Settler's Life by Judy Sharer

Author:Judy Sharer [Sharer, Judy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance western
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2018-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Thursday morning everyone helped pack the wagon for the trip to town. Sarah called out, “Don’t forget your swimming clothes.” She heard Lydia yell up the loft, ‘Jack, I told you to pack swimming clothes.’”

“Since you’re packed, Lydia, please gather the eggs for me to sell in town,” Sarah said as she handed her the egg basket. The sale would add a little to Sarah’s money jar.

Mark stuck his head in the door and called out, “Come on, let’s get going. “If we leave now, we’ll get a few hours of travel in before the sun gets too blooming hot.”

“Are you entering the Annual Best Shot Contest, Uncle Mark?” Jack asked, climbing down the ladder from the loft, his clothes bundled and ready to travel.

“I didn’t know Dead Flats held one every year.”

“Poppa entered every time. He came close a couple times, but never won. The town has contests twice a year, once on the Fourth of July and again at the Fall Festival. We mainly get to go only to the Fall Festival because we’re usually too busy around here to leave over the Fourth of July.”

“Well, I just might enter, Jack,” Mark said, heading for the barn.

Jack called out, “Please grab the fishing poles when you get your Sharps rifle.”

“Come on, children, hurry.” Sarah called out one last time as she finished packing the wagon, carefully placing her baked goods in the tiered wooden holder wedged between two sacks of oats for the horses. There were three loaves of pumpkin bread and two pumpkin pies along with a gallon crock filled with pickled eggs to share at the picnic. Last night, Sarah got an urge to try her hand at the pie contest. Using the last of the molasses, she made her favorite wet bottom shoe-fly pie, a traditional Pennsylvania recipe. The main stay for the rest of their meals were fresh vegetables picked from the garden that morning to snack on, a pot of stew, muffins, and a crock of mint tea.

“We’re ready to leave. Come on, Mark. Let’s get going.”

Jack took the reins and Mark rode his horse so the children could sit on the wagon’s bench seat with their mother. A canopy rigged in the back of the spring wagon offered shade.

Sarah’s plan was they were going to town to mail her letter and check on word from her family. There wasn’t money enough for anything else, but they would stay the night in the church grove with others from out of town and join in the Fourth of July celebration and town picnic. It would be good for the children to see their friends.

Once underway, the children talked with excitement about the adventure to town. Lydia packed the new skirt she made. “I can’t wait to go to the dry goods store to see the fabrics. Do you think after the harvest we’ll have money enough for some cloth, Ma?”

“We’ll see, dear.” Sarah couldn’t promise that far in advance.

“I can’t wait to see the guns and knives in the cabinet at the hardware store.

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