Chapter 8

When the doc loaded up, Maisy thought, I will just lay my head back here a minute and rest and then get up and get about my housework. A little catnap never hurt nobody and before she knew it was drifting off to dreams of her one and only love.

"Hurry up, daddy," Maisy hollered into the barn, "I need to get this stuff up to Bobby's place and get back to help momma with the cleanin' up. We got a lot to do before I get married on Saturday." "Now just hold up little girl," replied Frank Butler, "We have plenty enough time to get your stuff up to Bobby's." Maisy grinned up at her daddy, he was still handsome, even though he had lived a hard, rough life. "I am just anxious to get stuff done," she replied. He tugged on her braid and told her to get in the wagon, he just had to shut the barn door. She climbed up on the wagon seat and turned around to check the stuff in the back. All of their wedding gifts had been packed neatly into wooden boxes for the short trip to what would soon be her new home. She turned around as her daddy climbed in to the wagon "Ready to go?" he asked. And she nodded her reply.

She and Bobby had decided to wait until fall to get married and she was pleased that they had. It gave her plenty of time to fill her hope chest and make plans for the future. She gazed at the pumpkins in the fields as they passed. Her daddy and Bobby had worked their fields together Bobby had 5 acres and daddy had 5 acres and except for a small branch dividing the acres it looked like one big farm. Her new home stood on a little rise and she could just see the smoke coming from her family's chimney when she looked out her sitting room window. Bobby had cleared some trees just so she could see home and realize she wasn't too far away. The crops had a good season and the weather was just perfect for all of the vegetables and fruit they had grown. She just loved the feel of fresh turned dirt on her bare feet as she helped with the harvest and the wonderful smells from the kitchen when she helped her momma and granny do enough canning to last them through the next year. They had made extra so she could stock her own pantry shelves in her new home.

"I shore did 'preciate Bobby's help in the fields this year, it made my load a lot lighter what with the plowin' and such." Frank said. "He's a real knowledgeable feller and thinks highly of you. It's always Maisy this and Maisy that, I swear I got so tired of hearin' your name I thought about takin' you to town and getting it changed," he told her with a grin.

"Now, daddy," she replied, "You always wished for a son and I guess you should just thank me for getting you one. And with his momma and daddy gone and his family all moved away he don't really got nobody for a man friend. Oh, he has a few buddies that drop by every now and then but I have a feelin' you two will be spendin' more time together. Now that the fields are just about finished and the hay is put up, you two will have plenty of time for huntin' and fishin' 'til the weather changes."

"I reckon," he said, "But it's gonna be hard having you so close to me and not sleepin' under the same roof. At least you'll be close enough to keep an eye on. Now do you need to stay awhile after we get this stuff unloaded?" he asked.

"I guess I need to get it unpacked and put up. Momma said she just had to check over some last minute food preparation and air some bed clothes before company gets here. So if you could come back in about an hour, I should be ready."

"Where's Bobby?" he asked, looking around the yard. "I don't know," she replied." He stopped by the house early this mornin' and said he was going to town and would be back later today, prob'ly late." Frank looked concerned but said he would be back in a little while to get her.

Maisy stood in the front yard and waved as he turned the team of horses around and headed back down the road. She then turned and looked at her handiwork. The flowers she planted around the front porch had seen their season and were ready to be deadheaded and dried for next year. The mums she had planted in between to fill in empty space and bloom in the fall were looking healthy with their bright orange and yellow heads. She had Bobby make a walkway through the front yard from some river stones telling him they couldn't lay down boards every time somebody came to visit. They had sown some grass seed around the yard and it had come up thick and green, getting rid of the mud problem. Bobby and daddy had already measured and cut some locust posts to put up a small fence to divide the yard from the dusty road with enough room to tie up horses without them blocking the way.

The porch swing had been painted over earlier this spring and still looked like new next to the two rockers Bobby had picked up at a farm sale he had attended about a month ago. Bobby had built and she had painted the new shutters on each side of the windows, one beside the front door and one of the side facing her family's home. One was over the kitchen counter looking out at the barn and one each in the bedrooms. The shutters were made so that if they had a bad storm they could be closed and latched from the outside to protect the glass. His momma shore was proud of them glass windows and she planned on takin' care of them forever. The trees had started shedding their leaves and she needed to get some rakin' done.

She strolled around to the side of the house where she could check on her herb garden. Granny had helped her out by giving her some starter plants and seeds, seems she had an idea that Maisy would be takin' over for her in a couple of years as the area baby catcher and needed to get her own herbs started. She looked over at the barn that her daddy and Bobby had repaired, replacing old, rotting lumber and rebuilding the hay loft. She had made sure they had added her a small chicken house on the outside of the barn for her laying hens and that old loud rooster her daddy decided she needed. The inside was large enough to put their 2 horses when the weather got bad and had several stalls for any other animals they might get later on. She had told Bobby that the barn was bigger than the house and maybe they should just move in it. He had told her if she planned on havin' enough kids to fill a barn that's exactly what they would do.

She walked on around the house to take a look at the creek that ran by it. She had cleaned off the bank on each side of it and had planted a few flowers. Bobby had dug a wide spot just outside the kitchen door and made her a small spring to get water from when she need it, she could also tie off her bottles of milk, water or whatever needed to be kept cold and drop them into the spring pulling them up when she needed them. They had a large well but it was closer to the barn than the house and Bobby carried whatever water she needed.

She went to the small back porch and entered her kitchen by the back door. Just like most homes you could see clear through to the front door. There was a bedroom on each side of the sitting area, one for her and Bobby and the other for guests and children. She looked around her kitchen with pride. She had a large work area for preparing their meals and canning, with two good size sinks for washing dishes. She could look out the window and see the barn across the large back yard. The kitchen and eating areas were together and a table with 2 chairs and a long bench on either side divided the eating area from the front room. It was the same table Bobby had grown up with and he had lovingly smoothed out the gouges and rough places and sealed the wood with beeswax making it look just like new. He had a few hives out back of the barn and sold the honey to a storekeeper in town for credit towards groceries and such.

She had a canning closet with lots of room for all of the stuff she had canned and momma had sewed a pretty piece of blue material with little yellow daisies on it to cover the doorway to the closet. You could actually step inside of it and turn around. Bobby's daddy had made it for his momma when he built the house years ago. It had shelves on all 3 sides. She figured she could put her dishes and cooking pans on one side, her flour, sugar, spices and such on the other side and had already put her jars of canned goods on the back side, the one with the most space. She looked at all the lovely reds, greens and yellows of the vegetables they had put up over the summer and smiled at the different shades of purple and pink jams and jellies. She couldn't wait to start cooking for her and Bobby and see his face when he tasted all of the good food. She turned and headed out of the kitchen into the sitting room and looked at the boxes of their wedding gifts. She went to the first one and started unpacking, trying to decide where she was going to put every thing in her new home.

She had just finished putting away the bed linens she had hand stitched over the years in anticipation of this coming day, when she hear the sound of a horse and rider in the front yard. She walked to the front door and peeked out the window at a stranger who was getting down off the horse. She could see from the dust on his clothes that he had ridden a long ways and his face looked as if he hadn't shaved in awhile. He stood looking around the yard as if he knew the place but didn't quite recognize it. She pulled her shawl around her shoulders, patted her nervous stomach and opened the door. "May I help you," she asked the stranger.