The Fourth Man - Chapter 19

We decided to Get Married in One Year

 

Telling her Maw

James and Betsy were better acquainted as they discussed the future and made some tentative plans.

When they arrived at Betsy’s home they went in and her father was there also.

James just came out and said, ‘Betsy and I want to be married in about a year from now if that is alright with you folks.”

Her Pa started to hem and haw when her ma spoke up and said, “That will be just fine.”

Then James headed to the home ranch to tell Les and Sarah about his decision.

Betsy’s pa asked, “How come you are so dirty.”

She laughed and said, “I was just getting engaged.”

He said, “Seems to me you could do that without getting so dirty.  You didn’t get too familiar did you?”

Betsy continued smiling and said, “No Pa, not yet, but you can’t ever tell about him.”

Her dad was still talking as Betsy walked out of the room for she had the future on her mind.

James talks of his future

Instead of going to Billy’s place, James went to Les’s and sat down with his folks and laid out his and Betsy’s plans.

Les asked, “Have you decided to be a rancher.”

James said, ‘Yes, I want to get me a spread and build it up.  I have worked for you for a number of years and I was hoping you might help me get started. I need to have something going before I marry Betsy.”



Les said, “Billy is all set with his ranch and I’ve also given him the ranch Jones is living on so I was hoping you would take over the main ranch here.”

 

 

James was stunned by what Les had just said.  It was more that he could ever hope for.  It was in that moment that James really grew up.

The fact that he would be running the Riley spread was more than he could have imagined.

He wanted to talk to Billy and see how he felt about Les giving him control of the big ranch.  His horse was still saddled so he headed for Billy’s spread.

When he arrived, Billy was down at the corral brushing his old horse he had taken for a ride.  Ever so often he would do that for the horse was his since he was four years old.

James said, “I just talked with Dad about getting a place of my own since me and Betsy will be married when I finish school and he said he wanted me to take over the running of the Riley ranch.  I need to know how you feel about that.”

Billy said, “Les and I have discussed that for some time now and decided if you ever decided to become a serious rancher, then we would like for you to have the ranch. Of course you know with all our holdings joining each other it will still be one big ranch in people’s eyes.”

“Then you are not against me having it?”

Billy said, “No I have more that I can handle with what I have. With Jim there and Les isn’t going anywhere they will have your back and I’m always here if you want to discuss anything.  You are going to do fine. You know it will be some time before you actually take over and run the place.”

James said, “Yes I know but I suspect Les wants to be relieved of the responsibility sooner than we might suspect.”

Wedding bells

What he had just learned changed the way James viewed his future.  He felt older having a new responsibility placed on his shoulders and he wanted to get things in order as much as possible.

The next day he went and told Betsy what had happened and she related it to her folks while James went to town.  He went to the general store and picked out a ring.

He came back and told Betsy’s folks the wedding day had been moved up. He told them he had to return to school in a month for his last term but wanted to marry Betsy before he left.

This was news to Betsy but she was all for it.

He said, “They would get married next week and go on a honeymoon like Billy and Mamie did.”

Her father didn’t know what to say but her mother said, "That will be a load off my mind so go ahead with your plans.”

James tried the ring on Betsy’s finger and I fit close enough.  He said they could get another one on their honeymoon if that one didn’t work out.

She told him she would keep the one she was married with as long as she lived.

He said we will live at our ranch after the honeymoon and while I’m at school this term I want Betsy to live there.

James told Sarah he wanted Betsy there so she could watch over her. He didn’t want her at her mother’s home for they weren’t able to keep her as secure as she would be on the Riley ranch.

He said Betsy could continue her studies and be taught by Rene’e.

Les took James aside and explained the how to about married life and said you might as well go talk to your mother for she is waiting for you.

His Ma went over the same stuff she told Billy and added a bit more.

Like it was to Billy this was information he appreciated more as time went along.

The wedding was on Saturday and the party afterward was well attended.

