Read The Scarlet Thread Online
Authors: Francine Rivers
wagon and used part of the money to buy passage
on a steamboat. He says we’re going down the
Mississippi the end of this week and getting off at
Independence Landing.
I said—Good bye, James Farr. It was nice
knowing you.
He said—You are going with me if I have to
hog-tie and carry you! I told him he would have
to do just that. So he went out and got so drunk
Clovis had to fetch him home. Poor old Clovis
had to carry James home slung over his shoulder
like a sack of grain. I told Clovis he could dump
James in the potato cellar and leave him there
until he grows eyes and rots. He is not welcome
in my bed.
I reckon that is what Clovis did with him.
I can barely see this page for the tears. How
is it possible to hate a man I love so much?
Aunt Martha says God’s hand is in this. If that is
so, then I have a bone to pick with God. Not that
he will listen. Not that he ever did.
Aunt Martha and I sat all day today talking and
crying. I asked her if I and my children could stay
and live with her when James goes to Oregon.
She said no. She said she cannot come between a
man and his wife. She said God joined us together
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and she will not help me split the sheets. So I am
stuck with James Addison Farr and his dreams of
Oregon.
I should have married Thomas Atwood
Houghton.
Aunt Martha bought me a trunk. James is outfitting us in Independence. So for now, all I have is
a medicine box with Quinine, bluemass, opium,
laudanum, whiskey, hartshorn for snakebites and
citric acid to treat scurvy, books, slates, chalk,
and ink aplenty. I do not want my children growing up ignorant like their father. The ladies from
the quilting circle packed pieces of fabric in every
color and pattern imaginable so I can make my
own quilt someday. I have packed stout linen
thread, large needles, beeswax, buttons, paper of
pins and 2 thimbles and packed in a pretty candy
box Thomas gave me a long time ago.
If I had married Thomas I would not be going
to Oregon.
Pack three sets
1 linsey-woolsey dress
1 wool dress
unmentionables
4 pairs of woolen socks
2 pairs of walking shoes
1 good shawl
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comb, brush and 2 toothbrushes
Pack two sets
2 flannel overshirts
2 woolen undershirts
2 pairs thick cotton drawers
4 pairs of woolen socks
4 color handkerchiefs
2 pairs of walking shoes
1 pair of boots
1 gutta percha poncho
1 coat
comb, brush, 2 toothbrushes each
frying pan
kettle
coffee pot
pie tin
butter churn
2 saws
2 shovels
2 axes
3 belt knives
1 whetstone
1 rifle
1 pistol
ammunition
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James says he has the money to buy the rest of
what we need when we get to Independence.
I think it would be cheaper to buy supplies here,
but he said it would cost too dear to freight it
down the river. So we will go with what little we
have, which is not much.
Aunt Martha offered money to James, but he
would have none of it. I was not so proud.
I said Good Bye to Aunt Martha this morning. It
near broke my heart. It is breaking still as I sit on
this miserable shallow draft steamboat taking me
down the Mississippi away from her and Betsy
and Clovis and my home. Aunt Martha kissed
me and took off her cross necklace and put it on
me. It is the pretty one with amethyst stones I
admired when I first come to Galena after my
father cast me out. She has worn it every day of
her life since her papa give it to her on her fourteenth birthday. She said—I want you to have it
in memory of me. Let it remind you I am praying
for you every day. She said— God is with you,
Mary Kathryn Farr, and don’t you ever forget it.
I was not comforted.
I will never see them again. She says I will, but
she means heaven and I am not going there. I am
not going anywhere God is.
I got God and James Addison Farr to blame
for all this heartache.
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Papa. I said it was nothing for him to worry his
mind over, but he is worried all the same. I said
I was busy making sure Beth and Hank and the
twins do not fall overboard into the river. But he
said that is not so because Papa has Matthew and
Hank with him and the twins are asleep and Beth
is too scared of water to get close to the edge of
the boat.
He said—You will see Papa is right when we
get to Oregon. I told him if I heard those words
again, his papa will find himself in the muddy
Mississippi. And he can’t swim!
We got off the boat at Independence Landing two
days ago. It has been cloudy and cold. James
found a holding place for our possessions until we
have a wagon to store them. It is a good thing it is
not raining because we are camped without so
much as a tent over our heads.
