Chapter 13
Unfortunately, they all woke up to more snow falling and it continued to fall for three more days.
He and Red spent the next few days shoveling the town out on boardwalks.
He did make it over to see Angie and the boys and brought them a small bag of candy and her a small sprig of cedar sprigs to put in the pottery jar she had in the middle of her kitchen table.
He also stole several kisses before he left.
Angie was as glad to see him as he was to see her.
As they passed the livery, Henry asked him if he could take some milk and eggs over to Angie’s house for him.
He was swamped with keeping his animals warm from all the snow and also helping Lynn with Hank.
Travis volunteered to take the milk and eggs over and was able to steal a few more kisses.
As far as he was concerned, it was a good morning.
Until they came to the other side of town.
Mavis was thrilled to have the walks in front of her store and home shoveled out.
She even kissed Red for getting it done.
He blushed but loved the attention from Mavis.
He had loved her from the moment he had seen her when she moved in, but she had told him she just thought of him as a friend and Red had to be satisfied with that.
Lydia was tired of being cooped up for the last week because of one snowstorm after the other.
She came storming out of the house all bundled up and determined to get outside no matter what Mavis and her daughters told her about the cold and the snow.
Walking on snow is different than walking on grass or even walking when it rains.
The slick and icy ground caught Lydia off ground and after only three steps outside, she fell on her butt.
Red and Travis were so busy shoveling the walkway, they didn’t even come and help her up until she started yelling at them.
“Get over here and help me up! What are you, nincompoops? When a lady falls, you come and help her up, is that too much to ask of two strong men? Of course, it isn’t, even of you two!” She yelled at the two men as they kept on working. “Well, aren’t you going to get me out of this snowbank?”
Travis turned to stare at Lydia, “I figure you came out against Mavis, Martha, and Mary’s suggestions to stay inside, you knew better like you do at everything else.
If you can come out, you can get yourself out of that snowbank by yourself.
In answer to your question if we’re going to help you, no we’re not.
We’ve got a lot of work to do cleaning off the walkways in town.
We’ve been at it for hours.” Travis told her and turned his back on her, much to her dismay.
She cursed, she threw snow at him and Red, and she finally had to turn on her hands and knees to climb out of the snowbank.
By then, she was so cold, she went back inside just so she could get warm.
She stomped her feet on the welcome mat Mavis had by the door and cursed every swear word she had ever heard as she went to hang up her coat, hat, gloves, scarf, and boots.
She sat by the cookstove just to get warm.
She didn’t talk to anyone and didn’t answer when anyone talked to her until she got warm.
Then, she got up and walked into her room to paint.
Mavis just shook her head at the headstrong girl.
She was headed for trouble the way she was behaving, but she really didn’t know what to do to stop her at this point.
Travis and Red finally had the walkways cleared.
They headed back to the jail to get warm.
Red didn’t know if he approved of the way that Travis talked to Lydia or not.
It wouldn’t have taken that long to help Lydia up out of that snowbank, but he stayed out of their disagreement.
He also knew that Mavis was having a hell of a time keeping Lydia in line.
She had never been taught to do a lick of work in New Orleans.
She had even had to teach her how to brush her own hair.
He had never heard such from any parents not to teach their kids how to take care of themselves like that.
It was a shame to his way of thinking. She was a pretty little thing, just spoiled rotten.
He actually thought that Travis had the right idea when he had spanked her on the way to Angel Falls.
She just needed her back side spanked a few more times and maybe just maybe she might become civil to the rest of them.
He just knew that he was going to stay out of any arguments between Lydia and Travis.
It was like two spitting cats. He was going to put his money on Travis coming out the winner, but he wasn’t going to come out without some injuries of his own.
Atlanta had fallen to Union General Sherman.
It all but ensured that Lincoln was reelected in November.
Sherman continued his march to the sea. Confederate Generals Joseph Johnston and John Bell Hood tried to staunch Sherman’s supply lines and invade Tennessee, but Union General Schofield defeated Hood at the Battle of Franklin and George Thomas dealt Hood a massive defeat at the Battle of Nashville effectively destroying Hood’s army.
Leaving Atlanta, and his base of supplies, Sherman’s army marched with no destination set, laying waste to about twenty percent of the farms in Georgia in his ‘March to the Sea’.
He reached the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, Georgia in December 1864.
Sherman’s army was followed by thousands of freed slaves; there were no major battles along the march.
Sherman turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Confederate Virginia lines from the south, increasing the pressure on Lee’s army.
Travis received a telegram from a friend of his at Christmas. It read:
Travis. Stop. Abe hurt at Battle in Tennessee. Stop. He lost his leg. Stop. I’m sending him to Angel Falls to recover when he’s able to travel. Stop. War can’t last much longer. Stop. Logan. Stop.
Travis couldn’t believe that his good friend Abram Harrison had been injured and lost a leg in the war.
He was thrilled that he was coming to Angel Falls to recover, but now he had to find a place for him to live.
Abe was a man who didn’t like people much…
he and Logan were the exceptions. He was a bear of a man.
He had made Travis look small standing next to him, and Travis was over six feet tall!
Travis got to thinking about any empty houses in the area.
He wouldn’t like staying in town. Too many people, they would drive him nuts in no time at all.
He’d need to find him a place on the outskirts of town or out of town which was even better.
He thought of all the empty cabins he had seen as he had ridden out to check out every farmer and rancher in the area.
One cabin came to his mind. It wasn’t that far away that he couldn’t come to town to get supplies, but he would still be isolated like Abe would like.
The cabin was small; it couldn’t be any larger than two rooms. The rooms connected to a barn which wasn’t that big either, but it would make it easy to get to it with all this snow.
Travis went to the land office and found out how much it was worth and found that it came with twenty acres of wooded land.
There was a corral that had been cleared with the barn, but that was about it.
It was cheap and had been empty for over ten years.
Travis had the money and he bought it for Abram Harrison.
He had no idea when Abe would be able to travel, but he’d have a home when he got here.
He’d get Angie to help him clean it out and get it ready for Abe.
He was sure that he’d be bringing his horse Caesar with him.
They had been inseparable during the war.
He took better care of his horse than he did of himself.
He sure hope that Caesar hadn’t been hurt when Abe had.
On a clear day, he walked out on snowshoes to see how bad the house had fallen apart.
It looked so empty and forlorn sitting in deep snowdrifts, but it was also strangely beautiful, too.
He almost wished he was the one going to live here.
The roof was still intact, and so were the walls.
But it was littered with debris from being empty for so many years.
He swept it clear with a broom he found in the corner.
It took him a while to get it all outside and in a pile to burn.
But it did look better, but then you needed to scrub it down.