Just before they left Les said there is one more thing you need to know and that is ; women will cry for no reason or a perceived reason and when they do don’t try to make any sense out of it.

 

Just give them some room and they will get over it and act as if it never happened.

James had a lot of information to digest but felt he was prepared for wedding bliss.

It’s over in ten

The wedding ceremony had been brief and ten minutes later they were man and wife.  James didn’t know what to expect but didn’t feel much different than he did before the I do’s.

After greeting the guests Jim took them to town and they checked in to the hotel. It wasn’t a fancy hotel but it had a lock on the door.

They spent two days at the hotel before heading to Chicago.

Billy had told him about the long trip to New York before he and Mamie had some privacy so James didn’t want that to happen.

After two days they wanted to get out of their town and see some sights other than a cow town. Les gave them each a present, a two shot derringer.

He said you won’t be wearing your six guns so I wanted both of you to have a weapon to defend yourselves and I hope you won’t need them.

Once in Chicago they stayed in a fine hotel and had a good laugh about the small room they had in the hometown. They both were glad they did it the way they did for they thought the long trip would have been unbearable with their passion being as high as it was.

James now fully embraced Betsy whereas before they just desired each other with reservations.

They both now felt a oneness that hadn’t been there before they gave themselves to one another.  

To Be Continued

 

COONEY BOY 2

 

This post is shared at “Tell Me a True Story.”

My Continued Story will resume very soon 

 

Old Blue



 

 

Having been thrown back to my country childhood roots, some years ago I bought some Blue Tick Coonhound pups.  Then of course I had to train them to go night hunting.

 

I hooked up with some other hunters, most of which I dropped due their lack of intelligence.  My pups grew quickly and started to do what Coon hounds do and that was to hunt.

 

The problem was they would hunt everything especially deer.  When they started to chasing a deer they would run for miles, and the hunt was over for the night.  Some hours later when the dogs came back we would go home very unhappy about the night’s event.

 

I really enjoyed hunting especially when they would get mixed up with a skunk. There was nothing better than to be washing dogs at 3 o’clock in the morning and having to smell skunk odor for the next few days.

 

In order to break my pups off of deer I bought a coon and kept him in a steel cage made of heavy steel rods and he was suppose to be my example of what they should be hunting for.

 

Old Cooney boy was consistent he hated everything and everybody.  He would rip your leg off if he got to you.  He let me know right off that he didn’t train dogs.  He was one mean sucker that you didn’t mess with.  Since I didn’t want my dog’s ears tore up I never let them get together.

 

I always thought if I could be as constant and unswerving in my Christian walk as Cooney was in his, I’d be a better man for it.

 

Cooney lived with us for quite awhile, and my step dad LD, always fed him.  After many months, LD could feed him without having to use a piece of plywood to pin Cooney in a corner while he filled his food bowl.

 

After a couple of years I decided Cooney boy wasn’t a mind to be tamed down so I took him up to the woods and let him go.  He walked a few feet away, turned, snarled and hissed at me and took off never to be seen again.

 

Those Blue Tick Hound pups loved to hunt.  One named Sugar died first but Ole Blue lived almost 15 years.  

 

Even when he couldn’t hardly get around he would still sneak off to hunt, and I would have to go looking for him. 

 

 

One day we went out to our kennel and found Ole Blue stiff as a board.  

 

I have had many dogs, but Ole Blue was my favorite,  because to me, he was very special, but that is another story.

 

The Fourth Man - Chapter 18

Winning Respect

 

James the punching bag

It was time for James to start his training at the military school Billy had attended.

Billy debated as to whether he should clue him in on what it was going to be like. He figured he should at least let him know what he could expect from the upper classmen.

Billy told him he could expect to be roughed up for that was the way it went until you put a stop to it some way.  In Billy’s case Jim taught him how to fight dirty like the older classmen did and after him trouncing a couple of them pretty good they left him alone.

James said, he would like to just shoot a couple of the thugs and it would be the end of it.

