way since Brown's Crossing.

"Well, I figure on having enough land that I can do some farming too. I probably won't plow up anything bigger than a garden, but I have a team of horses and a couple cows out there with the rest of the livestock. If I can trade some work to get the cows bred, I'll have steers for meat and milk cows to trade for some chickens and feed for my horses. I won't need money for much except for some iron, and I have as much iron in my wagon as it would carry after I put in my anvil, forge, and other tools.

"There will be a few people in Oregon who have money, I expect. Mr. Sprite says he'll loan money to people who need it. I suppose I'll have to do work for him, but it will be cash money only for him because of what..."

Jasper turned away again and Katherine didn't want him to stop talking.

"Because of what?"

Katherine saw Jasper's face turn into a frown.

"Just because."

"But you stopped before you finished saying what you were going to say. What were you going to say?"

Jasper didn't say anything because what he'd been going to say would probably lead to the question he couldn't answer. He looked at Katherine. She was still smiling. Maybe she wouldn't ask that question.

"What I was going to say was... was... well, because of what his boy did to you."

When Katherine looked at Jasper's face, she didn't know what to say about that. The other people in the wagon train had condemned Wade for what he'd done and then criticized his father for defending him, but not like this. When Jasper had finally answered her, she could see the anger in his face. She didn't think that anger was the same as what the other people in the wagon train felt about the Sprites. The feelings of most of the people in the wagon train were based upon their religious beliefs.

No, this was more than just what the Bible said was right and wrong. The look on Jasper's face was more like hatred than anything else, and it was pretty intimidating. Katherine decided to stop their conversation for fear of making Jasper even more angry.

"Well, it's getting on toward noon. I probably better go see if my mother needs any help. We'll have to talk again, Jasper. I liked talking with you."

}|{

Katherine didn't walk up beside Jasper the next day or the day after that. She wasn't sure what she'd said that caused the look on his face and the tone of his voice, and she didn't want that to happen again. Instead, she walked beside her father's wagon.

She was surprised on the third day when Jasper walked back to where Katherine and her mother were cleaning up after breakfast. He smiled and spoke to Katherine's mother, but Katherine could see that he was looking at her.

"Mrs. Dunby, I expect we'll start moving in a few minutes. Do you need any help getting ready?"

Katherine's mother said they were almost done so they wouldn't need any help. Jasper smiled again and then walked back to the oxen. Katherine was putting out the fire when her mother said in a low voice, "Katherine, I think Jasper likes you. He was looking at you the whole time he was here. He had to know we'd be ready to go because he's been watching us since your father got hurt. I believe he came back here just to see you.

"Normally I'd say a woman should wait on a man to ask to talk to her, but Jasper seems pretty backward for some reason. You should go talk to him once we start moving again."

Katherine shook her head.

"I can't. The last time I did, I think I made him mad at me."

Katherine's mother chuckled.

"He wasn't looking at you like he was mad at you. He was looking at you like he wanted to see you again. Katherine, he's as good a man as any man in this wagon train and better than a lot. You could at least give him a chance. You could do a lot worse than a blacksmith, you know."

Katherine finished putting out the fire and stirred the ashes to make sure there were no glowing coals remaining, and then picked up the splits of wood that were left. While they were getting into country that had more trees, wood was still hard to come by.

As she put the few sticks into the back of the wagon, she was thinking about what her mother had said.

Yes, she'd seen Jasper looking at her, and yes, he'd probably walked back to see her, but why? The only time they'd actually talked with each other, he'd ended up very angry. Katherine couldn't think of anything she'd said that might have caused that, but it had happened.

Katherine had already come to the conclusion that Jasper was a good man. Of all the men in the wagon train, Jasper was the only one who had volunteered to do as much as he could do to make sure Katherine's family could continue on to Oregon. The other men had helped bring her father back to the wagon and they'd given them the load of split wood that was now in the back of the wagon, but none had done anything to help her family keep moving except for Jasper.

Katherine was struggling between wanting to talk to Jasper to find out more about him and the fear that something she said would drive him away. Katherine wasn't worried that Jasper would stop pulling the Dunby wagon behind his. He wasn't the type of man to do something like that, but it was going to be a very long trip if he wouldn't talk except to ask if they were ready.

She finally decided there was only one way to know, and that way was to go talk with Jasper some more. She'd just have to be careful about what she said and stop if it looked like Jasper was becoming angry again. After the noon meal, Katherine increased her pace enough that she could catch up with Jasper.

}|{

Harold Sprite waited until the wagon train half a mile ahead of his wagon had started to move, and then lashed at the lead ox with the whip he carried.

He muttered to himself, "Damned fools. Gave up what I can offer because a damned fool girl thought Wade was going to do something to her. Well, they'll be sorry once they get to Oregon."

Wade rode his horse up beside his father.

"What was that you said?"

Harold frowned.

"I was just saying those fools up there are going to regret making us stay back here. I'm getting sick and tired of eating their dust. They're all as dumb as these oxen because they can't look further than what that Baptist preacher tells them. I heard him one Sunday morning telling them something about women who lay with a man before they're married are the same as whores.

"That dumb little bitch thought just because you touched her somewhere you were trying to get her to spread her legs. How the hell she came to that idea I don't have a goddamned clue, but it's because of her that we're back here either eating dust or wading in mud. It would serve her right if one of them church-going fools does spread her legs and ruins her for any decent man. She'd die an old maid and always remember what she did to cause it."

Wade smiled. He was sure his father would believe his story about the incident and he'd not been wrong.

"Those people never liked us because we have money and they don't. That's why they believed her. They wouldn't think the same way if it was one of their men who did it. Well, you never know. Maybe one of those other men will."

Harold shook his head.

"Not much chance of that happening. They're all scared to death of being sent back here with us. Might happen when we get to Oregon though. From what I've read, there's not much in the way of law in Oregon and there aren't any wagon trains to make people stay a mile behind. Yes, probably happen in Oregon unless the little bitch gets herself stuck before we get there.

"That's what she deserves for ruining our good name. She deserves to ruin her family name by dying an old maid because no decent man would touch her after that. Be better if she had to raise a bastard kid without a husband, but her dying an old maid would be good enough for me."

Wade smiled again. Maybe it would happen before they got to Oregon.

}|{

Jasper was surprised when Katherine walked up beside him. He thought he'd probably scared her the first time, and when she didn't even look up when he'd asked if they were ready, he was sure of it.

Jasper had kicked himself over and over for letting his feelings just rush out like they had. Katherine could have had no idea about what caused those feelings. He'd almost told her, but hadn't because she would never understand. Nobody would understand. They hadn't understood back in Brown's Crossing either, and that's why he'd started for Oregon. He could start a new life where nobody knew or suspected. Jasper knew he'd always know, but he couldn't do anything about that now except start over.

Jasper felt a thrill run through him when Katherine asked how he was doing, and had to let that thrill settle before he answered.

"Oh, about like always I suppose."

Jasper tried to laugh then.

"I'll be doing a lot better when I can stop walking my feet off day in and day out."

Katherine's chuckle was genuine.

"I know what you mean. I think my feet are about as hard as an ox hoof by now. I stepped on a sticker bush yesterday and didn't even feel it. It wasn't until I sat down by the wagon and saw the sticker in my foot that I knew."

Jasper tried to make conversation, but it was harder now than before. Before, he'd just answered Katherine's questions. Now that he knew a little about her, he wanted to know more. He wasn't sure why he wanted to know more, but he did, and he didn't have much experience at talking to women.

