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The big day dawned bright and clear. I always believed I was immune to common nervous maladies, but I surprised myself by getting wedding day jitters. I wasn't so nervous that I dropped my guard though. The memory of Amos Heskins was all too fresh in my mind. Hid body was never found, and the Indians kept checking back to the area of the final fight. There were no buzzards.
I didn't wear my gun belt because of the solemnity of the occasion, but I did have the 38 Lightning tucked behind my belt on the left hand side. I wasn't really expecting trouble, but just in case...
The wedding was held in Vernal. Big John had wanted us to get married at his place but Anne had always wanted a church ceremony. I think this was partially to please her mother and father. She had sent them a tintype picture of me, and I'm afraid I looked like a
desperado in it. In her letters to Anne her mother referred to me as "your cowboy."
I met the people later and fund them to be fine people - open minded and totally accepting of having me for a son-in-law.
I kept looking over my shoulder for I had the feeling that Heskins was going to show up when least expected. I knew that I was not alone in that feeling, for a lot of Carter's crew loitered in various spots around town, seemingly doing nothing but on the alert just the same.
The vows came off without a hitch, and later a barn dance ensued in lieu of a reception. As always there were not enough women to go around. Poor Anne's feet got stepped on many times during that evening as she tried to have one dance with everyone there. A lot of the men were heifer branded, with bandanas tied around their arms and dancing in place of women. A lot of ribbing always went with this practice, and tonight was no exception.
Corn squeezings were available but not openly flaunted. Carter bade a lot of his men to stay away from the liquor, for he didn't want anything to go wrong on this evening.
The party didn't last as long as many do, for there was a lot of work left to do to get our new house in order. John's boys kept it up until the wee hours, but Anne and I retired so as to get an early start in the morning.
John wanted to send some of his crew along, but I told him we were going to be alone for a long time, so just my new wife and I hit the trail on the morning after. From what some of his boys had looked like last night I was sure they could use a rest. Probably that was why John had wanted to send them. If I remembered correctly one of his expressions was, "If you're going to dance you have to pay the piper." An appropriate adage on this fine morning.
Anne couldn't wait to start using some of the paint we had bought in town. She surprised me by having me gather up some rounded rocks and laying out a walk. Then she went down the line and painted them in varying colors. "It brings a touch of New England to the place," she told me. I had to admit that the effect was striking and pleasing.
Her stands and knickknacks were soon unloaded and put in their places and the place was looking like home. John had furnished a stove in our absence and Anne went to work baking a chicken pie. Her meat pies were fabulous, and were normally made from rabbit. But I had not had the time to hunt so she bought a chicken in town, along with what vegetables she could get. I knew that next year by this time our larder would be full of vegetables from our own garden.
These first days passed all too swiftly, with so much to do that was new to us. There was no hurry, so we took our time with every little thing that we did around the house and grounds. While never especially accomplished in carpentry, I did manage to acquire enough skill that the things I built blended in. We accepted the loan of Carter's Mason and he put up a fine fireplace in our main living room. What a delight it would be to watch the flames of our fire on a cold winter's evening.
Over the doorway I put a couple of pegs for a gun rack and bought a light 16 gauge double barreled shotgun. I told Anne it was for the birds I would shoot as they flew south in the fall, but she was aware it was for her sake more than anything. If trouble came around I wanted her to be armed with something heavier than her 41 rimfire. Many is the day I would return home to find her plucking a goose she had shot from the doorstep. For some reason they often flew low over our spread, probably because of friendly air currents. Their rich flesh is excellent if prepared correctly.
John advised me to break the sod of the garden and plant some winter rye to plow back in the spring. I borrowed his plow and proceeded to do this. Big Horse got a peculiar look of disgust on his face at pulling it. He knew the difference between a plow horse and a saddle horse and obviously considered himself among the second class. The next year I would have a pulling team for this work and for pulling a wagon, but for now it was his to do. With his size and power he had no problems with the work. I always had to wonder what he was thinking when I put him to some new task. It was probably better that I didn't know.
I worked my claim a little bit every day, but I hated to be away from home to do it. I told myself that Anne was safe enough with her shotgun at hand but still I was concerned.
One day I approached the house from the rear and was alarmed to hear voices coming from the front. Easing around the corner I saw Anne, her right hand out of sight in the doorway, confronting two apparently very wild Indians. They looked strangely familiar to me. They were gesturing wildly at the corral and then to their stomachs, but Anne just stood her ground and shook her head. There was no way she was giving them a horse to eat and that was that.
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