Billy had to straighten him out on that subject explaining it was different in the city and he would be put in the prison should he shoot someone.

With that in mind James wasn’t too anxious to go to school but Sarah insisted on him going.

Since he was no longer going to be under Rene’s tutoring and she knew what he was going to face largely in part because the way he talked.

She realized he was going to be ridiculed because he drawled when speaking. No one here ever thought anything about it for everybody spoke the same way on the ranch, but in New England things were going to be different.

In the months before he was to leave she spent time with James getting him familiar with the accents of the area he was going to live in.

He thought it was a bunch of foolishness but once he arrived at school he understood why she went to all that trouble.

After he was situated he fell back on her help in phrasing words as near as he could in the way people spoke in his new surroundings.

Boys who were from the south or west had a more difficult time adjusting.

Naturally he had to give up his guns and knives so he was on his own so to speak.

Before he left Jim had made him something like a pair of brass knuckles. He made them to fit his hands and told him to only use them in a case where he was being beaten very badly.

For instance if you’re having to fight more than one other fighter.  Jim had toughen James up and taught him how to defend himself. He was a lot better prepared than Billy had been.

James meets Alf

James was bunking with a boy from Boston named Alf.  He was a slight build, thin and on the weakly side.  James thought he wouldn’t be much help in a fight.

As it turned out the boy’s father was a ship’s captain and on one of his trips he brought an oriental man back from Japan.  This man was supposed to be a house boy but he had been trained in several fight disciplines.

Over the first six months Alf had been put upon by several upper classmates and had defeated each of them. The last day of school a half dozen of the seniors attacked Alf and James.

James slipped his hand into his knucks in his pocket and with each blow he put a guy away with a broken rib or worse.  

When they left for home James said he was looking forward to next year and hoped Alf would be his roommate next year. Alf said he didn’t know how it would work out for he was going to take summer classes and try to skip a grade.  He showed James his books for the summer and said James could buy them from the book store if he wanted to do as he was going to do.

James thought he had other plans for the next six months but the more he thought about it he decided it wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and buy the text books.

James moves in with Billy and Mamie

Rene’e was glad to see James and after he greeted everyone she checked his grades and was proud of his accomplishments.  He showed her the books he bought and she said she would help him with his studies and he could be tested to skip the next grade.

During the school year Slim, the foreman on Billy’s ranch had begun courting Rene’e and soon they were married.

Billy liked Slim and built them a house near where the ranch house was. James thought that was a good move for Slim for he needed a wife. Slim wasn’t as near educated as she was but that didn’t seem to make any difference to them.

James decided to move in with Billy so he could study with Rene’e when they had time together.

He said it felt good to have his guns on and a knife in a scabbard on his hip. After a few practices he could draw and shoot as good as ever. He was surprised at how rusty you get after not wearing them during the school term.

During the summer, James worked on Billy’s ranch for the most part but helped out on his dad, Les’s place when necessary.

 

James goes courting

While at school James met several girls at the school dances.  None of them perked his interest and he was wanting to see Betsy. They had kept in touch by mail while he was gone.

When he first saw her he kissed her in a way that embarrassed her mother. Usually they would hide from her mother when kissing but this time he didn’t care who saw them. Betsy was surprised at his boldness but kissed him right back.

He told her to come on and go for a ride with him and she was all for it. Her mother pulled her aside and told her; “Now listen to me. This boy is about grown up and he might want you to do things you shouldn’t do. I don’t want you to get all het up and carried away you hear me.”

Betsy smiled and said; “I’ll try not get too het up Maw.”

For some reason that didn’t reassure her mother very much.

They rode out to one of their favorite spots and spent some time telling each other how glad they were to be together again.

Getting familiar

She said, “Now listen; ma told me not to let you get too familiar with me so I told her I wouldn’t.”

James laughed at that and said, “You might have to lie to your ma if she asks what I done.” 