"Yeah, mine are about the same way. It's not bad if it's dry. It's the mud when it rains that I don't like. Every step feels like when you step on a fresh... well, when you don't look where you're going in a cow pasture.

"Back at home I always wore work shoes so I never got anything on my bare feet. It'll be nice to be able to wear shoes again."

Katherine chuckled again.

"I always wore shoes but I didn't go walking in a cow pasture. Where was home?"

Jasper paused. He knew the Dunby's were from Sedville and Sedville was a hundred miles from Brown's Crossing. There was no way she could know, was there?

"Home was a little farm about a mile from Brown's Crossing in Missouri."

Katherine smiled to herself. Jasper was talking to her again.

"I don't know where Brown's Crossing is. Where is it?"

"Well, it's a tiny little town in a valley of the Ozark Mountains. Probably had about fifty or so people living there, maybe another three or four farms in the area. Our farm was just as small, just a few patches in the trees we could farm. We could have cleared more land, but my father wasn't really strong enough to farm more than he did. We did all right though. Raised enough hay and corn and other things to feed us, two horses, a milk cow and a steer or two. Oh and a few chickens for eggs."

Jasper paused while he thought of something else to say. All that came to mind was, "Did you live on a little farm too?"

"Well, my father's farm was about thirty acres, but it wasn't enough for him because he planned on having my husband help him once I got married. He had this big idea of going to Oregon and having a big farm with my husband and our sons to run it."

Katherine chuckled again.

"I thought we'd be riding in the wagon. If he'd told me I had to walk every day for six months, I think I'd have told him to go on without me."

Before Jasper could think about what he said, he said, "Well, I'm glad you decided to come along."

As soon as he'd said it, Jasper said, "Ma'am, I didn't mean anything by that. It's just that you're pretty easy to talk to and the other people aren't."

Katherine grinned.

"Nobody ever told me I was easy to talk to before. Most people think I'm pretty stubborn and won't listen to what they have to say."

Jasper tapped the lead off ox on the shoulder.

"Keep on pulling, Mike. You're letting Jake do all the work."

He turned back to Katherine then.

"Now, why would people think that? You don't seem very stubborn to me."

"Oh, I can be if I want to be. My mother always reminds me of the time I decided I wasn't going to gather eggs from the hen house. She told me if I didn't gather the eggs, I wouldn't get any eggs for breakfast. Took me a month of eating oatmeal every morning before I decided gathering eggs wasn't as big a chore as I thought. I was about ten at the time, so I got started being stubborn pretty early.

"I'm going to be pretty stubborn if my father does what he thinks he wants and tries to marry me off to some man I don't like. I can't imagine being married to a man I don't like. I mean, how could that ever work out for the best?"

Jasper felt the anger beginning to rise again, but this time, he willed it away.

"It wouldn't work. Be like trying to mix oil and water. You can do that for a little while, but they always separate again. I'd never marry a woman I didn't like a lot and who didn't like me a lot. I mean, my mother and father argued sometimes, but they always worked together to make things as good as they could. The only reason they could do that was they liked each other."

Katherine sensed that Jasper was a little uneasy so she changed the subject.

"So, if your father was a farmer, why did you learn how to be a blacksmith?"

Jasper was comfortable again.

"Well, it was like I said. That farm was about big enough for three people. Wouldn't have been enough to feed me and a wife and some kids. I still like farming, but I decided I needed to find another way to make a living. I've always liked animals and building things, and that's what a blacksmith does.

"When I was fourteen, I went to the blacksmith in Brown's Crossing and told him I'd work for free if he'd teach me how to be a blacksmith. Six years later, I'd built this wagon and he said I could do anything he could do."

Jasper decided he'd answer the next inevitable question before Katherine could ask it with his made-up answer.

""Well, I was a blacksmith then, but Brown's Crossing wasn't really big enough for even one blacksmith. I went back to farming and raised enough steers to buy my horses, an anvil, some tools, and a supply of iron. That took another two years. After that, I hitched up and drove to Independence to start for Oregon."

Katherine was a little surprised that Jasper had offered all that information when she hadn't asked the question. She figured he'd told her the truth, but what he'd said wasn't the real reason he was going to Oregon. He'd already told her that he liked farming and that he planned to continue farming once he got to Oregon.

Katherine's father was fifty-six and had been complaining about having a sore back for years. He was only going to Oregon to give her and her husband enough land to make a better life than he and her mother had had. Jasper had just said that he and his father could have cleared and planted more land, but his father wasn't strong enough to do that. It didn't make sense that Jasper would leave his family in Missouri to go to Oregon. Staying on the farm and making it bigger would have taken less time and cost less.

Jasper was hiding something from her and Katherine figured that something was what had caused him to get angry during their first talk. Katherine though it best to move on to a different subject.

"So, how do you drive an ox team? I've watched my father but I can't see what he's doing."

Jasper shrugged though he was happy Katherine didn't want to keep talking about Oregon.

"Well, cattle are usually pretty calm, at least compared to horses. Sometimes a bull will act up, but all these are steers. That's why they're so big. Steers don't run off their weight chasing cows to breed or lose weight because they're carrying a calf. They don't have anything to do except eat and get bigger unless they're hitched to something.

"These were pretty green when I bought them but they'd been yoked before so getting them in a yoke wasn't hard. Getting them to pull together took some work, but all it takes is to remind them if they start to fall back a little.

"Cattle are also like to be with other cattle so their natural way is to follow the herd. If you get the front two going where they're supposed to go, the rest will usually follow. They're also pretty slow, so you have time to get them going in the right direction. With horses, they can tear up a hitch before you can do much about it."

Katherine smiled to herself. Jasper was back to his soft voice and he looked relaxed.

"How do you get them to turn? I've never seen my father do anything to turn them."

"Well, you just didn't hear him. You do the same with oxen as you do with plow horses. Giddup means start walking, whoa means stop, gee means turn right and haw means turn left. Cattle hear pretty good so you don't need to yell at them. Yelling at them could make them spook too, and you don't want to be in the way if one decides to run off. That's why you don't yell."

Katherine had run out of questions so they didn't say anything more until Jasper asked Katherine what she was going to do in Oregon. Jasper had expected Katherine to say she wanted to live on a farm as a farmer's wife. Katherine's answer wasn't that.

"I haven't thought a lot about what I'm going to do in Oregon. My mother and father want me to get married and have some children. I suppose if I find a really good man who likes me and who I like, I'll do that, but I don't know any men in Oregon.

"If I don't find that man, well, I don't know how to do anything except keep house, sew clothes, wash clothes, and how a mother is supposed to raise her children. I don't know what else there would be to do in Oregon. Back in Sedville, single women worked at the general store or at the hotel. There were a few women who worked at the saloon, but I could never do something like that. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens when we get there."

About that time, the wagon in front of Jasper started to slow down. He quietly said "whoa" to the oxen and then turned back to Katherine.

"Mr. Mason said we'd be coming to another river today. Looks like we got there and he's stopping so we can cross tomorrow. I need to get these oxen unhitched and out to the pasture. Maybe we can talk some more tomorrow after we cross."

As Katherine walked back to the Dunby wagon, she was smiling. Jasper wasn't much different from any other man she knew, and as her mother had said, he was a good man. He wasn't the man Katherine would have picked for a husband, but again as her mother had said, she could do a lot worse then a blacksmith. She wondered if Jasper liked her that way or if he was just being polite.

