The Pilgrim Song (16 page)

“Well, the first thing is we’ll have to make a battling bench.”

“A battling bench? What’s that?”

“Something to beat the clothes out on.” Clint had moved over to the woodpile, saying, “It’s a good thing they left some of this wood. It won’t take long to put a battling bench together.”

The two watched as Clint chose a large oak log that had been split in half lengthwise. It was about twelve inches wide and four feet long. Clint nodded with satisfaction. “This one’s rough enough, you see.”

“Why do you want it rough?” Hannah asked, moving closer.

“Well, when you’re battling the clothes—that’s what my ma always called it—you beat the dirt out in the cracks. If
you have a log that’s too smooth, you’ll beat the dirt right back into your clothes.”

Hannah and Kat watched as he took his ax and cut three pine poles, no more than five inches in diameter. He notched the ends of them and nailed them into place for the bench, two on one end and one on the other.

“I see there’s a paddle already made here that’ll do for a battling stick.” The two looked curiously at the sticks, which were tapered and rounded.

Finally Clint said, “Good pot we’ve got here. I expect your mother’s family left it here when they moved.” He motioned to the large black pot that was sitting on a built-up platform of flat stone. “First thing we do is put a little water in it before we start the fire. That way the heat won’t crack it.”

“I’ll do that,” Kat said and immediately ran to the pump. She drew a bucket of water, came back, and poured it in the pot.

“That’s good, Kat. Now, we’ll just build a fire here, and we’re on our way.”

Using shavings and small sticks, Clint built a small pyramid under the pot, took out a match, and struck it on his thumbnail. It flamed up, and he cupped one hand around it to shield it from the wind as he laid it onto the kindling. The dry wood caught quickly. “Now, we keep adding wood until we get that water good and hot.”

After the fire was blazing and the fire was hot, Hannah watched as Clint demonstrated how to wash the clothes. She learned that it was best to rinse them out in cold water first. Her hands were soon aching from the cold, but she did not complain. She followed Clint’s instructions, putting the wet clothes on the battling bench, then pounding them with the short paddle, turning them over continuously. Then she rinsed each piece again.

Clint cut up a piece of yellow laundry soap and let it dissolve in the boiling water until it made a froth on the surface.
“Just put the dress in there and stir it around,” he instructed. “That’s all there is to the washing.”

Kat and Hannah went at it diligently. It was hard work, and even though the early morning coldness had passed away, the breeze was still sharp, and Hannah knew her lips and face, and especially her hands, were getting chapped.

Once Clint offered, “Why don’t you two girls go inside? I can do this.”

“No, we’ll do it, Clint.”

Clint glanced at Hannah and saw her determination to keep going. He thought of the timid woman who had hidden herself inside the mansion in New York, and he found himself marveling at how she was forcing herself to do this task that was so far from her upbringing.

“You’re doing fine, Hannah,” he smiled. “You’ll make a pioneer yet.”

As the three worked, Clint would pull out his harmonica from time to time and play a tune. Usually it was a cheerful one, and sometimes Kat would sing along with him. Once, however, he sang a mournful melody.

“What’s that song, Clint?” she asked.

“I guess it’s called ‘I Am a Pilgrim.’ Kind of sad, isn’t it?”

“No, I like it. Teach me the words.”

Washing and rinsing the clothes again required a great deal of water, and Hannah was grateful for the pump. It wasn’t like city water, but it was better than carrying it from a creek, which Clint had said he did as a boy.

When the washing was finished, they hung the clothes out to dry on a wire stretched from a chestnut tree to a huge walnut tree. Not having clothespins, Hannah simply draped
them over the wire. By noon she was exhausted, although she did not complain.

Clint had been observing Hannah, and seeing her exhaustion, he said, “I guess we’re close enough to a quittin’ point. Let’s go in and have a bait.”

“What’s a bait?” Kat demanded.

“It’s a way of saying let’s go have something to eat.”

“Yes, let’s go have a bait,” Kat said, giggling.

The three went inside and found that the kitchen had been transformed. It was now at least presentable. The sink was clean, the floor swabbed, and the walls largely purged of the smoke that had darkened them.

“Why, this looks beautiful, Father!” Hannah exclaimed.

“You’ve done a good job,” Clint said as he took it in.