Betsy said; “James you got to behave or I will have to be walking home.”

He said, “I’m just kidding you for I always behave myself besides you ain’t a woman yet.”

She jumped on him and they wrestled around in the dirt till both were dirty.

James said, “How you are going to explain this to your ma. You’re covered with dirt.”

She said, “I’m going to let you explain it and it better be good for pa has a shot gun all loaded up.”

He said, “I’m not quite ready for the shotgun but I’m going to skip a grade and the next year will be my last and then no shotgun will be necessary.”

Betsy smiled at that and said; “Do you want to marry me?”

He said, “Yes as soon as we are ready.”

She said, “Then we better tell ma for she is going to worry herself to death thinking what she is thinking.”

James said, “Now what would that be?”

She said; “You know that you are having familiar fun with me with no intentions.”

He said, “I have intentions and familiar fun is going to be a part of it, you can tell her that.”

She came back and said, “You need to keep it simple. Just tell her our plans and our time table. That will take all the worry from her for she believes you are honest and will always tell the truth.”

 

The Fourth Man - Chapter 17

Chen is the Best Cook Around

 

Something new is a coming

Mamie and I went to dinner at my folks place and I must admit Chen is still the best cook around. At times Mai tries to get him to change his method of cooking but on this issue he stands tall. For the most part she rules the roost but not on this.

Their little girl Cherri Leng is growing up like the rest of the kids on our ranches and just looking at his wife Mai, I think she is going to present Chen with another child rather soon.

I could ask Mamie for she keeps up on the woman stuff but I guess I’ll wait and see. While eating I was looking at Sarah my mom and it struck me that she was still a young woman.

Another thing I noticed was she and Mamie was talking about something more intently than usual. I wanted to ask about their conversation but I knew what the answer would be; “it is just woman stuff.”  That always shut me up but wasn’t a very satisfactory answer.

After some time they nodded in agreement and mom said we have an announcement to make.  

Guess What ?

 

Mamie and I are both with child. I dropped my fork at that news and Les turned a bit white.

I could see Les was having a lot of thoughts but after consideration he never expressed what he was thinking.

I was too limp to think and just sat there stunned.

Of course we had been married for four years but I couldn’t get a handle on this news.  My sister Missy was sixteen and James about fourteen with Caroline being somewhere around nine. Now there was no reason for Mamie not to have our first child but this would be number five for mom.

Les said it‘d better be a boy for these girls attract too much attention which caused Missy and Caroline to smile.

I had to agree with dad but it was out of my hands so it became a case of “whatever.”

Missy wanted to be right in the middle of the conversation for she was once again feeling womanly.

Les had hired the school teacher Rene’e who wanted Missy to go to a girl’s finishing school but Les was a bit hesitant to let her out of her mother’s sight.

With the new baby coming he finally relented and allowed her teacher to enroll her in a Boston school.  None of us were sure where Boston was just that it was east of us.

Les wanted Rene’e to go with her and get her settled in before the school year started.  Jim took both of them to the station and saw them off. Two weeks later Rene’e returned and said everything was set and that they should start getting letters from Missy very soon.

Missy Writes from school

It was hard waiting for the first letter but it finally arrived telling them about the first few days which had been somewhat an adventure.

She said, “At first I could hardly understand them even though they were supposed to be speaking English. They told me they had the same problem with the way I talk.

I soon caught on and now I can understand most of what the teacher is saying. Everything is so proper here. It is far different from the girl’s school I had been attending. It is a good thing that Rene’e helped me before she left for I would have really stood out as being uncouth.

My roommate is different from anyone I have ever met for she will hardly talk to me. Back home we have some shy people but this gal is worse than any I know back there. She studies a great deal but her grades aren’t that good for some reason. Since my grades are very good I told her I would help her if she wished but she didn’t accept my offer.