}|{

It was just about dusk when Katherine and her mother helped her father down from the wagon for supper. They ate quickly because they knew the next day would be a lot of hard work. Mr. Mason had called a meeting right after the wagon train had stopped to explain what they were going to do.

"Folks, this here river isn't too deep so we won't have to caulk the wagons, but the current is pretty fast so we'll send one span of oxen over first, then run a rope from them back to the other bank. We'll tie the rope to the lead span of oxen, and the span on the other bank will help pull your wagon to the other side. It'll be slower so it will take most of the day, but it'll make it easier on your spans to have another span helping. We'll start at daylight so get a good night's rest."

After finishing cleaning up after supper, Katherine and her mother helped her father back into the wagon and onto his bed. While Katherine's mother dressed for bed, Katherine walked away from the wagons behind some trees to relive herself.

She finished and was standing up when someone grabbed her from behind. Katherine had just enough time to scream before a hand covered her mouth. She opened her mouth and bit down hard, and when the man who held her yelped in pain, she raised her hands and felt for his face.

Before the man could push her to the ground, Katherine raked her fingernails down each side of his face. The man swore, "Goddammit, bitch. Hold still and take what you deserve to get. Hell, you might even like it."

When the man turned Katherine onto her back, she looked to see who he was, but it was dark enough in the trees all she could make out was a dark shape. When she reached to rake his face again, the man hit her on the side of the head with his fist, and then started to lift up her dress.

The blow stunned Katherine enough that she couldn't fight back, but she knew what was about to happen. She screamed again and then again until the man hit her in the face two more times.

Katherine felt the man doing something after he spread her legs, but then everything turned to just black and the pain in her head.

}|{

Jasper had been putting out his fire when he heard the first scream. He dropped everything and ran in the direction of the sound. He heard the muttering of a man and then two more screams before he found the source.

There was a woman lying on the ground with a man on top of her and holding her down. It was obvious what that man was trying to do, and that made Jasper's past come back.

He ran to the man, grabbed him by the arm and pulled him off the woman, then punched the man in the chest hard enough he heard and felt the crack of bones. He then threw the man to the side and went to the woman.

Jasper was beside himself when he realized the woman was Katherine. He picked her up and carried her back to the Dunby wagon, called for her mother, and when Katherine's mother climbed out of the wagon in her nightdress, he told her what had happened.

"Mrs. Dunby, Ma'am, some man tried to... well, you can imagine what he was trying to do. I stopped him before he could, but she's hurt bad. You take care of her while I go get Dr. Mayes."

}|{

Katherine woke up lying on a blanket beside the wagon and saw Dr. Mayes holding a lantern and looking at her. She tried to sit up, but Dr. Mayes pushed her back down.

"Katherine, you had us all scared to death. How do you feel?"

Katherine tried to move her arms and legs and they seemed to work.

"I have a headache, but other than that I feel about like normal, I guess."

Dr. Mayes' face was dead serious.

"Do you feel anything in your, uh, private parts?

When Katherine said no, Dr. Mayes smiled.

"That's good. Jasper must have stopped the man before he could do what he was trying to do. As for your headache, I'll give your mother some willow bark extract to help. Looks to me like you'll have a bump on your head for a couple days, but that should go down pretty quick. I think Mr. Ellison wants to talk to you now, so I'll go get your medicine."

Mr. Ellison knelt down beside Katherine then.

"Katherine, who did this to you?"

Katherine winced at the pain when she shook her head.

"I don't know. I was dark out there and all I could see was a shape. I think I marked him though. I got my hands on his face and dug in my fingernails. After that, he hit me and I couldn't fight back."

Katherine heard Jasper then.

"Mr. Ellison, after I fetched Dr. Mayes, I went back to see if he was still here, but he wasn't. I think whoever did this will be easy to find though, because I punched him in the chest hard enough he'll have some broke ribs. I heard 'em snap when I hit him. All we have to do is find a man with a scratched face and broke ribs and we'll have the man who did this."

Mr. Ellison stood up then.

"Well, there's no use in looking for him before daylight. Mrs. Dunby, you take care of Katherine as best you can. Jasper, if you would, would you stay with the Dunby wagon tonight. I doubt he will, but that man might come back.

"Tomorrow morning we'll line up every man in this wagon train and find out who did this. Once we know, there won't be a need for a trial but we'll have to decide upon a punishment."

}|{

After Dr. Mayes brought Katherine's mother the willow extract and told her to give Katherine a teaspoon twice a day until her headache went away, Jasper knelt down beside Katherine.

"Miss Dunby, are you sure you're alright?"

Katherine looked up at Jasper's face lit by the lantern. What she saw looked like genuine pain. She put her hand on Jasper's cheek.

"Yes, Mr. Moore, I feel alright. I wouldn't be if it wasn't for you though. I know it isn't enough, but thank you so much."

Jasper smiled.

"Ma'am, I just did what any man would do to help a woman being hurt. There's no need to thank me. You don't need to worry none either. Mr. Ellison asked me to watch over you tonight. I'll be sleeping under your wagon. You'd best get some rest now if we're going to cross the river tomorrow."

}|{

The next morning, Mr. Ellison and Mr. Simmons made the rounds of the wagon train and told the people to meet at Mr. Ellison's wagon as soon as they finished breakfast. The sun was just over the trees along the river when the last of the people walked there and sat down. Mr. Ellison stood up.

"Folks, most of you have already heard what happened last night. Miss Dunby was attacked again. Mr. Moore heard her scream and was able to drive off the man before he could... before he could do to her what he set out to do.

"Miss Dunby couldn't see the man's face, but she says she scratched his face with her fingernails. Mr. Moore says he hit the man in the chest and he probably has a broken rib or two.

"It pains me to say this, but I want every man in this wagon train, no matter his age, to come forward so Dr. Mayes can look at his face and feel his ribs. Do it now."

It took a couple minutes before the men stood in a row, and only another five for Dr. Mayes to examine each one. When he finished, he turned to Mr. Ellison.

"None of these men did this, but unless I'm wrong there are two men missing. I don't seen Mr. Sprite or his son."

There was a murmur of whispered conversation among the people standing there until Mr. Mason stepped forward.

"Folks, I'm hearing that some of you want to go get Mr. Sprite and his son. We'll do that, but like I told you when we started out, if it looks like one of them is to blame, you'll have a trial and if they're found guilty, you'll decide upon a punishment. I won't have it no other way on my wagon train.

"Now, I want all the men to go with me back to the Sprite wagon and have Dr. Mayes look at them both. I don't want nobody carrying a gun. That'll just lead to something none of us want."

}|{

Mr. Mason rode his horse as he led the group of men toward the Sprite wagon. They followed mostly in silence. What they were going to do was accuse one of the Sprites of a crime they considered almost as bad as killing someone. The responsibility to do that weighed heavily on their minds.

They were about a hundred feet from the Sprite wagon, and they saw that the oxen were not yet hitched. They also heard Mr. Sprite yell, "You people get the Hell away from my wagon. We haven't done anything to any of you."

Mr. Ellison tried to reason with the man.

"Mr. Sprite, we're not saying you did, but someone attacked Miss Dunby last night and we have to find out who did it. All we want is for Dr. Mayes to look at your faces and feel your ribs. If you don't have a scratched face and hurt ribs, we'll leave you alone."

