Chapter 20
Travis went with Angie to help put in his garden.
It was also to tell him about the end of the war.
He knew that he was going to be just as happy as he was.
They found Abe washing out his clothes. He was almost done, and he was walking around on his peg leg really well.
His crutches were leaning against the side of the cabin.
Abe stood there as if he was hit with a log across the chest. He couldn’t speak…
he could barely get a breath of air into his lungs.
“The war is over…finally over, thank God! I can’t wait for Logan to get here, you know he’ll come just as soon as he gets released from the Union Army.
He’ll make sure that he gets all the papers in order before he starts out west. You know how he feels about the color of his skin…
he doesn’t want anyone to feel any different about him when he arrives.
He don’t want anyone calling him boy or making him feel different cause he’s black.
I’m glad there’s other blacks in Angel Falls.
You got him a place to stay?” Abe asked him and smiled, really smiled just thinking about Logan arriving in Angel Falls.
“I do. When I first arrived here, my brother and sister-in-law made a room for me in their warehouse. They’ve already made it available for Logan.
It won’t matter to them that Logan’s black.
Tate and Sam don’t see color or size when they see people, don’t you remember when they met you?
Logan will just have to see that for himself.
” Travis told him and they smiled at each other.
“Now let’s get that garden planted. I have green beans, corn, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, and a few pumpkin seeds.
Do you want anything else, I’ll bring them tomorrow when I ride out to all the farms and ranches. ”
“No, that should about cover it. I do like sauerkraut, but I’ll buy it, and I’m not real fond of beets, but I’ll eat them in a pinch.
I also like peas, but I’ll be damned if I’ll can them and work with all those little peas all day long.
I’ll also need some pint and quart jars to can them in, but there’s no hurry.
These seeds have some growing before I can pick the vegetables and can them.
” Abe told him and then brought him to the barn to show him what he had sketched on the headboard and footboard for Cal.
Abe had sketched a waterfall with birds, trees, and even a frog and fish in the footboard from where the waterfall ends up. It was incredible. Travis stood there with his mouth open.
“You have got to be kidding! I had no idea that you could do this kind of work, Abe…Cal will be blown away and the lady he works for right now, has no idea what she will end up getting. This will be a masterpiece when you get it done. Are you sure that it will only take you a week to get it done?” Travis told him, still in awe at the skill he had shown in drawing the headboard.
Abe nodded and assured him that it would.
Abe took off the peg leg and bent down to start planting the tiny seeds in the ground.
Travis made planting sticks for the boys to help, and Angie kept track of how well they were doing.
With all of them working, it didn’t take them long to get the garden planted and a fence staked out and put around it.
They ate some sandwiches that Angie had made and then left.
They were all in very good spirits when they returned home.
Travis couldn’t wait for Cal to see the headboard when Abe was finished with it, but before he could bring him out to see it they received news that Abraham Lincoln had been shot and killed while he was at the theatre with his wife on April 14th, just five days after the war was over!
He couldn’t believe it. He knew that Logan was going to be floored with the news.
Logan had idolized Lincoln for making the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all the slaves and making him a free man.
He wished that he could have been with him when he had received the news.
He was with Abe when he told him about Lincoln.
Abe had to sit down when he heard about it.
“Good Lord, is it never going to end…first the war that goes on forever, now they kill Lincoln. I don’t know how they are going to pull the north and the south together without Lincoln guiding us.
He was so wise and I felt he had the patience to handle both the confederate soldiers returning to the Union and the north to accept them. Now, I don’t know.”
Then, he took Cal to see the headboard. He was very nervous for him to see his finished work…
his footboard was also done. Cal took one look and whistled through his teeth.
He spent several minutes looking at the sanding, the polish, and the care that was taken with every detail.
“Good God, Abe…I had no idea of the skill you had when I asked you to do this headboard…there are no words to tell you how good you are. The lady who asked me to do this will not believe what I am seeing or what I will deliver to her. I’m charging her double for this.
You will be rich in no time when word gets out what you can do.
Thank you so much for doing this. Here are the specs for a China cabinet she wants.
I have no idea of how to do it other than like all other dressers.
I’ll bring out the lumber you tell me that you want.
” Cal shook Abe’s hand and then hugged him.
He kept looking at the headboard and footboard and shaking his head.
He still was in awe of what Abe was capable of doing.
Abe was just glad that he hadn’t let him down. He was pleased with the pieces; they had been fun to make. He was already working on the China cabinet in his head. It would be fun to work on. He also wanted to make a cradle. He had always wanted to make a cradle. Now, he had time to do it.
They carefully put the pieces in the wagon wrapped in quilts to keep them from getting scratched.
Cal told Abe that he would give Travis the money for the pieces as soon as he was paid for them.
Abe brushed him off; he wasn’t worried about money.
Money wasn’t on the top of his priority list. He also gave Cal a list of what lumber he needed for the China cabinet, plus some sandpaper, and polish.
He told him to subtract it from what the lady was paying him.
Cal laughed and told him the lumber and other stuff would be delivered sometime today.
Abe just grinned. He and Cal spoke the same language.
He waved them both away. His mind was on the China cabinet and how he was going to build it.
Travis went on with his rounds to the farms and ranches.
His mind kept going back to Logan. He needed to find him a job, but he didn’t know what he wanted to do now that he was no longer a soldier.
He knew that he worked in a warehouse lifting heavy boxes and bags all day long.
It’s what made him so strong, but what did he want to do instead of lifting heavy things all day long.
He was a great shot with a gun once he learned how to shoot.
He had never held a gun in his hand before he enlisted in the Army.
As he told them, who ever gave a slave or a black man a gun?
They all felt they’d go around shooting white men because they hated them all.
Travis thought about making him a deputy. He’d like that. The town was getting big enough to need another deputy, would they hire a black deputy? He needed to talk to Red about it. But it was a perfect job for him if he would accept it.
The more Travis thought about it, the more he thought it was the perfect job for Logan to have when he arrived in Angel Falls. He couldn’t wait for him to arrive.
He checked the train schedule every day for his arrival.
It was probably that checking that made him see the two young black people jump off the baggage car when they did.
It was a young girl and a young boy. The girl looked to be about sixteen or seventeen and the boy couldn’t be more than ten, if even that.
Both were so thin as to look starved. The clothes they wore were dirty and hardly covered their skin.
Travis figured that they had jumped on the train and caught a ride because they didn’t have the money to pay for one.
They must have run away from their owners as soon as the war was over and they were no longer slaves.
He sure didn’t blame them for getting as far away as they could go from their former owners.
Travis stopped them, not to arrest them, but to help them. “Stop right there!” He told them in a loud voice. Both stopped running instantly. He walked up to them. “What are your names and why are you here?”
“My name is Eliza Jane…I’m seventeen, and this is my brother, Jute…
he’s about nine. As soon as the war was over and we was freed, we ran away from the plantation where we was owned by the master.
We been trying to get far away from Mississippi where we been our whole life.
We been jumping on any train we could get far away.
We don’t have no money, but we’ll work for a place to live and eat.
We ain’t no freeloaders.” Eliza told him and looked him in the eye as she talked to him and protected her brother. “Just don’t hurt us.”