The brethren took it in turns to go to the town, which was some ten miles distant, and they always combined some useful business with the fetching of the letters. Brother Wright was a frequent messenger, for he liked going better than Ezra did, while of course Brother Dummy was precluded by his affliction from going, and Brother Carpenter was hopelessly unable to drive horses. Some of the women generally contrived to find an excuse for going to Union Mills, for women like to get away from the petty cares of house and home, a peculiarity from which the sisters of Perfection City were by no means exempt. In particular Mrs. Ruby, invariably called Aunt Ruby, loved to go. She thus got a chance of seeing new faces and talking with new people. She would not for worlds have confessed that she was tired of the restricted society of Perfection City, but she knew so well what each had to say, that it was refreshing to go out sometimes into the world and meet people whose ideas could not always be guessed beforehand.
It so happened that the day after the corn planting it became necessary to go to Union Mills in order to take a grist of corn to be ground. Madame suggested that Brother Wright should go, while Brother Dummy took up his plough-handles and finished the field the former was preparing for the corn. Mary Winkle, still prostrated by the previous day’s hard work, urged her spouse to go, “For then,” said she, “if you ain’t here I needn’t get any dinner. I’ll just send Willette over to Sister Olive’s for dinner, and I needn’t stir till milking time.” This seemed a happy arrangement, and her husband set off shortly after breakfast, picking up Aunt Ruby as he passed her cottage.
“Be you lonesome living in that house by yourself?” asked Brother Wright as they jogged along over the prairie, for it had struck him as very lonely that morning as he drove up.
“No, no, I ain’t lonely, least not most whiles,” answered Aunt Ruby, an alert little old woman, not unlike a bird in her quick movements. “In the summer-time there’s allus the chickens to see to an’ feed an’ ten’, an’ chickens is powerful spry an’ talkin’ birds. They most allus has somethin’ to scold an’ chatter ’bout, chickens an’ hens has, an’ cocks. Then in the winter I hev the clock tickin’ loud o’ evenin’s, an’ that’s most as good as a pusson in the room, an’ there’s allus the cat, an’ mostly the kettle singin’ on the stove. Come to think on’t, there’s a heap o’ company in a house like mine, if you on’y has ears to hear an’ un’erstan’ what is said by beasts an’ things.”
Yet notwithstanding this “heap o’ company” Aunt Ruby dearly loved a good gossip with the saddler’s wife at Union Mills, whenever that luxury was attainable. On the present occasion Aunt Ruby had a real good time, for Brother Wright was delayed longer than usual, first in order to get some harness mended, and afterwards to have a shoe replaced that suddenly showed signs of coming off one of the horses. Thus it was very near sun-down before they left Union Mills. Aunt Ruby, owing in large measure to her gossip, and also partly to an exceptionally strong cup of tea, was in a highly nervous and excitable frame of mind.
Had Brother Wright, she asked, heard of that rumour about the Cherokees? And did he think there was any danger of their leaving their Reservation and going on the war-path? Brother Wright, who had a poor opinion of Indians, and a worse one of the way in which the white men had treated them, thought on the whole that the rumour might be considered false. This comforted Aunt Ruby, to whom the word “Injun” suggested torture and death and all sorts of horrors. She remained comforted until she remembered that other rumour—about the raid of border ruffians from out of Missouri. Brother Wright thought it highly probable that this rumour might prove to be true. Missouri men had raided Kansas more than once, and it was possible they might do so again at any moment. With conversation such as this they came to the end of the daylight and the beginning of the trees around Cotton Wood Creek about the same time.
“I shall be glad when we are safe over this ford and out of the dark wood beyond,” said Brother Wright, trying to urge his horses along, but he had a heavy load of timber and coal and some iron bars for smith-work.
“Ain’t it near here that those people over beyond Jacksonville got robbed?” asked Aunt Ruby, nervously peering about in the gloom with her weak old eyes. At this moment some distant creature made a shrill scream or howl.
“Oh! what was that,” exclaimed Aunt Ruby nervously.
“That was a prairie wolf, I guess,” answered Brother Wright quietly.