Mr. Sprite yelled back.

"I'll not have anyone continue to ruin my good family name with a false accusation. You get the Hell away from my wagon, or you'll pay the price."

Mr. Ellison again tried reason.

Mr. Sprite, if neither you nor your son is responsible for this attack you have nothing to fear from any of us. Just come out of your wagon so we all will know."

Mr. Ellison's answer was two double barrel shotgun barrels that popped up from behind the wagon seat and then four shots into the crowd of men. Six men in the front, including Mr. Ellison and Mr. Simmons cried out and fell to the ground. Dr. Mayes rushed to their side and then yelled for someone to run back to his wagon and bring him his medical bag.

At the same time, Mr. Mason drew the Colt Dragoon from his holster and spurred his horse to a gallop. He pulled up right at the wagon, pointed his revolver, and pulled the trigger, then cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger three more times. All was quiet then as Mr. Mason got down off his horse and climbed into the wagon. A couple minutes later he got back on his horse and rode back to the group of men standing around Dr. Mayes and the six men who had fallen.

"Dr. Mayes, any men dead?"

Dr. Mayes shook his head.

"No, Mr. Ellison was shot in the legs and Mr. Simmons took some shot in his arm. Looks to me like they were shot first. The other four were spread out far enough they only have some shot I'll have to dig out, but they're not hurt bad. We were far enough from the wagon that the shot spread out a lot. Do I need to go look at the Sprites?"

Mr. Mason shook his head.

"No. They're both dead. The one with the scratched face is Harold, the father, so we know who attacked Miss Dunby the second time. He and his son, Wade, were reloading their shotguns when I rode up to the wagon. They were doin' their best to kill at least some of you, so they were both guilty of attempted murder. We all saw it, so there ain't no need for a trial and I just punished them so you don't have to do that either.

"I know I told you that I wouldn't let you kill any member of my wagon train, and that's still the case. I didn't say I wouldn't kill someone if there was no other way and in this case, there wasn't. They would have kept shooting until they killed someone and that's why I shot them. In my book, any man who kills or tries to kill another man doesn't deserve to live any longer.

"Now, you men help Dr. Mayes get the injured men back to the wagons. Then, I want Pastor Ray to bring back four of you with picks and shovels. We'll get the Sprites out of the wagon and into the ground and Pastor Ray can send them on their way. Bein's what they both did, I doubt they're goin' to see any pearly gates, but it wouldn't be right to jest leave 'em layin' here for the buzzards.

"We'll hitch their oxen and bring their wagon up with the rest once we get 'em buried. When Mr. Ellison feels like he can call one, we need a meeting to decide what to do with their stock, their wagon and what's in it."

}|{

It took Dr. Mayes until about noon before he was satisfied he'd pulled all the shot from the six men. Mr. Ellison was hurt the worst and now wore bandages on each leg. Mr. Simmons likewise had a bandage around his left arm. The rest had just a few holes after Dr. Mayes dug out the bird shot and had bandages where the holes were. Some were almost humorous. Mr. Bains, a carpenter, had one bandage that covered his right ear and another on his right thumb. Mr. Dawson had a bandage but nobody could see it because it was inside his pants. All had complained that when Dr. Mayes poured whiskey on the wounds, it hurt worse then getting shot.

Right after the noon meal, Mr. Ellison and Mr. Simmons made the rounds to summon the people for a meeting. Once they were assembled, Mr. Ellison stood up, winced at the effort, and then spoke.

"Folks, you all know what happened this morning. It's all over and you can rest easy without worrying about your wives and daughters. The Sprites are both on their way to meet their maker.

"What we need to do now is decide what to do with their stock and their wagon and what that wagon was carrying. I've talked with Mr. Mason and he has some suggestions I'd like you to consider.

"He favors putting their stock in with ours so we'll have enough oxen to replace any that die during the rest of the trip. He had one saddle horse, and Mr. Mason thought it would be right to give that horse and saddle to Mr. Moore since he was the man who saved Miss Dunby from what Mr. Sprite had intended to do.

"As for the wagon and yokes, Mr. Mason says we should leave them right here because we don't have anybody to drive it and some other wagon train might need a wagon for parts if one of theirs breaks something.

"The rest of what was in their wagon doesn't amount to much, just some pots and pans and eating things, two bedrolls, some clothes, their two shotguns and powder, balls, caps, and wads, and what was left of their food. There were six bottles of whiskey as well, and I think Dr. Mayes should have it. It worked on Mr. Dunby and after digging the birdshot out of us, he's about out.

"My suggestion would be to divide up the food as evenly as possible depending upon who needs what. The rest... well I don't know what all you think, but I wouldn't want to sleep in a bedroll where those two did. Wouldn't want to wear their clothes either, but their clothes would make rags for the womenfolk.

"That's what I think we should do with some of it, but I won't decide for the group. Anybody have a different way to divide everything up?"

There were several suggestions from the group which were decided by vote. The pots and pans, plates and other eating and cooking things would go into Pastor Ray's wagon to be given to any woman who needed one. The guns and their supplies would go with Pastor Ray as well to be used by any man to hunt for game. Pastor Ray said he had enough room in his wagon and would do his best to make sure people got what they needed.

Nobody wanted any part of the clothing, blankets and such unless they were washed. Since they were beside a river, the women would wash everything and then put it in Pastor Ray's wagon to be doled out when the need arose.

The group all agreed about the livestock and wagon including the few tools in the boxes on the side. Nobody really needed the tools and didn't have room to carry them anyway. Pastor Ray would take them in his wagon.

The last question came from Mr. Ellison himself.

"I know Harold Sprite told you all that you'd never get a loan from him, and you're probably wondering how much money was in his wagon. Well, Pastor Ray can vouch for this, but there wasn't any but about fifty dollars in gold. We found a receipt in one of Mr. Sprite's boxes that said he'd sent his money to Oregon by ship. That way, he could insure it in case something happened. There's about a thousand dollars on that boat and it should get to Oregon about the same time we do.

"Mr. Sprite left his wife in St. Louis and she's a widow now. I believe the Christian thing to do is to sent that money back to her. As for the money they did have, I think Pastor Ray should keep it. If somebody comes up short for a ferry or a toll, we'll pay it out of that money. If that money isn't needed, Pastor Ray can use it to build his church in Oregon."

Two of the women said since Katherine was the woman hurt, she should get at least some of the money. There was a nodding of heads until Katherine walked up in front of the group.

"I appreciate what you're trying to do for me, but I don't want their money. If Mr. Sprite did business in St. Louis like he acted among us, it probably wasn't gotten in a good way. I don't want anything from them except to be rid of them. Now that that's done, all I want is to keep going to Oregon."

As the group dispersed Katherine started for her wagon and saw Jasper ahead of her. She ran up to him and touched him on the arm.

"Mr. Moore, last night I hurt pretty bad and I didn't thank you like I should have. I want to thank you now."

With that, Katherine wrapped her arms around Jasper's chest and put her cheek on his chest.

She'd intended to just give him a quick hug. She hadn't thought he'd do anything except stand there. When she felt his arms around her, she couldn't let him go. It wasn't that she couldn't have pushed him away. It was because for some reason it felt good to her to feel his arms around her. It made her feel safe, like there was nothing in the world that could hurt her if she just stayed like she was.

The hug didn't last much longer, because Katherine realized she shouldn't be hugging any man like that. She gently pushed away and looked up at Jasper.

