Travis Read Online Free PDF Page A

all.”
    Back to the horse trough.
    “What about now? Do you think I could pass as a kid myself?”
    The children eyed her critically.
    Kessie said, “You better do something about your hair. It’s too fancy up on your head. Little girls don’t do that.”
    Violet knew her hair was fancy. Didn’t the Diamond Horseshoe have a black maid who kept all the whores’ hair looking good?
    Violet took her hairpins out and her brown locks fell well below her small shoulders. She began to comb it with her fingers. Then as the children watched, she braided her hair into two pigtails. “Now how do I look?”
    They all stared at her. “Young,” they said in unison, except Boo Hoo, who said, “Feathers.”
    Violet sighed. “Okay, I am just like all of you; I came off the orphan train and I’m thirteen years old, going on fourteen.”
    Kessie looked up at her. “You want us to lie?”
    Oh, dear, she had gotten an orphan with scruples. She’d make a good suffragette all right. “We’ll just pretend for a while, okay? You see, there’s a bad man looking for me, too, and I need to run away just like you do. Maybe all five of us can do it.”
    Limpy drew a circle in the dust with his crutch. “Now just how are we going to do that?”
    “I haven’t quite figured that one out yet, but I’m working on it, okay? Now remember, I am Violet and I am thirteen years old.”
    All the children nodded. Could she pull this off? And even if she could, how was she going to get all five of them out of town when she didn’t have enough money for even one train ticket? She leaned over and looked at her reflection in the horse trough. She was short and slight. Duke had always complained about how small her breasts were. Maybe, just maybe, she could convince people that she was only thirteen years old, but then what?
    It was turning dusk now on the bustling street.
    “What are all these people doing here?” Limpy asked.
    “I’m hungry,” Kessie said.
    “We’re all hungry,” Violet answered. “All these people are here for the big land run day after tomorrow. They’ll all line up and the army will fire a cannon and they’ll race into Indian Territory.”
    “And then what?” Kessie asked.
    Boo Hoo was crying again and Violet picked her up, wet drawers and all, and hugged her close.
    “Everybody races in,” Violet said, “and the ones who get there first will win a farm or a town lot so they can start a business.”
    Limpy looked wistful. “That would be nice, if we had a farm or a ranch where we could all live as a family. I always wanted to be a cowboy.”
    Kessie said, “You can’t be a cowboy, you’re crippled.”
    “Hush,” Violet said. “That isn’t kind. Cowboys ride horses and in the saddle—it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a bad leg.”
    They started walking again.
    Harold said, “Why don’t we race and get a farm?”
    “That’s silly.” Violet shrugged as they walked south along Main Street. “We don’t have any horses or equipment and besides, you have to be twenty-one to stake a claim.”
    Kessie asked, “Are they allowing women to race or is this another thing just for men?”
    Yes, this kid would make a great suffragette.
    Violet shook her head. “No, I think women can race, too, but we don’t have any horses.” Besides which, Violet thought, she was only nineteen, going on twenty, so that let her out.
    “I’m hungry,” Boo Hoo sobbed against her shoulder. The blue gingham was getting sodden and the child was heavy for a slight girl like herself to carry, but Violet gritted her teeth, adjusted the weight and started walking south again. They were almost to the edge of town. In the distance, she saw the wagons lined up by the dozens, the owners camping under the trees by the creek, waiting for Monday’s race.
    She was hungry, too. Violet felt like weeping with Boo Hoo, but she knew crying didn’t do any good. She had to take action, just like she had when her mother died of yellow fever back