Many of the girls now know Linda is my roommate and act as if I’m as dumb as she appears to be.  I have had to straighten a few of them out on that line of thinking. Some of them act as if they are tough but I figure they would be easier to handle than roping a calf and branding it which I have done. I will let you know if I’ve had to whip one of them.

There is another side to this story and that is some of them are sneaky and demean you behind your back. A couple of the meanest girls did some dirt to Linda (they call her Looney Linda).

I won’t go into detail but it had to do with dog poop and her drawers. I found out who did it and told Linda. She really got mad and while she didn’t say anything she was fuming.

Later I saw Linda in the general store buying some nasty glue. You could smell it over a block away. Anyway the girls that did Linda dirty found their shoes with glue in them and the clothes covered with glue along with much of their room.

This brought out a lot of laughing at the guilty parties for they had been bragging about what they had done to Linda.

The news that someone had gotten even with those girls amused the whole campus for they had pulled stuff on many of the other girls.”

Missy and the tough gal

One of the girls was known as the tough gal on campus. Later that afternoon she braced Linda and wanted to fight with her. It looked to everyone like Linda was going to get a whipping but she said maybe you got the wrong girl.  That deterred her for a minute.

 

Then I said you look like you want to get whipped. This caused her to backup and rethink the situation.

I told her that I have whipped bigger and tougher gals than you so if a fight is the only thing that will satisfy you - - then I’m here to make you happy.

She looked at Linda and said that she would get her later.

That was the last we have heard about the whole incident so far.

Linda said I guess it’s time for me to quit fooling around and start getting my grades up. She went on to explain about her mother bragged on her sister about the fact she got top grades to everyone so she decided to get poor grades on purpose.

She didn’t want to be put on display like her sister.

I told her I didn’t understand how anyone could study as much as she did and still get the poor grades she did so I’m glad she explained that.  

From that time on she got straight A/s and since we studied together my grades are almost as good as hers.

She began to talk to the girls and make friends with them. She started attending the dances at the boy’s academy with me and has become very popular.

The transformation of Linda was amazing. She is a very good actress for she had me and everyone fooled into thinking she was a dumb backward young lady.

Not coming home for the summer

Missy wrote Sarah her mom that Linda had invited her to stay with her and her folks for the summer and take some classes on debating.

Sarah wrote back and said, “You are good at arguing and if you learn how to do it right maybe you will get good at it.”

Missy thought that sounds like mom and I’m going to miss her and the ranch but if I went home I would miss out on something I’m really fascinated by.

Missy wrote back, “Linda and I are planning on teaming up and see how we stack up against the men at other schools.

Perhaps I will be able to hook up with James when he enrolls in the military school this coming year.”

 

To Be Continued

 

 

The Fourth Man - Chapter 16



James Wanted to Learn to Shoot

 

Young James grows up a bit

Sometimes we are so close to people we fail to recognize the changes there are in them and that was so with little brother James. He was a quiet little guy that never caused any trouble so much so we wondered if he was normal.

He was alone much and in the past he showed no interest in ranching but now he was becoming a young cowboy on his own. He would watch the other cowboys and then try to imitate what they were doing.

I could have saved him some time but sometimes it is best to let people do things their way. When you see them struggle it is hard to stand aside but sooner or later they find their way through the problem they are having.

Being the older brother he would come to me and ask for help after he had spent a lot of time without success.

In this case he wanted to learn to shoot like the rest of the family. This was a complete turnaround for him for up to now he showed very little interest in such things.

Normally I would turn something like this over to Jim or Les, but he was insistent that I help him out. I found my old holster and gun Les had given me when I was about the age of James and the small caliber rifle I still had.

I fitted the holster to his waist and then went into detail about the caring for a revolver. A great deal of emphasis went on controlling the gun and not shooting something you didn’t intend to.

Learning to draw without shooting yourself was something else we spent a lot of time on. He finally got the hang of pulling the hammer back as you drew the gun and the split second decision as to whether to fire the gun or not.

I wouldn’t let him have any ammunition until I felt he had full control of his weapon. The main guys on the ranch made it the practice of once every two weeks or so to go out and do some shooting.