"Mr. Moore, I'm sorry for doing that, but it's what I felt like doing. I hope I haven't embarrassed you."

Jasper stammered a little when he answered.

"N... no, Ma'am, you... you didn't embarrass me. You could have just told me thank you though."

Katherine smiled.

"I know, but after what you did for me... words just weren't enough."

Jasper smiled back. He was embarrassed and more than a little. Only once before had he felt a woman that close, and after that first time, he didn't know if it was right to like feeling Katherine's breasts against his chest and her cheek on his shoulder. What he did know is that Katherine had awakened a feeling he thought he'd put behind him.

}|{

The wagon train was a day late in crossing the river because of the attack on Katherine, but for the most part went smoothly. Katherine's mother rode in the seat with her husband. Katherine was going to ride in the back of the wagon, but just before they started across, Jasper walked back to the Dunby wagon.

"Miss Dunby, Ma'am, it isn't safe for you to ride inside the wagon. If it would turn over for some reason, nobody would be able to get to you. You come ride in my wagon seat. You'll be safe there."

Jasper helped Katherine into his wagon seat and then started the eight oxen toward the crossing. When the two men used a smaller rope to pull the tow rope back across the river, Jasper tied it to the yoke of the front pair of oxen and then waved his hand. The man driving the span of oxen on the other bank started them moving and when the rope tightened, Jasper said, "Giddup" to his span. Slowly the oxen felt for the river bottom, and after finding it to hold their weight they began pulling.

Katherine sat there on the seat and watched Jasper. He just kept talking to the oxen while they moved across the river. A few times, Katherine felt a wagon wheel sink into a low spot in the river bed, but the oxen pulled it out and kept on going. When they reached the other bank, Jasper drove them up onto flat ground and then untied the tow rope. He walked the oxen to where the other wagons were gathered and started unhitching them.

Because the crossing took several minutes, Katherine also looked back into Jasper's wagon. What she saw wasn't what she expected at all. He'd told her he had his tools and iron in his wagon. Katherine thought he'd have a few boxes with clothes, food, and cooking things, but there were none. The only thing she saw in the bed of the wagon was a box in the back and lots of iron bars, and a small area with a blanket.

The only other thing she saw was several smoked hams hanging from the wood bows that supported the canvas top and a wooden box that had "Cheddar Cheese" printed on the side and sitting on some of the iron. It was then that Katherine realized that she'd never seen Jasper cooking anything. He must have been surviving on ham and cheese.

Katherine shook her head. Her family didn't have any fancy food, but they had canned meat or game, dried vegetables and fruit, and flour and corn meal and the other things needed to make bread and biscuits. They were eating like kings compared to Jasper.

Katherine climbed down from the wagon then and walked to Jasper. She wasn't going to take no for an answer like her mother had.

"Mr. Moore, you've done so much for my family and even more for me. Won't you please come to supper with us tonight? It'll be our way of showing you that we're thankful for everything you've done."

Jasper shook his head.

"No need, Ma'am. I do just fine by myself. Thank you for asking though."

Katherine frowned.

"Mr. Moo... you know, after what you did for me, I don't think it's right for me to call you Mr. Moore and for you to call me Miss Dunby. Back in Sedville it would have been all right, but out here where we're all by ourselves, it seems so stuffy. Can I call you Jasper, and would you call me Katherine?"

Jasper smiled.

"If that's what you want, Ma'am, I mean, Katherine."

Katherine smiled.

"Well, now that we have that settled, Mother and I are making a stew with canned corn beef, leather britches beans, and potatoes. I'm sure it will be better than that ham and cheese I saw in your wagon."

Katherine put her hand on his arm then.

"Please won't you come, if not for me, for my mother and father?"

Jasper had thought he'd already answered, but Katherine wouldn't accept that. Her smile and the tingle that raced through him when she touched his arm made him change his mind. Maybe Katherine was what he needed. He knew what he'd needed before, and now he was feeling that same need again.

He shrugged.

"I suppose I could just this once."

}|{

That night, Katherine made sure to give Jasper a big bowl of stew and when he finished it, she asked if he'd like more.

Jasper looked at the ground.

"Ma'... I mean Katherine, I'm full as a tick so I'll have to say no. Your mother does make a really good stew though.

Katherine's mother had been watching the way Jasper and Katherine looked at each other while they ate, and she chuckled.

"Mr. Moore, I appreciate you saying that, but it was Katherine who made the stew. I was taking care of her father. I taught my daughter to be a good cook for her husband and sometimes I think she cooks better than I do."

Jasper looked up at Katherine then.

"Well, then I'd say you make a really good stew, Katherine."

Katherine felt her face getting warm and knew she was blushing.''

"I can cook more than stew. It's just that out here we don't have much to cook with. If I could get a chicken or two I'd show you how I make a chicken pot pie."

Katherine's father chimed in then.

"Well, Dr. Mayes said after he checked me that I could walk some. I still can't walk enough to drive the oxen, but I'll bet I can get us a prairie hen or two tomorrow. If I can, you make your chicken pot pie and Jasper, you come back and join us for supper."

}|{

Two weeks later, Dr. Mayes examined the cut on Katherine's father's leg and said it was a healed as it would ever get, and that her father could start driving the oxen again. Katherine's heart sank when she heard that. It meant that Jasper would unhook their wagon from his and they'd be on their own again.

Katherine didn't hear the conversation between her mother and father that afternoon, but she did hear what her father said to Jasper over the dinner Katherine had fixed of roasted rabbit with dried peas and cornbread.

"Well, Jasper, Dr. Mayes says I can start driving my own wagon again, but I tried walking all day yesterday and it still hurts. I've been thinking. You do a really good job with the oxen, better than I ever did, and if I'm driving the oxen, I can't hunt. Genelle here can keep the oxen following your wagon, but if something happens, well, she would need a lot of help. Probably stop the whole wagon train until we got it all straightened out again.

"What I was thinking is that if you'd keep on like we have been, you pulling both wagons and me doing some hunting, the oxen would have an easier time and we'd all eat better. Over these last weeks, you've become almost family anyway. What would you think about doing that?"

Jasper had to think for a while. He'd let himself grow accustomed to having Katherine walk with him and he'd also grown accustomed to eating supper with them. The suppers made him think of how it was back home in Brown's Crossing when his mother and father were still alive. Having Katherine by his side was almost like... but no, this was nothing like before. This was more.

Jasper had had this conversation with himself over and over for the last two weeks, and had finally decided that he'd left before behind him and it was time to stop thinking about it.

"Well, Mr. Dunby, I've gotten used to how things are, and it isn't any more work for me except putting four more oxen in yokes and hooking their chains to my wagon. I wouldn't mind having your help with hitching up, but if that's what you want to do, I suppose we could try it and see how it works out."

Katherine's heart skipped a beat then. Jasper would stay with them and that meant she could stay with him without everybody on the wagon train thinking something was going on between her and Jasper.

}|{

Life got harder as soon as the wagon train started into the mountains. Instead of forty miles a day, they usually only managed thirty. Those thirty miles were harder work as well. It worked the oxen hard to pull the wagons up a steep slope, and going down was just as hard. Mr. Mason said when the slope was steep they had to chain the back wheels of each wagon so they wouldn't turn so the wagons wouldn't run over the oxen.