Jenny was still at work scrubbing one of the walls. Her hair was damp and in disarray. “I never knew cleaning was such hard work!”

“Let’s have something to eat. I want to have a bait!” Kat exclaimed.

The “bait” was not extensive. They had sandwiches of lunch meat, along with canned pork and beans. They all downed the meal quickly, and Hannah stopped once to smile at her father and squeeze his arm. “The kitchen looks so wonderful.”

Lewis tried to smile. “Well, it’s a start, but this big old house—it’ll take a year to get it really clean and repaired.”

At that moment Joshua came in. He was bleary-eyed and had not shaved in several days. His clothes were rumpled and had a rancid odor. He looked around at them and, without speaking, flung himself into a chair.

“Let me fix you something to eat,” Hannah said. “Would you like some eggs?”

“I guess so,” Josh mumbled.

Hannah got out a frying pan and began scrambling some eggs while Joshua sat there with a surly look on his face, not speaking to anyone. When she set down a plateful of steaming
scrambled eggs before him, along with the biscuits Clint had baked, he began eating without a word of thanks.

“We divided up the work here,” Lewis directed to Josh. “Kat and Hannah are washing clothes, and Jenny and I are cleaning the house. Maybe you could help us with that.”

Joshua’s hands were unsteady, and his head was pounding. Clint knew better than anyone in the room what a hangover felt like, and he could see the shadow of drunkenness on the young man. He was not surprised when Joshua grunted, “I’m not cleaning this pigsty of a house!”

Jenny’s anger flashed out. “If I can clean house, you can too! You can’t stay drunk all your life, Josh!”

Josh rose at once and started to leave, but Lewis’s voice caught him. “Jenny’s right. You’re going to have to work, Joshua—along with the rest of us.”

Clint felt out of place in the middle of a family argument. He rose hastily and said, “I think I’ll go out and see if I can bag me some squirrels and maybe a couple rabbits for supper.”

“Let me go with you,” Kat begged.

“Next time, Kat. I’ll be in a hurry today. There’ll be plenty of time for hunting later.”

Clint picked up the rifle propped against the wall on his way out the back door. As soon as he was gone, Hannah murmured, “I don’t know what we would have done if it hadn’t been for Clint.”

“Can I go out and play awhile?” Kat said. “Maybe go exploring?”

“Sure, honey, you go ahead.” Lewis smiled at her. “You worked hard this morning.”

****

Kat stayed outside exploring for nearly three hours. The country fascinated her. She went down to the river, where she threw rocks in and watched large fish swimming near the shore. She passed by a log that was the sunning spot for half a dozen odd-looking turtles. She tossed a pebble into
the river next to them and laughed as they all slid off into the water and disappeared.

She saw squirrels and rabbits in abundance and decided she would learn to hunt. “Clint will teach me,” she said aloud. “Then I can help put food on the table.”

Kat had a good sense of direction and carefully kept track of her position so she would be sure to find her way home again. Finally, getting hungry and tired, she turned homeward, seeing the different kinds of trees along the way and wishing she knew the names of them.

She stepped out of the woods and started toward the house, noting that Hannah and Clint were busy doing something beside the house. She narrowed her eyes and saw that he was skinning a small animal and started to hurry forward. “I want to learn how to clean fresh game,” she said to herself. She had not gone far, however, when she heard an odd noise, and stopping, she turned to see half a dozen young pigs emerge from the woods. They were very small and uttered shrill, squeaking cries.

“Oh, you’re so cute! I wonder where your mama is.” She walked slowly toward them, and the pigs at first retreated, but when she knelt down and cooed gently, they started edging toward her. She had nothing to give them to eat, but they still came closer. Finally one of them got within arm’s length, and she put out her hand. He sniffed at her fingers and then nibbled at them, which delighted her. She reached out and picked him up, and he broke out into a shrill squeal that almost hurt her ears.

“I’m not going to hurt you!” she said, trying to keep the animal still as he struggled to escape. She finally decided that the pigs were not to be petted, and even as she put him down, she heard a rough coughing sound. Turning, she froze at the sight of an enormous pig charging out of the woods straight toward her. The sow’s eyes were red with anger and fury, and Kat quickly regained her senses. She dropped the piglet and turned and ran, screaming, “Clint—!”