This time James told me he wanted to be included in the gang. I said okay but he would have to stay close to me and listen to everything I said. I didn’t want him to get shot or to shoot anyone.

Shooting is one thing but when you are practicing your fast draw it changes your control of your weapon a lot.

I found my old scabbard for my rifle and attached it to his saddle and he proudly put his rifle in it. All the guys were teasing James about him trying to be a bad dude with a gun.

He didn’t take to all that teasing very well and said he would show them when we got to the range. I kept James near me at the shooting range and had to slow him down when drawing.

I said you are trying to draw faster than you can control your gun. Little by little he began to draw and shoot smoothly which made the guys shut up about his ability with a gun.

In him I could see myself when I was his age and just learning how to control my gun.

Les was watching and came over and said I had done a good job with teaching him. They went off together and I could see he was really proud of his off spring.

 From that time on Les and he were shooting together and after a while James could draw his small gun faster than Les.  Les told him he would have to learn all over when he moved up to a forty four because of the difference in the weight and size of the weapon.

James was already chomping at the bit to get his first full size gun but Les said he would have to wait until he was ready and told him that I would be the one to decided he was ready.

Until then he would have to be happy with the setup I had fixed him up with besides he had a lot of other things to learn to do like roping and breaking horses if he was going to be a cowboy.

I remembered how hard it was being ten and wanting to be twenty and a man with the respect of everyone.  I enjoyed the time we were spending together and kept telling him he was right on schedule so not to worry about growing up too soon.

He kept wanting to try his hand on breaking some of the horses but I told him he didn’t need any broken bones yet and to concentrate on riding the young calves and steers.

I would tell him when he was ready for one of the mustangs. Waiting was going to be most difficult because a person could be maimed for life, trying to ride something like greased lighting before you were ready.

Those lively young ponies would put me on the ground from time to time and James certainly wasn’t quite ready for them. When he would try to get me to let him break on of the mustangs I would tell him I had something more difficult to do.

I would not tell him what it was but it would calm him down.

I knew he would be able to talk Les into letting him ride so I made sure Les left him to me to care for.

A hard thing to do

Finally I told James I was going to let him try to do the hard thing I had been telling him about.  I made him take a bath and put on his best clothes and he and I and some of the other cowhands rode while the ladies took the buggy. We went to a dance that was being held at the main hall in town.

James had always stayed home before. I said he was going to have to tame one of the young ladies and do it out the dance floor.

He turned white for he hadn’t learned much about dancing as of yet. Missy had made him learn a few steps but he had a lot to learn yet. We went in the hall and the hands were teasing him about his prowess with the opposite sex.

James hid out behind me for a while until me and Mamie began to dance and then he went over to where some of the boys his age were hanging out. Several of his friends were as embarrassed as he to invite a girl to dance.
 

I finally picked out one of the pretty girls and led her over to James and told him this was Betsy and she wanted to teach him a few steps.

He looked as if he wanted to chastise me severely but took her hand and she led him over to a corner where there was no one dancing. She finally got him to follow her and he was dancing after a fashion.

The rest of the evening went well with a couple of skirmishes outside because of some guys had a few drinks and wanted to dance with the same girl. This always made the girl proud to have two guys fighting over her.

By the end of the night James was doing pretty good and having a good time. The young lady Betsy who spent time with him said he was doing the steps pretty good and if he came to the next dance she would help him some more.

I must say James was looking proud on the way home and was looking forward to the next dance next month.  Betsy went to the same school as James and before the dance he never paid any attention to her but now he was talking to her at every chance he had.

She wasn’t encouraging him too much until one of the other girls began to talk to him then she decided maybe she better warm up a bit.

Betsy walked to school for she lived near town where her folks had a very small farm but James rode his horse from the ranch each day. He finally convinced her to ride double with him and took her to her house. Her mother usually gave him something to drink before he headed home.