Jasper and Katherine's father worked together more and more each day, and after the first week of climbing up the steep trail only to have to stop at the top and chain the wagon wheels so they wouldn't turn, they'd worked out a system. Jasper would stop the wagon at the top of the slope and keep the oxen still while Katherine's father dragged the heavy chains from the box on the side of each wagon and chained the wheels together. Jasper would then start the oxen down the other side. Once in the valley, Katherine's father would take off the chains and put them in the box of each wagon again.

The mountains were a little better as far as food. The prairie had offered prairie hens and rabbits with the occasional deer or antelope. The mountains had rabbits and grouse, but also had more deer and some elk.

An elk or four deer would furnish meat for the whole wagon train for one day. As a result, a few of the men hunted every day and shared what they had killed.

The mountains were better for Katherine as well, though it was harder walking up a slope. The slower pace meant she could walk slower and still be with Jasper. Katherine found herself not wanting to go back to the Dunby wagon for the noon meal, because Jasper didn't usually eat the noon meal with them.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Katherine came to the realization that she felt best walking beside Jasper even if they didn't talk much. She'd asked herself a million times why that was so. Was it because Jasper had saved her from Mr. Sprite and she felt some kind of obligation to Jasper?

No, that wasn't it. She felt thankful that Jasper had done what he did, but that wasn't what made her want to stay with him. It was something more, a need to be with this big man who didn't talk much to anybody else but her.

Katherine finally told her mother how she felt about Jasper and asked what she should do.

"Mother, I've never felt like this before. I'm happy when I'm walking beside Jasper and I hate it when he goes to bed in his wagon. I like cooking for him but it makes me sad that he won't eat breakfast and the noon meal with us. What should I do?"

Katherine's mother smiled and stroked Katherine's cheek.

"Katherine, I know how you feel because it's the same way I felt about your father before he asked me to marry him and how I still feel about him. He was just a farmer's son without much to offer and my mother said I could do better. Try as I might though, I couldn't get your father out of my mind. He was there in my thoughts all through the day and I thought about him until I fell asleep at night.

"Katherine, that feeling is love. It's very hard to describe, so I never tried to explain it to you. I figured you'd find out what love is when you met the right man, and it looks to me like you have."

"But what do I do about it."

Katherine's mother smiled.

"Katherine, from what I've seen when he eats supper with us, I think Jasper feels the same way. I don't know why he hasn't told you yet, but if you give him time, I think he will unless something is bothering him. You'll have to get him to tell you what that is. Once he does that, I think he'll tell you how he feels about you."

That night as she lay on her narrow bed, Katherine thought about what her mother had said. She too had the feeling that Jasper was holding something in his mind that he either wouldn't or couldn't tell her. It probably wasn't what a proper woman would do, but sleeping on boxes in a wagon and walking barefoot to Oregon wasn't proper either. She had to find a way to get him to tell her. Once he had, she'd know if he felt like she did - that she wanted more than anything she'd ever wanted to stay with him forever.

}|{

Day after day and mile after mile, the wagon train worked its way over mountains, down through valleys, and over rivers and streams. Fall comes early in the mountains and the days were getting cooler. Some nights were as cold as Katherine remembered feeling in winter back in Sedville. Suppers were filling because the game was plentiful, though most of the people were running out of things to go with the elk or deer meat.

Katherine wasn't concerned with the chill of the night air. Wood was all around now, and it only took her father and the other men about an hour to cut enough dry wood from fallen trees to burn through the night.

Grass for the livestock was a sometimes thing. There was little in the way of grass on the foothills of the mountains, so if the wagon train stopped there, the oxen, milk cows, and horses would go hungry. Jasper lost his first ox on the fourth of October and Katherine's father lost an ox a week later.

Jasper and her father butchered both oxen and the meat was distributed among all the people in the wagon train. The campfires all had stew pots hanging from tripods those nights. With a piece of an ox roast and some cattail roots gathered when they passed or crossed a stream, the stew was filling if not especially tasty.

Substituting two reserve oxen for the two that had died was a bit of a problem for Jasper. He'd always kept the same pairing of oxen in a yoke, and as he told Katherine, "They get used to each other. When you put a different ox in a yoke, they have to work things out for a while."

Katherine thought she saw a way to get Jasper to open up a little.

"Kind of like getting married, isn't it? Both people have to figure out each other and then figure out how to live together."

Katherine could tell that she'd touched a part of Jasper that he didn't want to talk about because he frowned.

"Yeah, I suppose. I've never been married so I wouldn't know."

Katherine let her strong will overpower what she'd been taught.

"Jasper, I think you do know. You just frowned and didn't really answer me. I'm not trying to do anything but figure out if we fit together, just like the oxen are doing."

"Why would you do that?"

Katherine hung her head.

"Because I keep thinking about how it would be if... if you and I were... marr... married. My mother says that's love and she thinks you feel the same way about me."

Katherine looked up at Jasper then.

"Jasper, I don't know why I feel this way, but I do, and I have to know if you think the same way about me. If you don't, I guess I'll just go on to Oregon and see what I can find there, but right here, right now, I think I've found the man I want to spend the rest of my life with."

Jasper was silent for a while. Katherine wanted to know and if he told her he'd probably lose her. Finally, he shook his head.

"Katherine, I like you a lot, but you don't want a man like me. You deserve a better man, a man who hasn't... well, you wouldn't understand if I told you so I won't."

Katherine stroked her fingertips down Jasper's arm, and then took his hand in hers.

"How do you know I won't understand? It's for sure I won't unless you tell me. If you like me a lot, why won't you tell me? If you can't tell me, it'll just drive us apart and I can't imagine anything that would hurt me more.

"You saved me from Mr. Sprite once and asked me every day for weeks if I still hurt. Well, Jasper, I hurt now because I don't know how you feel about me, and I'll keep hurting until you tell me what you're hiding from me."

Jasper sighed. He should have known it would come down to this. He'd let Katherine draw him in, made him think maybe she could be the one like before, and now he was going to have to tell her. She'd probably be shocked and tell him she never wanted to see him again. Well, he'd made this bed, and now it was time to lie in it.

"I can't tell you right now, Katherine. I'll tell you tonight after supper."

}|{

After supper that night, Katherine's father said his leg was bothering him again and he thought he'd go to bed. Katherine's mother took the pot of deer stew off the tripod and said it was too cold to sit by the fire and she was going to go to bed too.

"You young folks take the cold better than us old folks. I'll see you both in the morning."

That left Katherine and Jasper sitting on a log by the fire. Katherine edged a little closer to Jasper.

"Jasper, you said you'd tell me tonight. It's just us now."

Jasper took a deep breath.

"I'll tell you. You won't like what I say, but I'll tell you.

"I didn't leave Brown's Crossing because there was no place for two blacksmiths. I left there because there was nothing there I wanted and I thought leaving would take away the memories. It didn't until I met you, Katherine, and I don't want to go through losing you like I did the first time."

Katherine took Jasper's hand in hers and squeezed gently.

"I don't understand what you mean by the first time. Was there another woman?"

Jasper nodded.

"It was two years ago. I was still working with the town blacksmith some and helping my father farm. I met Sarah when she came to town with her father. I knew most of the girls in town by then, but none of them struck me like Sarah. I think she liked me too. I asked her father if I could see more of her. I don't think he liked it, but he said yes.

"I saw Sarah every Saturday for the next six months. I was going to ask her to be my wife, but in January of this year, these men rode into Brown's Crossing and started going from farm to farm and asking if people believed in slavery or not.

