Dorothy Garlock - [Wabash River] Read Online Free PDF

die anyway, isn’t he?”
    “Yes, ma’am. I’m afraid so.”
    “Then let’s do it. Let’s take the chance it might help.” She turned and poked the burning stick back into the fire. “Papa, help me take the canvas off these poles and build a tent. What else do we need to do, Mr. Quill?”
    “We’ll need a lot of firewood.” He stepped from the wagon and walked off into the darkness.
    “Ya know this ain’t goin’ to do no good, Libby. Why don’t ya let the poor man die in peace? If’n ya’d only listen—” Elija put his hand to the small of his back and bent over several times. “My back’s killin’ me.”
    Liberty ignored him, folded blankets and placed them under the wagon before she shook Amy’s shoulder to waken her.
    “I’ve fixed you and the little girl a pallet under the wagon. You can snuggle up together and keep warm.”
    “Her name’s . . . Mercy.”
    “All right. Crawl under and I’ll put Mercy beside you.”
    “I jist never heard of rousin‘ a dyin’ man out of his bed on a night so cold.” Elija grumbled as his fingers worked at the knot holding the canvas to the poles. “Yo’re determined to keep us all stirred up, ain’t ya, Libby? Stith don’t know how lucky he was that Jubal got ya, but then, he’d a not took yore sass like me ’n Jubal’s done.”
    Liberty straightened after she placed the child beside Amy and covered them. Her mouth was set and her eyes held shards of anger.
    “Hush your complaining! If you don’t want to help, get out of the way.”
    “Ya ain’t ort a talk to yore pa like that. Yo’re hard, Libby. My back—”
    “There’s nothing wrong with your back except that it’s weak!” she hissed.
    “By Jehoshaphat! Ya ain’t got no feelin’ a’tall. Now, if’n I jist had a tot of Bald Face—”
    She elbowed him out of the way and unfastened the ropes. Farrway returned carrying a flat stone and an armful of wood. He set them down and began to feed the fire with heavy chunks of wood.
    “I was jist atellin’ Libby that I hurt my back somethin’ awful during the runkus I had with them rivermen in Louisville. Guess I never knowed it at the time; I was so dang bustit mad when they sung out at my girl here. I ort a knowed better than to take on more’n one at a time.”
    Liberty saw Farrway glance at Elija, then away. Oh, Papa, she thought, why didn’t he shut up? She loved him in spite of his complaining, and she hated seeing him make a complete fool of himself. She yanked the canvas off the poles and went to pull up more wood for the fire.
    “What else do we need, Mr. Quill?”
    “A couple buckets of water to start.”
    “I’ve been catching rain water in a barrel.” Liberty looked pointedly at her father.
    “I reckon I could get it, if’n ya ain’t wantin’ a full bucket. My poor back—”
    “The water can wait until after we get the tent up.” Farrway took a small axe from his pack.
    “Well, if’n yo’re sure. I’m plumb willin’ to do what I can.” Elija sank slowly down on the wagon gate, his hand pressing into the small of his back.
    Farrway placed the rock in the flames at one end of the fire, waited until it was blazing hot, then filled the iron teakettle from the water bucket and set it on the rock. He took the axe, and with a few well-placed strokes slimmed down two forked poles and stuck them into the ground. After placing another pole in the forks he swiftly threw the canvas over and pegged it down, leaving a side open to the fire, then picked up the oak water bucket and dipped it into the barrel.
    “As soon as the water is boiling, we’ll bring him out here. The steam should go into the tent. Heat another pan of water too, Mrs. Perry, so you can lay a warm, wet cloth over his face. The moisture may help loosen what’s in his chest.”
    “All that wet? I heard tell that’d kill a man,” Elija said with a sad shake of his head.
    Farrway walked away to fetch more wood, and Liberty gritted her teeth to keep from