Some bad news

One afternoon James came home and just put his horse in the corral instead of unsaddling and brushing him down. Jim grabbed him and started to get after him for not taking care of his horse until he saw James was pretty well beaten up. After he talked to him for a couple of minutes Jim threw a saddle on one of the fastest horses we had and took off at a gallop.

Billy saw James and asked him what had happened. He didn’t want to talk about it, but Billy wouldn’t let him alone until he told the whole story.

It seems Betsy’s mother wasn’t home when they got there and James got up the nerve to try to kiss Betsy after a try or two she let him kiss her and then continue to do so.

The hired hand came in and hit James hard and then grabbed Betsy and began to try to kiss her himself. She struggled with him but he overpowered her.

James got back to his feet and began to kick and fight back with the hired hand but was getting the worst of it because of the larger size of the guy.

He slammed James down hard and then went after Betsy again.
 

This time when James got his breath back he pulled his knife out and began stabbing the guy in the groin area.

The guy started yelling and running toward town.

James was hurt but managed to get on his horse after making sure Betsy was alright and headed for home.

Billy said, “Well courting can be hard on a guy sometimes.”

To which James said, “Yeah but from now on I will wear my guns and it won’t be near as hard on me.”

Billy asked how Betsy was and James said, “I guess she is alright except for being shook up. I’m pretty sure she is okay for she kissed me before I left for home.”

He said, “Jim was pretty mad about what happened.”

Billy said, “I don’t envy the man that hurt you for he is in for the hardest time of his life.  You do know that Jim likes you even better than me or Missy and you know how fond he is of us.”

It took Jim a while to find the hired hand and when he did he was at the doctor’s office. He stormed into the office and was going to beat the man nearly to death until he saw what damage James had done with his knife.  He had sliced the man in the area where he didn’t want to be cut. The doctor was trying to sew the pieces back together but wasn’t sure how successful he was going to be.

Jim said to the doctor I guess I will stay over at Lily’s place if the sheriff needs to talk to me about this.

The next morning Jim went to Betsy’s place and talked to her folks and to get her side of the story.  She told the same story as James except she left out the part about the kissing.

Jim didn’t mention it or ask about it since her mother was standing there. He then went back to the doctor’s office and the doc said I sent him to the hospital in St. Louis for he was too cut up for me to help him. They may be able to save his life but I just don’t know… Jim said I’ll stop by the sheriff’s office and explain what happened and put an end to this event. The doctor said he would go by later and tell the sheriff his side of it also.

It was an extra day before James was able to go back to school and I talked him into leaving his gun in his saddle bag instead of wearing it into the school.

Even though he was very young I could see a lot of his father’s traits in him and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. His dad wouldn’t put up with any foolishness and it was obvious that James was going to be a lot like dad.

The kids could see that James had been in a fight and the word got out that James had defended himself and Betsy from a man.

No one wanted to mess with James from that point on and Betsy was proud of her man.

He continued to take Betsy home and would get a kiss out behind the barn before they went into the house.

They went to the monthly dances through the summer and fall and she would only dance with James. Other girls wanted to dance with James but he only had eyes for Betsy.

Billy told Mamie that he must have made a good choice when he picked out a girl for James to dance with back at the first dance. She said, “I have to agree with that for she is a lovely girl and is in love with him even at this young age.”

Billy said well we will see how it plays out for he is going to military school the next year.

 

To Be Continued

 

The Fourth Man - Chapter 15

Fixing the Buck Board

 

Back to business

The most important thing on Billy’s mind was how the ranch had done in his absence.

He fully trusted Slim to run the ranch, but sometimes things happen beyond a person’s control. As it turned out everything was fine.

Mamie lit into the work of getting the house in order to suit her, she had already changed things twice, but Billy let her do what she wanted to.

She planned to cook for her and Billy most of the time but sometimes she would eat what the cook for the ranch hands had made. She especially liked the way he made chili.