Independence is the wildest place I have ever
seen. It is full of people from every walk of life,
most I would not want to venture down. I have
never seen so many people. Everyone is buying
and selling something. Everyone is in a hurry to
get ready to go to Oregon or California or
Santa Fe.
It is dusk and I can still hear hammers pounding as wagons are being built and oxen bellowing
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and horses neighing. It is impossible to get a wink
of sleep in this jumping off place.
James left me with the children so he can go
walking around the town square and—get a feel
for what is happening—as he put it. I am getting
feeling enough from sitting by and watching.
Most people hereabouts are as crazy as he is. The
men at least. I have not seen a happy woman
since we landed.
James talked all day to men camped near us with
their wives and children about whether it is wise
to buy oxen or mules. He came back and laid out
all he had learned and then said—What do you
think, Mary Kathryn?
He would not want to know what I think.
He said—You gotta talk to me sometime.
Not in this lifetime I don’t.
James bought 4 teams of oxen today at $25 an
ox! They are good sturdy animals and gentle, but
not worth that much. He should have bargained
harder. James said he will send me next time. He
said if things get bad on the trail, we can eat
them. I would like to know how he thinks he
could do that with Beth taking these beasts of
burden to her heart already.
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Wells are camped near us. She was washing
clothes in the creek same time I was. I am not the
only one weeping about going to Oregon. We
cried together and laughed some too. We both
had some fine ideas about what to do with our
husbands. She said she supposed we would have
to make the best of what comes. She has three
children all eager to go westering. Joshua and her
son Harlan are already fast friends.
Other people are gathering near us. Virgil
Boon for one. He is a cooper from Pennsylvania and up in years. He is at least forty if he
is a day. There is also Judge Skinner and his
wife. He is older still. Forty-three, he said. He
figures they will need Law and Order in Oregon. His wife is not friendly so I do not know
her name. Ruckel Buckeye is from Kentucky
and only fifteen. I asked him what his mother
thinks about him going off to Oregon by himself and he said she told him to go and make
a better life for himself out west. I cannot
imagine a mother telling her son to leave her
knowing she will never see him again. She
must be a hard woman.
It has been raining near every day. Our clothes
are as damp as my spirits. I must trek through
mud to get to the mercantile. James said he needs
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me to do an accounting or we will not have
money enough to make the journey.
He said—You’re going to have to help me
unless you want to live in this wild place for the
rest of your days, Mary Kathryn. He cant write
or read and there are men in this town that skin
you for the pure pleasure of it. He said we have
$854.22 to our names and it took him all the years
we worked the homestead to save that. Aunt
Martha gave me $120 that I have hidden in the
trunk for safe keeping and Dire Straits. I did not
tell him about it.
James brought Mister Kavanaugh to our campfire today. I saw this man two days ago in the
mercantile. Or rather he saw me. He was standing at the counter and buying powder, lead, and
shot when I come in with the children. He is a big
man and hard to miss. He looks wild as an Indian
in his buckskins. His hair is long and dark and
held back by a piece of rawhide. He was carrying
a Sharp’s buffalo rifle and had bluer eyes than
I have ever seen before and staring right at me
from the minute I walked in the door.
Joshua wanted to talk to him but I told him to
stay put by me and watch that Hank and Beth did
not stray. I turned my back for one minute and
next thing I knew Joshua took Hank and Beth
right up to him. I should have been paying better
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with MacDonald who is a thief and must be
watched. When I turned around again, there was
Joshua asking this rough stranger all manner of
questions and him looking at me with those blue
eyes of his. I shooed the children away from him,
apologized, and left quick as I could.
I knew I would see him again. I did not know
how or when. I just knew. How James met him
I don’t know and will not ask. I offered Mister
Kavanaugh supper and he accepted. James
did most of the talking while they ate. I did
not say anything. I listened and learned Mister
Kavanaugh has had commerce with the Kansa,
Pawnee, Cheyenne, and Sioux. He lived with the
Cheyenne two years. He has great respect for the
Indians and not much for those he has seen getting ready to head west. He said most are illprepared for what awaits them.
I said—Do you mean us, Mister Kavanaugh?
And he said—Depends.
On what I asked to know. He just looked at me
and did not say.
James and Wells and half a dozen other men are
meeting with John MacLeod tonight. A contract
will be drawn up and signed and fees set for
his hire. James said he Highly Recommends
Kavanaugh as a scout but doubts the man will
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