"Most of the farmers around Brown's crossing were so poor they couldn't have afforded slaves even if they did agree with slavery which they didn't. What happened is if you didn't have at least one slave, the men didn't ask what you believed. They just figured if you didn't have slaves it had to be because you were against slavery.

"I came home from the blacksmith's shop early that afternoon because my father was going to shell out the corn he'd saved from the fall before for seed. When I got there, the house and barn were burned to the ground and my mother and father were both dead, shot by those men.

"I took my father's shotgun and started following the trail they'd left. That trail led to Sarah's father's house. When I got there, it was the same except those men hadn't just shot and killed Sarah. They'd..."

Katherine squeezed Jasper's hand tighter.

"You don't have to tell me that part, Jasper. They did the same thing to your Sarah that Mr. Sprite tried to do to me, didn't they?"

Jasper nodded.

"Yes."

Katherine used her other hand to stroke Jasper's arm.

"I understand a little, Jasper. I found a man back in Sedville I felt the same way about. He didn't get killed, but my father decided to go to Oregon so I lost him all the same. I thought I'd die an old maid because I couldn't feel the same way about any of the men on this wagon train until I got to know you. I don't want to lose you like I lost Jacob. I'll try really hard to help you understand what I know now, that sometimes, things aren't meant to be."

Jasper turned to look at Katherine.

"I've already figured that out. That isn't the reason I haven't told you."

"Well, if that isn't the reason, what is?"

Jasper turned away from her again.

"I got some of the people in town to help me bury my mother and father and Sarah and her mother and father. After that, I got on one of our plow horses and started after the men who did it.

"I caught up with them while they were doing the same thing to the farmers around Taylor's Knob. There were three of them. I killed two with my shotgun and then ran down the third when he tried to run away. When I caught him, I... I'm ashamed to tell you, Katherine. You'll think I'm an evil man, worse than Mr. Sprite."

Katherine kept stroking Jasper's arm.

"Tell me, Jasper. I have to know."

"Well, when I caught the man, I could see that he didn't have a gun. I jumped off my horse and knocked him on the ground. Then, I started hitting him. After he stopped trying to fight back, I grabbed him by the neck and stood him up. When I did, I saw something hanging out of his shirt pocket. It was the locket that Sarah always wore on a chain around her neck.

"I looked at the man. He was just a boy really, maybe eighteen or so and I was a lot bigger than he was. I should have just let him go, but when I saw that locket...

"I beat him to death with my bare hands, Katherine, beat him until he stopped moving and then beat him some more. I didn't stop until I didn't have the strength to keep going. That's why I left to go to Oregon. I was ashamed of what I'd done and I thought in Oregon, nobody would ever hear about it."

Katherine slipped her hand from Jasper's and put it around his waist.

"That's why you hit Mr. Sprite so hard isn't it? You were remembering Sarah and thought he'd done the same thing to me."

Jasper nodded.

"I'd have killed him if I hadn't heard you moan. That meant you were still alive and I had to get you back to the wagons. I went back to look for him, but he was gone by then."

Katherine tried to hug Jasper around the waist but her arm wouldn't reach. She stood up and put her hands on his cheeks.

"Jasper, I don't think you did anything that any good man wouldn't do in the same situation. As bad as it sounds, I was glad when I heard that Wade and his father were dead. That's not a Christian way of thinking, but after what they did to me, well, they deserved what they got. I think that's what you did too. You just gave some evil men what they deserved for what they did.

"That doesn't change the way I feel about you. If anything, knowing what you did makes me feel safer when I'm with you."

Jasper looked up.

"You don't think I'm evil too?"

"No, Jasper, I don't. What you did wasn't any different than when Mr. Mason shot Wade and his father. It wasn't any different than when Mr. Bollings killed that rattlesnake before it could bite his wife. To my way of thinking, there are two kinds of men. There are evil men who kill other people because the like killing and there are good men who only kill other people when it's to protect the people they love. Pastor Ray didn't tell Mr. Mason that he'd sinned when Mr. Mason killed the Sprites, did he? He didn't because what Mr. Mason did was one good man ridding the wagon train of two evil men who would have done it again."

Jasper wiped a tear from his cheek.

"But I wasn't protecting Sarah. She was already dead."

Katherine smiled.

"Jasper, what you were doing is protecting the people those men would have gone on to kill if you hadn't stopped them, just like Mr. Mason did. I don't know if that makes you feel any better right now, but it's how I feel. Can I give you a hug so you'll know I'm telling you what I really feel?"

Jasper stood up and put his arms around Katherine.

"I don't know if I can be the man you seem to think I am. What I know is that while I still remember Sarah, you're the woman I don't ever want to lose."

Katherine smiled.

"Then kiss me."

}|{

They were married by Pastor Ray two weeks after that night by the fire. Katherine's mother cried all through the wedding. Her father didn't say much other than to tell Jasper he thought his daughter had picked a fine man for her husband.

On the fifth of October, 1862, the wagon train topped a ridge and looked down on the Willamette Valley. Katherine walked up to Jasper and put her arm around his waist.

"Well, husband, do you think we can make a life here?"

Jasper put his arm around Katherine's shoulders and gave her a gentle hug.

"If we can't, it won't be because I didn't try."

Katherine chuckled.

"Are you going to do it all yourself or do I get to help too? If you remember, we got married because of my help. I don't intend to stop either. We'll need sons to help you and daughters to help me. I can hardly wait until we have a house and a bed that's wide enough for two. I keep hitting that iron in your wagon when we... well, when we do what husbands and wives do."

Jasper grinned.

"Doesn't seem to stop you from wanting to do that, but I'll get right onto building a house as soon as we get our land."

}|{

Jasper was good to his word. The day after they'd received their adjoining land grants, Jasper drove the two wagons there while Katherine's father rode Jasper's saddle horse and drove the rest of the oxen, the three cows, and the four draft horses. Together, they had six hundred and forty acres of farmland, and Jasper had decided they'd build a house with two bedrooms so Katherine's mother and father would have a room for themselves until he and Katherine's father could build them a smaller house.

Between the two men, they built the first house in time to have a roof over their heads and a fireplace for cooking and heat when winter came to the Willamette Valley. They had to sleep on the dirt floor for a while, but over that winter, Jasper built beds, a table and four chairs, and forged lantern hooks to hang lanterns so they'd have a little light. The next summer, they finished a smaller house for Katherine's mother and father on the same site but about a hundred feet away from the bigger house.

It was good that they got the second house finished by the summer of 1864, because Katherine and Jasper needed the second bedroom in the big house. Katherine was pregnant with their first child and was due to deliver in September.

Katherine's father had used his plow and his horses to plow up a garden plot in April of that year, and between them, Katherine and her mother raised enough vegetables to feed them all until the next summer. The six hens and the rooster made it from Sedville to Oregon, and the first year produced three dozen chicks in two hatchings.

When the new hens began laying, Katherine's mother separated them into two coops that Jasper built. In one coop went two dozen young hens and two roosters. They were the foundation stock for a larger flock. In the other were the rest of the hens for eggs. The roosters that were left became chicken pot pies that Katherine made for suppers. Over the next few years, Katherine's flock grew to about a hundred laying hens. She and her daughters collected the eggs and once a week, Katherine had Jasper harness a horse to the buggy Jasper built so she and her daughters could sell the eggs at the general store and hotel in Wixom.