After checking the herd over Billy worked on the buck board the rest of the day. He put a lot more padding on the seat and changed the springs to weaker ones so the ride was softer. He made a top that could be put up if it rained and a tarp to cover the load in the back. The last thing he wanted the flour and stuff getting wet if they got caught in a cloud burst.

They went to church most of the time but they both rode horses much to the chagrin of some of the women parishioners. It was only when there was a pot luck that they took the buck board.  They usually ate Sunday dinner at one or the other of their families.

A Sunday right after they got married Mamie took Sarah aside and said, “Thanks for the help you gave Billy.”

Sarah said, “Whatever do you mean?”

Mamie said, “Do you want me to spell it out for you step by step?”

She smiled and said, ‘No, no, that won’t be necessary I know what you mean.”

Mamie said, “I just wanted you to know I really appreciated you talking to him.” She went on and said, “I realized he was young but with your help he caught on real quick.”

Sarah asked, “I’m not going to be a grandmother am I?”

Mamie said, “No not for quite a while I hope.”

Sarah said, “Good, you two still have a lot of growing up to do.”

It was through such discussions that Mamie and Sarah grew very close.

Billy would ask Mamie what they were whispering about and she would answer just woman talk.

He was sure some of that woman talk was about him and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be involved in their conversations.

Missy brings home a boy

Missy came home from school and she brought a young man from the military school Billy had attended.  She was fifteen now and was pretty sweet on this young man who was just a year older than she was.

She was acting rather familiar with this guy named Regan.  Les wasn’t too happy with the way she was acting and told Billy about his feelings.

Billy said, “You know she is a bit high strung but she will get over this after a while or at least I think she will.”

Les said, “I’m ready to send this Regan a packing.”

Then Missy made the announcement that she and Regan wanted to get married.

This caused Les to come apart. Billy tried to calm him down enough to talk in a reasonable tone and get her to see what she was about to get into.

Les told Billy to handle this for he said he was ready to make the young man disappear.

Billy knew what he meant about that and said, “I will take care of it.”

He took Missy aside and told her, “This isn’t going to work for he has never had a job and certainly can’t support you.”

She told him, they could run a ranch for she knew all about running cattle.

Billy asked her how they were going to buy a ranch since he didn’t have any money and his folks were not that wealthy.

She said, “Daddy will just have to give us one of his ranches.”

Billy said that isn’t the way it works; dad will never agree to do that. There are several reasons for that. One you aren’t ready for the responsibilities of marriage. Regan doesn’t have a clue about taking care of a woman. He still runs to his mother when he has the slightest problem. The two of you need to get an education before you even consider dating much less marriage.”

She said, “We could move in here and go to school during the semesters.”

Billy said, “Girl, you are living in a dream world. I knew this boy at school and he flits from one girl to another and you are just one of many he has romanced. He is hoping to get some money from dad to get rid of him. He has done that before. I know the people he has pulled that on and can put you in contact with them if you like.”

She said, “I don’t believe you and you just don’t want me to be happy.  Where is he for I haven’t seen him since early this morning?”

“Jim has been shown him what it is to be a rancher, starting with cleaning out the stalls in the barn. The last I heard he has decided he doesn’t want to be a rancher and wants to go home to his mother.”

Missy said, “You have done this just to keep me from marrying him.”

Billy said, ‘That is true in a way.

 

You needed to see him in a different light and believe me by the time you return to school he will have had two or three new girl friends he has dropped.

You can say goodbye to him in the morning before he leaves. You must realize he isn’t cut out for the ranch life and he has yet to learn how to support himself in the city. When you are ready to marry you need to find a man instead of a boy. Right now you are old enough to have a baby but you are not ready to be a wife and mother.”

The next morning Jim and Chen went to town to get some supplies and took Regan with them.

Missy didn’t bother saying goodbye to him for she was still thinking about what Billy said; “Old enough to have a baby but not old enough to be a wife and mother.

To Be Continued