Joe left and walked to Jake Favors' dingy office. The stock dealer rose
to meet him.
"Wonder if I can borrow boards to make a table and benches?" Joe asked.
"Sure," Jake Favors agreed. "If chairs would do as well as benches, I
have some."
"They'll be fine."
"Don't you be wasting your time with them, though. I want you to work on
mules." He bellowed, "Sam!"
The biggest, slowest-moving colored man Joe had ever seen shuffled into
the office. When he smiled, gleaming white teeth flashed in an enormous
mouth. He rolled friendly eyes at Joe.
"Sam," Jake Favors directed, "make a table for this gentleman's family
and take some chairs down. If they want anything else, you get it. All
right?"
There was a long pause and Sam said, "Shu-ah." For a moment Joe was
torn. He'd wanted to build Emma that table with his own hands. Then he
realized that time was a precious thing for all of them, and he'd do
best to leave it in Sam's hands.
Sam ambled off toward a lumber pile and Jake Favors turned to Joe. "You
want a free hand, huh?"
"Yup."
"Well, you've got it."
"I'll take a look at your mules."
Joe strode toward the corrals. Wagon and pack stock was worth whatever
the dealers could get for it, and what they could get depended on how
much prospective purchasers knew about what they were buying. A good,
well-broken work mule was worth a hundred dollars or more. Because they
didn't know any better, some emigrants paid that much for any mule at
all. Harnessing them after they parted with their money was their
problem, but obviously Jake Favors knew someone who wanted six good
mules. It was also evident that whoever wanted them had no intention of
buying unbroken stock; he must know something about mules.
For three hours Joe did nothing except study mules in various corrals.
Mules have a wide range of temperament; some respond swiftly to handling
and some remain stubborn. If Joe could choose six that were gentle, his
task would not take so long. But there were other considerations. Since
these mules were intended to work as a team of six, they must be
intended to pull heavy loads and no mule is fitted for heavy work until
it is five years old. Also--Joe felt that he was being fairly paid and
was conscious of his obligation to do a good job--a matched team would
probably be easier to sell than an unmatched one.
With extreme care he selected the animals he wanted.
* * * * *
Emma looked covertly up from the fireplace she was building to see where
Joe had gone, and when she discovered that he remained within sight of
the camp, she felt a rising relief. Reason told her that there was
nothing to fear in Independence, but she was afraid anyway. Her whole
life had been spent in sparsely settled country; she had never been in
any town bigger than Tenney's Crossing. Here she felt hemmed in. Even
so, and in spite of fears, she was excited. Emma mulled over a plan that
was forming in her mind while Barbara and Tad brought more stones.
Barbara knelt beside her mother.
"I'll help you."
"All right, dear."
For a while they worked in silence, fitting the uneven stones so that
they made a solid fireplace. Then Emma voiced her plan,
"Barbara, before we leave, you and I are going shopping in some of these
big stores."
"Oh mother! Really?"
"We'll go."