Life for Jasper, Katherine and her children and parents in the Willamette Valley was like life anywhere in those times. They enjoyed the birth of their children and raised them to be good adults. They escaped the ravages of the Civil War, but didn't escape death. Katherine lost one child, her daughter Elizabeth, to whooping cough when the baby was just four months old. Little Elizabeth was the first to lie in the family cemetery under two trees Jasper had left standing on one side of the property.

Katherine's father passed away ten years after arriving in Oregon, but he did get to tell his two grandsons and two granddaughters the stories of the trip on the Oregon Trail. He tended repeat those stories as he got older, but the children never told him they'd already heard the stories. They'd gather around his chair by the fireplace and listen as he told them about how their mother and father met, and how they'd worked so hard both along the Trail and when they got to Oregon.

Katherine's mother lived another six years, six more years of taking care of her grandchildren while Katherine fixed their meals, washed their clothes, kept the house clean, and kept the garden weeded. It was also six more years of teaching her granddaughters her ideas about what proper young ladies did and did not do. Like their mother, Sally and Ruth listened and nodded, but confided in each other what they thought young women should really do.

Jasper was right about the need for a blacksmith. He built his blacksmith shop next to the trail that ran past the property, and put up a sign, but he had little business at first so Katherine would tell anyone needing something to come back on Saturday. Word soon spread, and while Jasper worked Monday through Friday farming with Katherine's father, he usually lit his forge early of a Saturday morning and put it out at dusk on Saturday night.

As the community grew, that trail became a dirt road and it was used by a lot of people to bring their horses to be shod, or to bring equipment or parts of equipment to be repaired, and by more than few wives to have their cooking pots repaired. By the time his oldest son, William, turned seventeen, he'd taken Jasper's place in the fields while Jasper worked the blacksmith shop and taught his second son, Jason, the skills of the blacksmith.

William and Jason also had a plan for their lives. William knew he and Jason would eventually inherit the farm, and he wanted to clear more land. Jason helped with the farm, but his true love was the forge, hammer, and anvil. They agreed that each would help the other as well as help their sister's husbands once their sisters married, but William would run the farm and Jason would run the blacksmith shop.

William had another plan as well, and he started telling Jasper about a young girl who went to Pastor Ray's church. Jasper knew what his son was thinking, but he didn't say anything. He waited until William asked him how he'd known that his mother was the right woman for his father.

Jasper smiled, because he was remembering that night by the fire when he'd told Katherine what he'd sworn he'd never tell anyone. That night, it was as if a black curtain hiding the rest of his life from him had been drawn aside never to return.

"Well, William, all I can tell you is you'll know when you know. If she's the right woman, she'll help you figure that out. That what your mother did. Have I told you how we met, the story about her working a wagon brake while I drove two wagons to Oregon?"

}|{

The Moore and Dunby farms are still there in the Willamette valley, but they've changed over the years since two families started with very little and ended up happy and prosperous. Up until WWI, they were still farmed by Jasper's great grandsons. After WWI, the Boeing Corporation began manufacturing in Seattle, and most of the subsequent generations left Wixom for Seattle. Two of Jasper's great-great grandsons stayed on the farms through WWII and produced beef and vegetables that ended up in the "C-rations" issued to the soldiers fighting in Europe and in the Pacific.

After the war ended and the GI's came back home, they wanted houses for their families. Wixom had grown so much the farm was on the edge of the city and several developers had made offers to buy the six hundred and forty acres for further housing development. Cliff Moore, Jasper's great-great-great grandson didn't want their hundred-year-old farm divided up into small plots for houses so he refused every offer. The city of Wixom also didn't want to see that farm go the way of many old farms -- the buildings torn down and the land divided up into small plots of a third of an acre laced through by streets. Given how engrained those farms were in the history of the Willamette Valley and Wixom, the city government approached the Moore family about selling the farm to the city. The city of Wixom would turn it into a city park.

}|{

The two houses, the barn, and the blacksmith's shop are still there and are some of the attractions of Moore Dunby Municipal Park. During the summer months, volunteers re-enact the roles of Jasper and Katherine Moore and their children, and the roles of Harold and Genelle Dunby. The hammer still rings on Jasper's old anvil, but instead of horseshoes and plowshares and wagon tires, the Moore Blacksmith shop forges candlesticks, coat hooks, and fireplace sets.

The farm is now almost a square mile of the same grasses and plants that covered the valley when Jasper first drove the wagons to their new farm. A two spans of oxen graze in the large, rail-fenced pasture behind the barn. Every Saturday and Sunday, those four oxen are yoked to the wagon Jasper built and give wagon rides along a trail that runs through those grasses. The two draft horses that also graze in that pasture are hitched to the old Dunby wagon and follow the Moore wagon. Guests are encouraged to take off their shoes, walk beside the wagons, and experience what travelers of the Oregon Trail experienced.

Katherine's buggy is there in the barn and every Fourth of July, that buggy carries the Mayor of Wixom and his wife as they lead the Fourth of July parade down Main Street in Wixom. Both wagons and the original carriage that Jasper built for Katherine have been rebuilt at least twice, but all the ironwork on Jasper's wagon and Katherine's carriage still bear the marks of Jasper's hammers, tongs, and chisels.

Katherine's old garden is still there. Every year, volunteers plow it using Harold Dunby's old plow and the two draft horses, and more volunteers plant that garden with an assortment of heritage vegetables. As the vegetables ripen, the volunteers demonstrate how women of the time dried and stored them for the winter.

There's another garden beside that one as well, a rock garden planted with iris, roses, and other perennial flowers. It's often used as a backdrop for pictures of the wedding party for the weddings that are held there in June.

Both the big house and the small house are staffed by young girls and women volunteers in period clothing. They demonstrate what the life of a wife and her daughters in the 1860's would have been like. You can buy homemade soap scented with lavender, rose, or half a dozen other fragrances from plants raised right there in the park. The young girls are busily sewing quilts and you can buy one of those too.

Off to the side of the property is the family cemetery. You can't go inside the fence, but you can read the names on the headstones. Baby Elizabeth Moore, Jasper Moore, Katherine Moore, Harold Dunby and Genelle Dunby are all there, along with several generations of the Moore family. The sign on the gate just says, "Moore Dunby Family Cemetery". The people of the Ray Memorial Baptist Church keep the cemetery mowed and on Memorial Day, put flowers on the graves.

Epilogue

Moore Dunby Municipal Park is a fabrication comprised of the features of many such parks, both large and small, that dot the US. They commemorate the migration to and settlement of most of what were originally just territories but eventually were formed into the United States of America. Such parks are a fitting legacy to the people who, in the rush of today, are all too easily forgotten.

They were tough and determined people who set out into the unknown with little except hope, the strength of their bodies and the determination not to fail. They braved heat, cold, dust, mud, rivers, and every other hardship Mother Nature could throw at them, but kept on going. Many didn't finish the trip and lie in unmarked graves along the trails they forged or followed. More than a few traveled part way and then stopped and formed the settlements that became cities in the states through which those trails passed.

Those who made it all the way to the Willamette Valley turned a wild and unsettled land into the breadbox of the Northwest. They did so with just their own strength and will, the help of a few oxen and horses, and more importantly, by helping each other through the hard times and by celebrating the good times together.

Their stamina and determination live on in the history books, in museums, and in parks like Moore Dunby Municipal Park. We can only hope that these last vestiges of our history remain with us for a long, long, time lest we forget from whence we came.