Free Wild Heart on the Prairie (A Prairie Heritage, Book 2) by Vikki Kestell

first
fire. He showed Elli and Amalie how to gather dry weeds and roots for starter
and something else for fuel in place of wood—a dry, flat, gray patty. It had
been an interesting moment when he managed to convey to the women that they
were collecting buffalo “chips” for firewood.
    Bailey had told them it would take him less than a day to
return home on horseback, and had headed back immediately. “Got t’ keep thet water
tank filled,” he grinned. “I’ll be home ‘bout nightfall.” He held his new ox on
a lead.
    Jan and Karl had again thanked him. Amalie was especially
appreciative for the trade, and they were already enjoying their fill of milk.
    Their new friend started his return home shortly after
reaching Thoresen land. Before he left Bailey had warned them of snakes. “You
be trampin’ or cuttin’ th’ grass down, b’fore y’all lay down t’ sleep,” he
said, demonstrating with a stick and with vigorous stomping. They hadn’t followed
his words, but they had clearly understood his pantomime.
    As soon as Bailey was out of sight, Jan and Karl had rigged their
families a temporary shelter while the women watered the chicks and pigs. First,
Jan and Karl cut the grass and stomped out the ground around them. With Søren’s
help, they maneuvered two of the wagons until they were side-by-side with some room
between them. Then they unhitched the oxen and hobbled them nearby.
    They unloaded the lumber wagon and sorted and stacked the
wood. They did not unload the other wagons; many of the things still packed in
them would remain crated up until they were under a roof.
    With some of the lumber the men hammered together two
benches and a serviceable table that they placed between the wagons. They
strung tarpaulins over the table and benches and secured the sides and corners
of the canvas sheets to the outside edges of the wagons.
    Karl and Jan nailed two tall, upright boards to the ends of
the table. They nailed a third board across the tops of the two. The boards
lifted up the center of the tenting over the tables.
    The families now had a dry shelter under which to eat. They
would continue to make their beds on the ground under the wagons as they had
done on the journey from the train to their homestead.
    Amalie’s reaction to the tent had concerned Elli. “I knew we
would not have a house for a while,” she whispered to her sister-in-law, “but I
have never been without a roof over my head . . . and the sky here
is so vast and, and this place they call the prairie so . . .”
Her voice caught at the end. “I am sorry. I am being silly.”
    She swallowed. “I could hardly sleep the nights we were
coming from the train. The grass is so high and we heard so many strange
sounds.”
    “Maybe you are a little low because of the baby, ja ?”
Elli suggested. “You know how our emotions act when we are pregnant!”
    Amalie nodded her agreement, but her eyes were already
shadowed from lack of sleep. Elli observed new worry lines around Amalie’s
eyes.
    Elli told Jan about their conversation. “I do think it is
the baby, but perhaps not just the baby. I worry that she is taking all
these changes too hard.”
    Jan snatched a covert look at Amalie and thought about what
Elli had told him.
    The tent and wagons provide shelter in fine weather but . . .
but perhaps w e should think about something better soon, Lord , he prayed
as he pondered all they must do on this new day.
    After rigging the tent, Jan, Karl, and Søren built a temporary
chicken coop and pen for the pigs. The chicks raced around their coop and gobbled
their feed, and the two piglets, allowed to run free within the pen, seemed
healthy enough.
    As for the hobbled oxen, they would be content to stay near
as long as they had grass and water. The men would remove the hobbles and move
them to fresh grass each day; Søren would water them twice a day.
    The wellbeing of their livestock was a great concern to Jan
and Karl, especially the