Her cries reached Clint as he was explaining what he was doing to Hannah. He whirled and took in the situation at one glance. Kat was running full speed, her face paralyzed with fright, with a monstrous sow charging a few yards behind.

In one rapid motion, Clint snatched up the rifle, glad that he had reloaded. Flinging the rifle up, he nestled his cheek against the stock, putting the bead right on the sow. It would be dangerous shooting around Kat, but he had no choice, for she was only a few seconds away from being thrown to the ground, and he knew what could happen when a sow that size had somebody down.

He squeezed the trigger and felt the recoil. He saw that the slug had struck the sow, but it had not stopped her. He fired again twice, and a gust of relief passed through him as he saw the huge animal collapse.

Hannah watched, petrified. Seeing the huge beast hit the ground, she began trembling uncontrollably.

“It’s okay,” Clint said. He kept the rifle in his hand and ran forward with Hannah following close behind. Kat ran straight into Hannah’s arms and clung to her desperately.

“It’s all right, Kat, the pig is dead.”

The two stood holding each other, and then Kat turned and saw that Clint was standing over the dead sow. She released herself from Hannah’s arms and walked over shakily. She reached out and took Clint’s hand, her breath still coming in short gasps. “Thank you, Clint.”

“You’re welcome,” Clint said, noting her pale face. He himself was shaken by the encounter. He knew the shots had been lucky, and he didn’t even want to think about what might have happened had he not been nearby. Hannah joined the two, and he saw that her face too was pale as paper, and she was trembling. He wanted to reach out and put his arms around her but felt hesitant to do so. Instead, he simply laid his hand on her shoulder and said, “It’s all right, Hannah. She’s okay.”

Hannah tried to speak, but her lips could not form the words. “You saved her life, Clint,” she finally managed to say.

“Yes, you did,” Kat echoed, looking up into his face.

Embarrassed by their admiring looks, Clint downplayed the event. “Well, I’m glad it turned out so well. And look at this, Kat. You were asking for food this morning at breakfast. Well, now we’ve got enough to last us all winter!”

Jenny and Lewis had emerged from the house at the sound of the gunfire, and after running across the field together, they now reached the trio standing by the dead pig. Even Joshua had come out of the house and joined them moments later. As Kat told them what had happened, Lewis gave Clint an odd look, but he could not express his feelings in words.

Clint again tried to escape from all the excess attention, saying, “Well, I was just saying we’ve got plenty here to keep us all winter.”

“You mean to eat that thing!” Jenny exclaimed.

Clint Longstreet burst out laughing. He knew this young woman had never thought about how the meat she used to eat in her elegant dining room was once hairy and bloody like the pig before them on the ground. “Only if you like bacon, ham, pork chops, and ribs,” he said.

At that moment Kat became aware of the crying piglets. “Oh, look, they don’t have their mama! What’ll we do with them?”

“You’ll have to raise them, I reckon,” Clint answered. “When God sends food, He sends a lot of it.”

“I will. I’ll raise them all!” Kat exclaimed.

Clint thought of all the work that lay ahead for this family. They had so much to learn, but he knew he had to take things one step at a time. “Okay,” he said cheerfully, “any of you ever dress a hog?” He looked around at their panicked expressions and laughed. “Nobody here’s too old to learn!”

CHAPTER TEN

A Family Problem

Clint Longstreet carefully concealed the smile that wanted to rise to his lips. He knew it was wrong, but he could not help being amused at what he knew would be the reaction of the Winslows to dressing a hog. If he had a mule or a tractor, he would have pulled the carcass to a more convenient spot. But having neither, he worked beneath a huge walnut tree near the spot the animal had fallen. The men had found a set of pulleys in the barn with which they had been able to hoist the carcass up in the air.

While Lewis and Hannah built a fire and put a large pan of water on to boil, Jenny and Kat gathered all the knives they could find. Clint taught Joshua how to sharpen them on a grindstone in the barn. “We’re ready to go into business now.” Clint dipped a ladle into the boiling water and flung it over the carcass to soften the hair. After repeating the process enough to thoroughly soak the hair, he said, “Let’s get to work. Everybody got a knife?” They all looked at him painfully, except Kat, who was almost hopping up and down in excitement, and he grinned. “All you do is scrape the hair off.” He reached out with his own knife and began to scrape at the carcass. “Come on, everybody join in.”