Untamed & Uncharted

Time to settle down

After all my years of exploring my body told me that it was time to settle down and arthritis was restricting my movements, just getting around each day was becoming more difficult. I went back to the trading post to see if Jake was still there.
He was and I couldn't believe just how much the town had grown since I last saw it eighteen months earlier, Jake was pleased to see me and said have you thought about buying me out. I said I thought it would have been sold by now but I just recently thought of settling somewhere. Jake said he had kept it until I returned, he said he had kept track of my movements through the boat captains. I said that I would like to work with you here for a while until I am sure that it is right for me, he said sure I will show you the ropes it's pretty simple as the stock dwindles just place orders with the boat captains, they bring goods back weekly from St Louis and take settlers back downriver. I then went to see Neil and Daisy and updated them they were quite excited with the news that I may take over the trading post. Daisy insisted that I stayed for lunch at their bakery and diner.

The business has grown and Neil had a baker employee and Daisy had a one-year-old boy so she employed a cook and a waitress.
I booked into a new hotel, which was owned by the governor so the manager Dennis Clarke informed me.
He said the governor has a special interest in this town and visits here often and will be naming the town on his next visit. I asked him why the town grew so quickly, he said gold finds brought a lot of prospectors and the successful ones have cabins here where they stay the winter, there are some trappers and now loggers here that do the same.
Most of the cabins are temporary accommodation for the pilgrims arriving and move on to find their patch of land or when spring arrives it's a stopover town at the moment. A lot of the settlers will stay in the hotel overnight when they bring produce to town on the riverboats, they can get a bit loud at times after a few drinks so I will give you a room away from the noise.
I checked out the room it was great, with a balcony overlooking the main street and with a river view and best of all a magnificent fireplace which will keep me warm through the winter. It was a large room and I could see myself being content here until I make up my mind about the trading post-purchase.

The hotel was not overcrowded and had a great feel to it. I walked around the town at about two o'clock that afternoon it was mid-Autumn, the colors were magnificent the town was bustling with people and for the first time, I saw children and old people here. New buildings were going up everywhere and everyone had a smile and a wave, it's strange that in this new town in this new land person from all walks of life and all nationalities change their habits and all mixed in.
I spoke too many people on my walk and though I have travelled to many places the sense of belonging to this town was strong. That evening after dinner I mixed in with the hotel guests and again felt that it was the place for me there were people playing cards. Some playing checkers a piano and fiddle were in full swing and people were dancing.
An enormous fire was raging and two old gents were leaning against the mantelpiece smoking pipes, I struck up a conversation with Brice Farrell he said he arrived three weeks ago and was a blacksmith and was going to set up in the town.
He said that he had worked for a blacksmith in St Louis who could not keep up with the demands for orders from here, I came here with my wife Karen she is a school teacher and will teach school in the public hall once we settle in and get known.
Next morning I met Jake at the trading post where he introduced me to his two employees Asharlie and Daniel, he said he found Asharlie just over twelve months ago when hunting he was near death.

I suspect that he was left behind when his tribe was moving on before the winter he is a half breed, so they get discarded with the old people when times are tough. He thinks that he is fourteen and can't remember much of his past he was in a bad way and it took a lot of help from Daisy to bring him back from the brink of death it was touch and go for weeks.
Daniel worked with Ben Harper in Washington and knows the business well and you can rely on both of them now come out the back and I will show you my area. He had a large storeroom and had guns and rifles of all types Jake said the guns are a bit of a sideline for me and I have a shooting range where I teach often. I spend a lot of time in this big rocking chair reading and often dose off now do you think you can handle the pace Jake said, I said that I would give him an answer as to whether I would take it on after three months. I may have some trouble adjusting to a settled lifestyle after all my years on the go. At first, I found the lifestyle to the unchallenging so I asked Jake to teach me how to shoot as that was one thing that I never mastered he said that lots of pilgrims need to learn this so I will teach you the best way.
I watched Jake teaching pilgrims and I didn't feel as bad as most of his students had no idea and being able to shoot out here is a must for survival. The shooting training was great to learn and then Jake, Neil and I had many hunting trips which supplied Daisies' diner with plenty of game. I was surprised to see that Neil had the bow that I made years ago I said you are attached to that, however, did you get it off Ben Harper, he said Ben sold the trading post in Washington and gave it to me.
We returned from a hunting trip and found that Asharlie had been shot in the shoulder, each Sunday for the past six months he went out prospecting he was riding along the river when Nick Carboni shot him.

Jake and I rode to his cabin the next morning he met us with his rifle in his hands Jake asked what happened, Nick said you tell that breed to stay away from my daughter Maria; he's always looking at her. Jake said he would investigate but there was no need to shoot him why didn't you just talk to me; we don't have a lawman so I will call a town meeting to discuss this matter so show up there next Saturday morning at ten. There were about forty people in the hall the meeting was chaired by the publican Dennis Clark who was a JP as Asharlie was not able to speak well Jake spoke for him, Jake said that Asharlie had no interest in Maria.
He rode along the same track at the river's edge for six months to a stream further up where he was prospecting Jake said he showed me some gold dust. Dennis then asked Nick why he didn't talk to Asharlie; he said that breed can't talk, I have seen him in the trading post Dennis said there was no need to shoot him you could have killed him. Nick said if I wanted to kill him I would have got him in the head, Dennis said we are a new and growing town and this is the first-ever trial as such and indeed the first case of racism your actions will not be tolerated in our community. You have four weeks to pack up and leave this area and never return Nick jumped and started swearing-in Italian he was escorted out of the town.
The next day Jake asked Asharlie about his interest in gold prospecting he said he remembered seeing shining yellow sand in a stream when he was a boy. At the time it didn't mean much but since hearing stories from prospectors he now knew it was gold, he said he spent three weeks looking for the stream then searched for lumps of gold but only found gold glitter sand.
I told him its gold dust and he needs to make a sluice system to collect it, I told Asharlie that when his shoulder heals I would go with him and show him how to filter out the gold dust

Please read Part 15.      My new direction

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