Free Alone on the Oregon Trail by Vanessa Carvo Page B

finishing her chores so I was alone with Mattie. Walking into the kitchen I found Mattie sitting at the table kicking her foot against the wooden knob on the lower pedestal.
    “Mattie,” I said as I kept my eyes looking down at the cook stove, “would you like to take Bailey for a ride with me this morning?”
    “Why would I want to ride Bailey with you when I can ride him myself?”
    “Mattie, you are only six years old, I think you are a little young to take Bailey out by yourself.”
    “No thanks,” she replied and stormed for the door singing, “Little Miss Muffet, sat on her big butt, eating her curds away. Along came a spider and sat down beside and Miss Muffett ran away.”
    “Oh well, that’s too bad, I was going to make up a picnic basket and enjoy the sunshine.”
    “Have a great day then,” she said, and headed out the door.
    Can you imagine a child her age turning down an invitation like that? She did, though, and as stubborn as she was, it took her four days to finally bring the subject up again, as if she had changed her mind.
    My first response was to teach her a lesson and not take her up on her offer, but I quickly realized that this could be a breakthrough and I obliged.
    You could say we had a good time if you enjoy spending a morning with nothing said between you and a little girl. She never spoke a word to me, but occasionally I would overhear her speaking to Bailey and I decided that he may just be the one to win her heart and I would use him again to help me build a relationship with Mattie.
    Arriving back at the house that afternoon we met Grayson who was out plowing the field and as he saw us riding back to the stable, little Mattie’s hand flew high into the air as if she was showing off to her daddy that she had found some fun for once and with the sweetest smile she gazed at him as she rode past him.
    I received no thank you from her that day, but I could feel her telling me with her eyes that she had fun, even though I would catch her glaring from time to time. This child would be a very hard case and it would not be long until one of us would blow, before it was all said and done. I chalked that day up as a great accomplishment and one bridge had been successfully crossed, without Brooklyn falling down.
    The smell of sweet summer grass lit up the air and how I loved smelling that the first thing in the morning and at night as I laid down my head to sleep. I always left my window open so it could creep in all night and fill my room with its aroma. I longed for the prairies for years and how I wished that Nathaniel was with me to see it and to experience it.
    Poor Nathaniel only lived the essence of prairies in his mind and his life was filled with the stench of the city and the rage of cholera and pigs in the street. His dream was to get us out of New York City before cholera would claim our lives as well and he got as far as a rugged terrain that took his life before he could even smell the summer grass or see the autumn around the corner.
    Thinking on Nathaniel had taken up most of my time so far since I arrived at the Loves. I decided that if Nathaniel was around that he could probably steal the heart of this young girl because he was great with children and animals.
    We planned to have many of both. We dreamed of a cattle ranch being ours one day, complete with chickens, horses, dogs and sheep. It was not odd that neither of us ever mentioned having pigs after our experience with them being turned loose in the streets in New York, to clean them up.
    I didn’t care if I ever seen a pig. The Loves did have pigs and I just made sure I stayed away from them. They were not kept close to the house. Grayson was kind enough to keep them pastured far enough from the house that we wouldn’t have to deal with their smell.
    I could not have thanked him more.
    I had been learning quite a bit about cooking and the kitchen from Meredith and I was coming up with some fine meals myself. She had