The Very First Thanksgiving by Bea Bragg

Author:Bea Bragg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Roberts Rinehart
Published: 1997-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

6

THERE WERE other problems that kept Manuel and Fernando from taking the time to train Captain-General Martinez. The first problem today was a rattlesnake coiled on the path in front of them, just behind the Moreno family. Fernando sucked in his breath, but before he could open his mouth to yell, Manuel grabbed him by his shirt from behind.

“Don’t move,” he told Fernando in a whisper. “Don’t even breathe.”

Oblivious to the danger, Captain-General Martinez munched on a bush some distance away. If he saw the snake, who knew what would happen, Manuel thought. All he knew now was that they must remain still. Señor Zaldivar had warned them about snakes and how important it was not to disturb them.

And he was right. Pretty soon, the rattler slithered off into the bush. Fernando heaved a sigh of relief and called Captain-General Martinez to return to the path.

They walked through thickets of brush that tore at their clothes. They learned to stay away from cholla cactus. The rocks and sand bruised their feet, especially through the valleys between hills. The new leather shoes the padre had given them when they left Santa Barbara had worn out completely.

“You’re pretty smart boys,” Señor Zaldivar told them when he saw their bare feet. “Did you ever wonder how the Indian made those shoes that you’ve been wearing?”

“Yes,” Manuel said, as if he had just had a great revelation. “They were made from leather. We can do that.”

Fernando did not appear enthusiastic, but he joined Manuel and Captain-General Martinez the next morning before the march began in search of an animal whose hide they could make into shoes. But they did not have to use the goat’s powers to frighten away an animal from its freshly killed prey. They found one dead and already eaten except for its hide. It was a bobcat.

As Señor Zaldivar had told them, they laid the skin flat, scraped it with the knives he had given them, and dragged it back to their accustomed place in the line behind the Morenos. But the line was already moving ahead. In order to make shoes from the bobcat’s hide they had to remove the fur first. And to do that they had to keep the hide in shade and in the dirt for two or three days so they could get the fur off.

What to do? Could they catch up with the line if they stayed behind? Could they walk at all without the shoes?

Manuel looked at the painful bruises on his feet and on Fernando’s. He knew that the answer to their problems was risky, but they had to take that risk. Maybe it wasn’t all that great a risk since Señor Zaldivar came from time to time to check up on them. Still, sometimes two weeks went by without their seeing him.

“Ow-w-w,” Fernando moaned, rubbing his feet. Captain-General Martinez answered with a bleat-bleat and went on munching. It seemed he never quit.

With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, Manuel watched the line move without them.

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